Day 5: Maunday Thursday

Maunday Thursday is best known as the day of the Last Supper. Read it in Matthew, Mark, Luke. The Gospel of John focuses intently on the Last Supper, giving it four chapters (out of 21 chapters in the whole book, making the Last Supper almost 20% of the Gospel!!) You can read the basic story in John 13, read ch. 13-17 for John's entire acount.

Jesus and his disciples gathered for the Passover Meal, the ancient Jewish ritual meal that commemorated the exodus from Egyptian slavery. The Exodus began with the coming of the Angel of Death who passed through the land of Egypt and took the first born from every family. But the Jews were instructed to sacrifice a lamb. They were to take the blood and put it on the doorway of their homes. This blood was the sign that death had already visited that home. The lamb was thus the substitute for the death of the first born, and the Angel of Death would PASSOVER the house, sparing those inside.

The Passover contains the precursor for Christ’s death on the cross. As the lamb was sacrificed so the family could live and go free, so Jesus Christ laid down his life so we could go free. All of those who are covered by the Passover sign, the blood of the sacrifice, are redeemed from death, called out of slavery, and into abundant life.

In sharing the Passover with his friends, Jesus was in a sense enacting his own death that was to come. In fact, he took the bread and broke it and said “This is my body” and he took the cup and said “This is my blood.” In doing so, he identified himself with the Passover sacrifice. We remember this truth in our communion meal, the Lord’s Supper. We will deal more with this tomorrow on Good Friday.

I am struck, though, by the intimate setting in which Jesus reveals these things. The Passover is a family meal. The whole family gathers together and spends the evening together at home, sitting elbow to elbow around the table, sharing a meal, talking about spiritual things and enjoying each other’s company. It is a time of close companionship.  Those gathered at the table that night were the friends, the family, of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t give himself to us in a huge covenant ceremony to a whole nation. He didn’t reveal himself on a mountaintop with thunder and lightning and great fear. Instead when God came to us in Christ, he came close to us, as close as friends sitting around table. He laughed with us, cried with us, taught us, and yes died for us. But he did all this as our friend, our family, our brother.

Do you know Jesus as a friend? God is not distant, terrible, or frightening. In Christ, He comes close, he shares himself, he wants to be know by us. He calls you by name and brings you into the family, the full circle of divine love. Think about the ways you understand and experience God. Is friend one of those ways? Come sit at the table with Jesus. He is inviting you.