thursday – all the love
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. John 13:1-5 NLT
The ‘Last Supper’. Maundy Thursday. An event celebrated by the Christian world for over 2000 years. A gathering captured on canvas by one of the most celebrated artists in history. In the last few years we have been bombarded with The Di Vinci Code causing many to question. …is this truth or an elaborate conspiracy theory? Was the last supper an historical event? Was it on a Thursday? What was really going on here?
Was the last supper really on Maundy Thursday? The Hebrew calendar does not correspond with the Gregorian dates we are accustomed to. I was interested in the comparison, and so I Googled Jewish calendar - getting 3,100,000 results! I learned that the Gregorian calendar we now adhere to is an adaptation of the Roman or Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. This much seems important…the Hebrew calendar begins at Passover!
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb…” Exodus 12:1 28
The children of Israel have celebrated the feast of Passover for thousand of years. Historians place the exodus from Egypt somewhere between 1445 and 1260 BC. either way, thousands of years ago. Yet even today, most of the Jewish community still awaits the arrival of Messiah – the incarnation of God’s Passover Lamb!
Someday I may take the time to work out the differences and similarities in the various dating systems, but not today. There isn’t time. It’s not important! Christ was working on God’s timetable. And God’s timetable said…now is the time!
During the day Jesus went about His business as usual. The feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin within hours. Chaos continued throughout the city. The religious leaders rested comfortably in the assurance that they had purchased his capture and could proceed with their plans to kill this ‘lunatic’ prophet who was disrupting their religious traditions and making them all so terribly uncomfortable. These wise and learned men, teachers of the law, priests and leaders, had no idea they were simply following along on God’s timetable. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “None of the rulers of this age understood…for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:8
Matthew, traditionally thought to be the Apostle Matthew, also called Levi, a former tax-gatherer; writes briefly, and with what seems to be the analytical mind of an accountant, of the ‘last supper’. Apparently the thing which stood out for him during that evening was his Lord’s announcement that one of them was a traitor. He says, “and they (not I – they) were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I, Lord?’” Then this former financier gives his version of Christ’s amazing statements: “This is my body. This is my blood….”
I wonder as I read Matthew the tax-gatherer’s rather cold, factual account of this great miracle – did he get it? As a Jewish author, writing for Jewish readers, and writing some 30 or 40 years after the death of Christ…I’d guess, not really. Not completely.
I found a similar account of Thursday night in the gospel of Mark. John Mark, who was not one of the Twelve, but traveled with Paul during the first missionary journey writes with the authority of an eyewitness. Many scholars believe he was simply recording the teachings of Simon Peter, gathered first-hand over time Acts 12:12-13 and as they traveled together to Rome, years after the resurrection. 1 Peter 5:13. I’ve questioned if perhaps Mark wrote his account of the ‘last supper’ based on other historical documents? Right up to the point where Jesus foretold Peter’s reaction to the events to come, that is. At that point the narrative becomes personal! Mark 14:12-73 In my imagination I think I can hear the profound regret over Peter’s denial and betrayal of his Lord in the writing. Even transcribing the story, Mark portrayed the old man’s grief. But again, the question comes to my mind. Did he get it? Did this writer understand the enormous significance of Jesus ratification of a “new Covenant”?
Paul certainly got it. But then Paul had a face to face with Jesus, after His resurrection. That would tend to open anyone’s eyes! Acts 9:1-31 He wrote to the church at Corinth: “For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it. ”For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. 1 Corinthians 11:23-30
Luke’s gospel contains an equally straightforward record of Thursday night – the last supper. His body – broken for them. His blood – poured out for a new covenant. Luke, beloved physician was writing an orderly history of the life of Christ and the origin of the church for someone named Theophilius (see Acts 1:1) possibly a non-Christian official, but definitely a person of high position and wealth.
Did Luke get it? Hard to say, but with his second book covering the arrival of the comforter and counselor, the Holy Spirit, I’m thinking he understood better than the average historian.
John? Now John got it! He speaks of ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. He carefully and lovingly records the words of his Lord on that final night with an insight only Love could inspire. He writes of Jesus troubled spirit. He writes of their teacher and Lord performing the very intimate act that was to bind them to him forever in love – the washing of their feet. John writes of the promises Jesus made to them as he reassured them concerning tomorrow.
I believe it is here, in the prayers for his disciples and for his church, for me – “for those who believe in me through your word” – that we find the deepest meaning of the Lord’s last supper. He said, “I pray that they may all be one; even as you and I, Father, are one. That they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. I gave them your glory Father. I am in them. (this is my blood, drink all of it). I made known to them your name Father. and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-36
Then Jesus went out across the Kidron valley, to a favorite garden where he had been spending his nights in prayer Luke 21:37. We are told, while his faithful followers slept, he prayed that amazing prayer every true believer aspires to for their own life: “nevertheless…not my will, but yours, be done.”
Judas knew about this favorite place, too. It was here that Jesus told a band of Roman soldiers and Jewish officials with lanterns and torches and weapons, “I am he.”
Now get this…it’s important! When he spoke those words the whole lot of them “drew back and fell to the ground.” Peter, brave, rambunctious Peter, drew his sword and lopped off the the right ear of the high priest’s slave. I wondered if Christ, always patient, and understanding, stopped the whole process long enough to put the ear back in place? I think it would have been just like him to do that. Luke says he did! Luke 22:51 Matthew, he was there too, remember, with his cool analytical memory, records Jesus saying, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled?”
“Do what you came to do” And they did!
Arrested – accused – hauled before the Jewish High Priest. Spat on, struck, denied by one of his best friends – not once, but three times, and thrown into a filthy, rat infested prison cell to await the day that was to change the world, all the while knowing what tomorrow would bring. And all for love!
