Holy Thursday
Readings: EX 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 COR 11:23-26; JN 13:1-15
The Pesach or Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays. It is a beautiful ritual that remembers the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. In many ways, it is the birth story of Israel. In a very similar way, the gospel tells the birth story of a people that is remembered in what has come to be called the Last Supper which is then commemorated in the eucharist.
Scripture scholar, Ched Myers (whom I rely upon a lot and who wrote a great sermon on this topic), says that these two meal narratives of the Passover and the Last Supper have so much in common. He says that
- Both meals commemorate a journey of faith
- Both are meals of memory, in which the central exhortation is “Remember”
- Both were “last meals” celebrated by communities on the run, hunted by imperial authorities
- Both meals inaugurated actions of disarmed resistance to empire which became historical watersheds, animating countless future slave revolts, and inspiring many subsequent believers, famous and forgotten, to embrace the via crucis.
- Both rituals acknowledge blood as the power of life over death: the blood of lambs on doorposts (Ex 12:7,13), the blood of the Lamb who was slain to ransom every captive (Rev 5:9).
- And both meals proclaim the unique characteristics of the God of the Bible. This God stands in solidarity with the marginalized: Yahweh who hears the cry of the oppressed, Christ who lives among the poor. This God cannot be named or tamed.
What amazing themes we see today, and there is such a thread connecting the past with the present.
Yet the freedom that was sought in the Exodus and the freedom that was remembered in the Last Supper is not necessarily the same freedom that has come to be revered in our current culture. For so many of us, freedom is defined as being able to do as we wish without restraint or hindrance. It is often summarized by the phrase “don’t tread on me.”
Yet, according to Myers, the biblical notion of freedom was something entirely different. Instead of it meaning that you could do whatever you wanted, it meant “to steward rather than pillage the earth, to distribute rather than to hoard her gifts, to serve rather than to rule, and to give life rather than to take it.” In other words, freedom only made sense when it served to make others free and to make creation free.
That’s why Israel was set free – so that they could be a light to the nations. And at the Last Supper what did Jesus do –he knelt down after the meal and washed the feet of his disciples. Freedom is not given for our self-uplift. It is given so that all may be lifted.
To quote Myers one last time, today’s readings are what he calls a “tale of two meals” and he says,
They represent God’s extraordinary invitation to turn the world right side up, coming in the form of the most ordinary thing people do: sharing food together around a table. Let us not imagine that these sacred meals are some sort of religious entitlement, or empty ritual, or venue for strictly private spirituality. Rather, when we Christians take this Bread and lift this Cup, let us understand that we are part of a legacy that invites our embrace. For we, too, are part of the ongoing struggle to take back the Freedom story from empire-builders and profiteers, and to restore it among Kingdom-seekers and prophets.
For today, let’s remember the tradition that we have inherited – the freedom tradition. This tradition has been carried forth by so many through the centuries but especially by oppressed and marginalized communities who have been forced to struggle for their freedom.
May we learn from them the cost of freedom and be willing to sacrifice our privilege and comfort for it. May we learn the radical practice of table fellowship and seek to create tables where all may be welcomed. And may our worship and our actions help us to become more free in this world so that we, in turn, might help to free others.
(To see Ched’s full sermon, Freedom Bound: A Tale of Two Meals, check out https://inquiries2015.files.wordpress.com/2004/08/04-4-pa-freedom-bound-greenbelt-sermon.pdf)