Eating with Jesus Again in God’s Realm - A Maundy Thursday Reflection
Note: As I don't have any responsibilities on this Maundy Thursday, I thought I might share a chapter of a book I'm working on at the moment. I've been writing a book tentatively titled Eating With Jesus: Reflections and Resources for a Truly Open Eucharistic Table. This chapter speaks to the moment in which Jesus instituted the Supper on the night before his death. I invite you to pause for a moment and reflect on the foundation for our gatherings at the Table, remembering that the way in which Jesus shared meals should guide our meals.
We began this
conversation in Genesis, on the day the Lord met Abraham and Sarah in the
persons of three strangers, whom Abraham and Sarah welcomed to their Table
(Gen. 18:1-8). We were reminded that it’s possible to entertain angels without
knowing it, which means that it’s important that we show hospitality to
everyone (Heb.13:2), including sinners and tax collectors. Yes, Jesus ate with
“those kinds of people” as well.
We’ve been to the wilderness, where Jesus fed the 5000. We’ve contemplated the
meaning of Jesus’ words about his body and his blood. We’ve also considered
what Paul meant when he wrote about eating the supper in a worthy manner.
In Matthew’s version of the
Last Supper, we hear Jesus issue the Words of Institution that form the
foundation of most gatherings at the Lord’s Table. In Matthew, we hear Jesus
speak of “the blood of the covenant,”
which was “poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.” When Jesus speaks these words, he has in mind the
message of Passover, when the people of Israel placed the blood of lambs on
their doorposts as a covering. Jesus draws on this image to express his own
sense of purpose. In this very meal, Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors.
That is, he ate with people needing to be reconciled with God. At the Table was
Judas, the betrayer. Peter, who would deny him, was there as well. Yes, the
rest of the disciples, who would desert him before the night was finished,
dined with him as well. Jesus offered each of them forgiveness, even as he
offers us a word of forgiveness as we gather at the Table of the Lord. No one
is excluded from this Table, not even Judas.
Each version of the Words
of Institution is slightly different, and in Matthew’s version, Jesus concludes
by telling his disciples: “I will never
again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with
you in my Father’s kingdom.” When we gather at the Table, we look back
to an event that took place long ago. Even though Matthew doesn’t include the
words “do this in remembrance of me,” it’s
clear that Jesus wants them to remember that moment. The bread and the wine are
signs of his body and blood, which in turn serve as signs of the covenant in
Christ’s blood that brings forgiveness of sins. To this, according to Matthew,
Jesus was born. That was the message of the angel who told Mary and Joseph to
name Mary’s child “Jesus, for he will
save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). That message comes
through in these words of institution.
Yes, we’re called to
remember, but we also gather in anticipation of that day when Jesus will once
again drink wine with us in God’s realm. In their book The Eucharist, Andrea
Bieler and Luise Schottroff, point out that “the community at Table stands for God’s future, when all people, all
nations, will eat together at Christ’s Table.[1]”
When we gather at the Table each week, we anticipate the day when get to share
with Jesus in the great heavenly banquet. It’s this banquet that Jesus has in
mind when he tells the disciples that he won’t share wine with them again until
he shares it with them in the kingdom of God.
There’s a popular song
that explores what it means to anticipate. Maybe you remember Carly Simon’s
song appropriately titled “Anticipation.”
In the opening verse, she sang:
We can never know about the
days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I'm really with you now
Or just chasin' after some finer day.
In the song, Carly Simon wonders whether this present moment is all there
is. Could this be what some call the good old days? Or is there something out
in the future that’s worth waiting for? I wonder if that is how the disciples
felt that night. Could they imagine a new day ahead of them in which the full
glory of God would be revealed to creation? Or would their anticipation lead to
nothing more than “chasin’ after some
finer day?” With that song floating in our minds, I wonder if this is
how we experience the Table? Can we imagine sharing the fruit of the vine with
Jesus in the realm of God?
Theologian Jürgen
Moltmann speaks to our dilemma. He understands our tendency to look backward,
rather than forward. He writes that “the
supper of the hoping church is a foretaste of the messianic banquet of all
mankind.” Moltmann is known for his “theology of hope,” so, it’s important that we hear his focus on
the “hoping church.” He goes on
to say that “the groups which celebrate
the supper in this sense understand it as a love feast for the celebration of
life, fellowship, hope, and work for peace and righteousness in the world.”[2] In
other words, the Lord’s Supper isn’t meant to be a somber meal. It’s meant to
be a joyous meal because it anticipates the full unveiling of God’s realm,
where all creation will be reconciled to God through “the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.”
Here we again encounter
the image of the Table as a crossroads. As we gather at the Table, we look back
at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, events that took place in the
past. This is our anchor. This is why we gather in remembrance of him. It’s
also important that we look back across two millennia of church history and
remember the saints of God who have contributed to the unfolding of God’s realm
through time and place. These saints of God form the great cloud of witnesses
we read about in the Book of Revelation. That story is ongoing because we
gather at the Table believing that Jesus is present with us as we share in the
meal of bread and cup, signs of his body and blood. We also gather in
anticipation of that day when we will share in the messianic banquet.
Therefore, as Gene Boring puts it,
“Every eucharist is a promise of the final victory of God’s kingdom.”[3]
There will be blustery days ahead, but the promise of God’s realm continues to
serve as our polar star. We might not know the hour or the day, but we can
gather in anticipation of God’s final victory.
The day is coming,
Isaiah promised, when:
On the mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a
feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of
rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines
strained
clear. (Is. 25:6)
At that time, God will destroy the
shroud that hangs over creation, and death will be swallowed up forever. Then,
Isaiah promises, in words found also in Revelation, “God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his
people he will take away from all the earth.” This is the day that we
anticipate when we gather at the Table, so “let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Is. 25:7-9).
When we gather at the
Lord’s Table, we don’t just share a meal among friends, though we gather as
friends. We don’t just remember something that happened in the past, though we
do remember past events. Though Jesus is present with us when we gather at the
Table, we also gather in anticipation of the day when Jesus will “drink from the fruit of the vine . . . new
with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
The day will come when
the realm of God will be revealed in all its fullness. Then we shall see our
salvation together. Until that day, we prepare for the messianic banquet by
being “built together spiritually into
a dwelling place for God.” (Eph. 2:22).
[1] Andrea
Bieler and Luise Schottroff, Eucharist, p. 54
[2] Jürgen
Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, p. 253
[3] Eugene
Boring, “Matthew,” in New Interpreter’s Bible, 8:473.
| Rossakiewicz, Jacek Andrzej. Last Supper, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56122 [retrieved April 4, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rossakiewicz_Last_Supper.jpg. |
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