Maunday Thursday – A Service of Remembrance
The phrase “Maunday Thurdsay” is derived from the Latin phrase taken from John’s gospel, I give you a new command (maundatum novum) – love one another. Jesus defines this love by washing the disciples’ feet. On that last night together, they also shared a meal. In a sense, it was a meal that changed the world. Tonight I would like to take you back, not to that last Passover meal together, but to one year after that. I hope you will allow me a bit of interpretive freedom to imagine what might have been said as the disciples gathered to celebrate the Passover without Jesus.
Peter asked, “Can it really be a year that he has been gone from us?” Around that room heads nodded, old friends, gathered again at Mary’s house in Magdala. They had been here so many times with Jesus. They had been through so much together. And now it was Passover, again. Of course they could not go to Jerusalem to celebrate. They were afraid. They were unwelcome. They weren’t even sure they wanted to go there anymore.
He had changed their world. He had even changed their God.
“This room is where we need to be tonight.” Peter spoke for all. “Here. Together.”
Because of Jesus, so much had changed. Many had quit going to the synagogue. And as they read the scripture, though the words were familiar, they heard such different messages. So often they heard Jesus’ words when they read. They began to see Jesus’ actions.
Through that year so much had happened. Their thoughts were still swirling about. When they were together they often talked about this. Recently, for example, Nathaniel who was the scholar had said to the group, “In Isaiah, the Prophet, I read ‘God helps me… I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint… I shall not be put to shame…’ Didn’t he say that one day in Galilee? Do you remember? As we began our last journey? He said, “I have set my face for Jerusalem.”
But Bartholomew disagreed. “I never heard that. He was resolute. Stubborn as always. Determined he would go there – even against our advice. Yes, it sounds like something he might have said, but he did not use those words.”
“I am confused, too” interrupted Peter. “So much is confusing. And yet so much is clear. One year ago, tonight... his mood was so strange. I could not enjoy my meal. We had eaten the Seder together many times before, and he was always such fun. But that night he was strange. Even eerie.”
Salome spoke from the corner of the room. “There was something strange about him,” she said. “Do you think he knew? He must have known.”
Mary agreed. “What was that he said when I brought out that last loaf. Something about his body. Do you remember?”
“‘I am afraid of being broken,” said Thomas. That’s what he said. “He said, ‘I am afraid of being broken.’” His voice was shaking.
“No,” said James. “That wasn’t it at all. I was sitting near him and what he said was that he was afraid, but that for the truth, for what was right, for his friends, he was willing to be broken.”
“I didn’t hear that.” All eyes turned to John. “But when he went out to get another bottle of wine, he opened it there and some spilled on his robe. He made this weird comment; ‘This wine is as dark as my own blood.’” I remember thinking it was an odd thing to say. And when we entered the room he raised the bottle and said, “Let’s drink it all. This is for you, my friends.”
Phillip was in the corner, quiet as usual. And always writing. This is what his pen said:
While we were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to us, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to us also, and said, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many...
Salome spoke again. “Maybe he knew. I think he knew”
After she said this, the room was quiet until Peter broke the uncomfortable silence. “I don’t know what he said. My mind was not clear that night. But I did hear him say the next time we ate the Passover together, to remember him.
Peter looked around the room and all heads were nodding. They heard it too.
“The next time you do this. Remember me. Remember me.”
Let us Pray:
Commune with us, O God
who in Jesus spoke truth in love
who in Jesus spoke love in action
who in Jesus spoke action without saying a word…
Commune with us, O God
that in remembering that night –
we might remember that love
spoken or unspoken
is always costly…
Commune with us, O God
that in remembering that night
we might celebrate even now
a new command of love…
Commune with us, O God
that we might remember.
We pray in the name of the one
who taught us to remember
by forgetting everything except love.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.