Pastor Tom Johnson, April 5, 2012
Our Old Testament reading reminds us that the Last Supper—or the night when Jesus’ institutes the Lord’s Supper—is, in fact, a traditional celebration of the feast of the Passover.
Jesus and disciples tell the old, old story again of the Exodus—and it is story told through food. Maybe you have had a similar experience how the sound of fine china, the smell from the kitchen, the sight, touch, and taste of certain foods can stir the senses and resurrect old memories.
The sight, smell, and taste of home baked ginger cookies bring me right back into my grandmother’s mustard yellow and pale green kitchen. I remember her cookies that were cracked like the bed of a dried up river. I see her in her frilly apron and feel the air coming into her unairconditioned home.More importantly, through food, I re-experience her hospitality. I can better retell the story. I am vicariously loved by her this very moment even though that moment has since passed thirty years ago. Just so was the Passover meal.
“Do you taste the bitter herbs? Do you remember the hard labor, the suffering, the inhumanity of slavery? Do you taste the salted water? Do you remember taste of tears on your children’s faces as you kissed and comforted them? Do you remember your tearful prayers to God when you were in your distress? Do you smell the roasted lamb? Do you remember how God told us to paint our doorposts in blood? Do you remember how the blood caused the angel of death to pass over our homes? Do you remember the power of the blood? Do you remember how we ate unleavened bread…how we didn’t have time to let the bread rise…how we had to leave that very night in a hurry? Do you remember how God sustained us for forty years on the Manna, the bread of heaven? Do you see that cup of Elijah…that wine cup filled to the brim and overflowing? The day will come when God will bring us into a new era—the day the Messiah will rule his Kingdom in unprecedented world peace.”
It is in the deep-seated memory of times past and hope for the things to come that Jesus takes the bread, distributes it, and says, “This is my body, given for you. Do this in memory of me.” “I am the Bread of heaven. I am the Lamb of God. I am he who will sustain you through the wilderness of this world. Remember me deep into the Exodus and deep into your own deliverance from this world’s evil.”
Jesus then takes the prophetic cup of Elijah in memory of the blood of the Lamb painted on the doorposts to ward away death itself. “This cup is the new testament in my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.”
“A new and greater deliverance has come. Elijah has come in the person of John the Baptist. The reign of King David has come in the person of Jesus Christ. This blood painted on the posts of the cross will not only release captive Israel from Egypt—it will release all those throughout the world captive to sin and its power.”
Take, eat. Drink, all of you. Remember. Remember God’s faithfulness in the past. Anticipate it in your future. Let this bread and wine stir memory, wonder, and faith in you as it has for generations since that dark night in Egypt so long ago. The Last Supper is the beginning of a new and greater meal—the true Body and Blood of Jesus for all nations, tribes, and peoples—given in a greater understanding of love—the love of him who lays down his life for his friends. And like the Passover meal that was a foretaste of Christ’s giving of his Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper, so the Lord’s Supper is also a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This meal with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven—a feast, a reunion with our loved ones who have preceded us, of rich food, of well aged wine, and perfect communion with our Lord Jesus.
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