bMaundy Thursday ~ April 13, 2006 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT
Exodus 12.1-14a; Psalm 78.14-20, 23-25; 1st Corinthians 11.23-32;
John 13.1-15
All too often we forget, or are simply unaware, that the Eucharist we celebrate in the name of Jesus is, on the one hand, a recapitulation of the Passover meal of the night before the Angel of Death came through Egypt, and, on the other, the indelible marker of the start of the new covenant. The lessons for Maundy Thursday evening from the 12th chapter of Exodus and from 1st Corinthians 11 are the pertinent reference points. Let’s start at the end, at the institution of the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ.
According to Paul and the three synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), Jesus has a last supper with this disciples. The words of institution or blessing used in all four of these documents are nearly identical, suggesting that they must be very close to what Jesus actually said: “This is my body…This cup is the new covenant in my blood…”
That night, Jesus and the twelve would have been reclining together. People did not sit down in chairs at a big table in the Greek and Roman world at that time. Rather, celebratory meals were taken leisurely resting on a pillow or low couch. Michelangelo, of course, established in our collective minds for ever the tradition of a long table with everybody sitting on one side and with Jesus in the middle. In reality, the food and drink for those sitting together would have been between and among the guests, and within easy reach of everyone.
Evidently, toward the conclusion of the meal, Jesus gathered his friends’ attention. Now we have to remember that the purpose of the meal was to celebrate the beginning of Passover, even though the actual day of Passover would have begun the following day at sunset. Be that as it may. Now, we rewind to the days of Moses, when the people of Israel were slaves in the land of Egypt.
Moses had been called by God to free the people of God. He had dutifully gone to Pharaoh twelve times and said, “Let my people go.” Each time Pharaoh said "No" and Go responded with some sort of dastardly plague. Finally God intervened, as our Exodus reading explains. Instructions were given. There’s the roasted sacrificial lamb and unleavened bread, blood on the door posts and lintel, and everybody dressed and ready to skedaddle east across the Red Sea. Quite a scene.
That night, everything went according to plan. The Angel of Death passed over the Hebrew people. The Israelites escaped the yoke of Pharaoh and became free again. They were given new life. In Christian parlance, resurrection.
So now, back to the upper room where Jesus and the twelve are. What Jesus does is extraordinary. He lays the ancient Jewish ritual of Passover onto the bread and wine of the meal and then juxtaposes his own body and blood on top of that. “[He] took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” The bread of the meal and Jesus himself become the body of the lamb from Passover but in the here and now.
“In the same way [Jesus] took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” And so again, the wine in the cup and the blood of Jesus become the blood of the Passover lamb that was put on the lintel and door posts as a sign to the Angel of Death.
What is so significant in this powerful imagery is that, just as in Egypt with Moses so long before, the Angel of Death will pass-over those protected by the sacrificial lamb, now embodied in the Body and Blood of Jesus and symbolized anew by the bread and wine of the Passover meal. And the first one who the Angel of Death will pass-over is Jesus himself.
The resurrection of Jesus is none other than the Angel of Death passing over God’s chosen. The crucifixion of Jesus cannot kill him, it cannot hold him in bondage. In the resurrection, Jesus lives. Indeed he becomes free. He is clear of the threats of oppression and injustice, just like the Israelites were once they escaped Egypt. Jesus becomes the symbol of the sacrificed lamb from ancient days, his body represented by the bread of the Passover meal and his blood by the wine.
A new covenant is made between God and humanity. A new covenant! This new covenant in the blood of Jesus and in his body throws off the yoke of every kind of oppression—fear, injustice, inequality, discrimination based on gender, race, or belief—and establishes a whole new way of being in the world, in relationship with God, and in the citizenry of planet Earth. People are called to change directions by abandoning the old, bankrupt ways of the Temple and to embrace the notion that God is not locked in a box but present in all of Creation. This new covenant approaches life with an attitude of goodness and abundance, not fear and poverty. It’s a paradigm shift of monumental proportions that is still happening today.
We gather on this holy night to remember the story and to remember the man who gave us the new covenant in his body and blood. We gather to remember that we need not fear anything, even death. What was old is made new…and it’s new every day that Christ’s spirit lives with us and and in us.
Amen.
Copyright © 2006. Erl G. Purnell
All rights reserved.
