A Meal of Abundance
Exodus 12:1-14a
Psalm 78:14-20, 23-25
I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
Tim
Christoffersen
St. Anselm’s
Maundy Thursday
April 12,
2001
How
many of you know what the "Maundy" part of Maundy Thursday"
means?…Good!
It comes from mandatum or mandate and it refers to Jesus’ words "Do
this in remembrance of me." Church tradition has remembered and celebrated
Maundy Thursday during Holy Week for its connection to the gathering of Jesus
and his disciples in the upper room for the meal we know today as the "Last
Supper."
I would like to go back to the social and cultural setting during the period
of Jesus’ ministry in the first century and focus on the importance of
food and common meals during that period. This will help put the Last Supper
in a larger framework in Jesus’ ministry and help us to make a deeper
connection to Good Friday and the Easter Resurrection of Jesus.
The social and cultural world of Jesus’ time was dramatically different
in many respects from our world today. His world was characterized by a strong
sense of hierarchy, a kind of patron and client set of relationships. We might
call it the good old boy network running the show. It was patriarchal and
gender based. Women were secluded at home and males made decisions for them.
Marriageable, virgin women were a source of pride and honor to the family
or clan but they were essentially also treated as property. Children were
taught to think of themselves as ‘we’ and ‘fairness’ meant
treating others in accordance with their social rank or their standing in
the social hierarchy or pecking order. Achievements were by the group of males
in the clan or village and ‘saving face’ was of paramount importance.
Everyone knew their place in the well ordered, social hierarchy and behaved
accordingly. The rule of law as we know it existed only in limited fashion
and only for Roman citizens.
Meals mirrored these social and cultural realities. Banquets were events that
communicated exactly where you stood in the social hierarchy. Servants delivered
invitations orally. The area for dining was always the best part of the home
or public facility. Guests reclined against cushions at the tables. The more
important you were, the closer you sat to the host. Before reclining each
guest had their hands and feet washed by servants.
The order of the meal was the exact opposite of our formal meals today. They
ate the food first and then there was an elaborate ritual before the drinking
portion of the event commenced. Among the Jews the ritual transition included
the blessing or Berakah "Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe,
Creator of the fruit of the Vine." The drinking portion included entertainment
or, among the religious and certain others, included teaching.
Jesus came into this world of dining and food and turned it totally upside
down and violated virtually all the social conventions of his day. Jesus redefined
the religious and cultural meaning of dining or table fellowship. In a paraphrase
of the words of Nathan Mitchell, a Roman Catholic liturgist, Jesus insisted
on inclusivity and egalitarianism and he was willing to eat anything with
anyone at any time. He ate with Matthew and the tax collectors, with the Pharisees
and he fed thousands of strangers in the feedings of the 5000 and 4000. It
is significant to recall Jesus used the words ‘take’, ‘bless’,
‘break’ and ‘give’ over the fish and the bread in these
two stories of great abundance. They make a wonderful connection of abundance
with Holy Communion.
When we look at the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet in the
gospel today, we can now see it in a larger context of Jesus’ world.
The host becomes the hostess and is doing women’s work. He turns the
social hierarchy upside down and the host becomes the servant. If you want
to lead, Jesus says, you must serve.
Can you see yourself washing the feet of friends when you have them over to
dinner? I think we are apt today to look at the foot washing ceremony that
often characterizes the Maundy Thursday service and see it as outdated. After
all, it made sense when people wore sandals and traveled on dusty roads and
paths. But that really misses the point of the foot washing by Jesus. The
point was Jesus turned socially and culturally acceptable behavior on its
head. Most of us are clearly uncomfortable facing the prospect of washing
someone else’s feet on our hands and knees or at least on a low stool.
I believe that act is as subversive to our social psyche today as it was in
Jesus’ day.
Food still is about status and social standing. We may have less time to have
people over to dinner, especially the homeless or strangers. But we still
achieve a measure of status with bottled water, premium wine, Peet’s
Coffee, and dinner at Chez Panisse Café. We give a lot of thought to
how people will mix when we give a dinner party. I know in our case we always
focus on people who will be compatible with each other.
I believe when we place Jesus’ Passover meal or Last Supper with his
disciples in the larger context of table fellowship throughout his ministry,
we acquire a deeper understanding of the Eucharist that we celebrate tonight
as the body of Christ, anticipating our remembering tomorrow his suffering
and death on the cross.
In the Last Supper narratives in Matthew, Mark and Luke, it is clear that
Jesus is having a Passover meal with his disciples. He knows Judas will betray
him and he will be crucified soon. The reading from Exodus reminds us of the
redemption of the Hebrew people from bondage in Egypt and how God ‘passed
over’ those who had the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. I don’t
know how many of you remember the movie Exodus, but I still remember the scene
of the greenish, fog like mist that crept down the pathways between the shacks
in which the Hebrew people waited and listened to the shrieks of terror of
Egyptians whose first born were suddenly dying in their arms. God delivered
Israel, his chosen people.
Jesus in his cross and resurrection, the central event of the new covenant,
accomplished a new and supreme deliverance for all mankind, the redemption
from sin and death. The cross and resurrection constitute the new Exodus.
At the conclusion of our worship tonight we strip the altar in preparation
for our remembrance tomorrow of Christ’s passion and death on the cross.
And let us also remember our own baptism and our death to the pattern of this
world, to the false securities of status and social standing,
Let me conclude with a prayer from the Didache, the earliest record we have
of a Christian prayer after the common meal together:
You, almighty Master, created all things for the sake of your Name, and
gave food and drink to mankind for their enjoyment, that they might give you
thanks; but to us you have granted spiritual food and drink and eternal life
through your child Jesus. Above all we give you thanks because you are mighty;
glory to you for evermore.
AMEN.
