On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?" So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
When it was evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, "Surely, not I?" He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born." While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
“New in the Kingdom of God” is the phrase that stands out today. I envision everything made new in the Kingdom of God. Many argue whether the Kingdom of God is something to come upon earth or if the Kingdom of God refers to an ethereal heaven. All I know is what scripture tells us about the Kingdom, and in this passage it would seem to refer to heaven where Jesus drinks the new wine.
This scripture passage is perfect for today which is Maundy Thursday. This is the day that Jesus commands us to continue the practice of repeating his last supper until he comes again. In the act of remembrance, Jesus is present with us in the breaking and sharing of the one bread and the drinking of the wine which is his body and blood.
In Mark’s Gospel story, Jesus’ last supper is set in the context of the Jewish Passover meal. The Passover meal for the Jewish faith is a anamnesis, or a calling forward of the events when Moses led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea. As believers in Jesus, we share this tradition of anamnesis, and recall Jesus’ new covenant with us in the ritual meal of bread and wine. The promises to us are a share with Jesus in the resurrection, and an eternal life with God. In this passage, the disciples would understand what a blood covenant is.
In the beginning of the passage, Jesus knows what the disciples will encounter when they go into the city to prepare the Passover meal. He gives them specific directions and describes what they will find. At the table, Jesus even predicts his betrayal from those among him.
Our call today is in the first part of the passage – in the preparation. As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord, we are to prepare to celebrate His feast of the new covenant. We are called to prepare and participate with him at the meal and on the journey to the cross.
Maundy Thursday is the night when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane after celebration the most sacred meal of the Jewish faith, a reenacted memory of God’s salvation of God’s chosen people. The Christian commemoration of the night remembers the great feast and the arrest of Jesus and leaves us in the darkness of the garden. For us it is a powerful calling forward of that wonderfully terrible night.
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