Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday - 2019

It is puzzling that John, who devoted the whole of chapter 6 of his Gospel to reflecting on the mystery and meaning of the Eucharist, should make no mention of it at all in his account of Jesus’ Last Supper. Instead he described this incident of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And yet, one does throw light upon the other – and perhaps both make even clearer the meaning of the Eucharist.

The foot washing was obviously a symbolic act. Jesus performed the duty of a servant, a humiliating but helpful duty nevertheless – even though he was not just their peer but, as they themselves preferred to see him, their Lord and Master. Certainly it made Peter feel uneasy. His “Shall you wash my feet?” expresses what many of us feel when we come to receive Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof …”.

Jesus had consistently preached and exemplified the way of mutual love, respect and ready forgiveness of each other as the non-negotiable and only way that humanity could be saved from its otherwise spontaneous competitiveness, mutual fear, raw hostility and destructive violence. He insisted that this attitude expressed the human equivalent of the mercy and love that summed up the very essence of God. But words are only words. Jesus hoped that his tortured and dehumanising death through crucifixion, the price of his refusal to back down from his unshakeable conviction, might eventually convince an otherwise unheeding world. He hoped that, once the blood-lust of the crowd had been satisfied, and people had had time to calm down and to ponder, that they would recognise how their unnoticed and unchecked instincts had led them, then and always, pointlessly to scapegoat and kill a totally innocent victim.

Jesus’ wanted his action of washing the disciples’ feet to symbolise the profound act of practical love and service that he was about to make through his threatening crucifixion. If Peter was unwilling to share that way of love with Jesus, they would effectively have nothing in common with each other. “If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me”.

Jesus profoundly desired that humility and mutual sensitive care should characterise the constant behaviour of all believers. As he said, “You should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you”. He was not talking about copying the symbol, but of constantly living the message it symbolised.

The other Gospels saw the breaking of the bread at the Eucharist, and our sharing in it, along with our common drinking from the cup of the covenant, likewise as a determined “yes”, or “Amen” to Jesus and to his way of love, as the only way to turn around our violent world. In insisting that we do this, as he said, “in memory of me”, he was not talking about repeating the symbol, but of constantly living the message it symbolised.

Holy Thursday 2022

Early in the Ukraine crisis, I read an article by a Jewish journalist that reminded me what I had sort of known but had not much thought about. He wrote that the Jews had survived as a people since the destruction of their nation, their priesthood and their religious structures by the Roman armies in the first century — though they had no actual homeland, no national leaders, and no nation state until half way through last century [with the re-establishment of the State of Israel]; and this despite the fact that they were scattered all around the world where, over the centuries, they had experienced fairly consistent persecution. During all that time, the journalist had commented, they had never fought a war, even in self-defence. Yet they, with their Jewish religion, survived, and maintained their identity as a people.

How come? The answer would seem to be that, after their temple was destroyed, priestly structure became redundant, along with their priesthood. Their religion became family-based. And the people remained obviously faithful to that. They no longer had most of their great religious festivals. But, interestingly, they remained faithful, wherever they were dispersed, to their weekly celebration of the sabbath, and to the annual celebration of their Paschal Meal. They maintained their identity by remaining faithful to their Law and to their memories of the past deeds of God on their behalf. Through their memories, they kept God at the centre of their lives.

We read tonight about the first Passover Meal celebrated by the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. It became a paradigm for subsequent annual celebrations of their liberation; and it took place in their homes among the family. While there were priests available, the lambs for the menu were killed and offered in sacrifice — as was the case in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. Part of the ritual meal in the family involved the re-telling of the event. Somehow, through that re-telling, through the memory, that believed they came in touch once again with God who continued the saving work with them into the present.

Jesus’ Last Supper with his close band of disciples was a Passover, a Paschal, Meal. Jesus developed its orientation and its meaning. He saw it celebrating the climax of God’s liberating action among his people that would happen through his own imminent death — the price of his unshakeable commitment to the way of love as the only way to the world’s salvation. 

Jesus modified the ancient ritual. When he took the loaf of unleavened bread, he formally broke it into pieces. He saw that broken-up loaf as a symbol of his own tortured body that was soon to be crucified. Towards the end of the meal, he did something similar with the chalice of wine from which everyone present shared. He saw the wine symbolising his own blood that was soon to be shed as he died. He saw their drinking from the cup as their solemn way of saying “Yes” to the new covenant to be initiated between them and their liberating God.

He then instructed them to remember him, what he did, and how he exemplified and accomplished the world’s liberation through the way of love. He directed them to imitate that love. As he said, “To remember me, do this!” — be prepared to love as he had loved, even to the point of death.

He says the same thing to us tonight.