24 Hours That Changed the World: CLEANSED AND FED

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1 February 26, Hours That Changed the World: CLEANSED AND FED Pastor Brian William First United Methodist Church Birmingham, Michigan Scripture: Mark 14:12-24 Today we begin a journey. It s a journey through the final 24 hours that changed the world, the final 24 hours of Jesus life. It s the journey through the upper room, the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples. The Garden of Gethsemane and the tranquility of the prayer they shared there. That tranquility being broken with the shouts of the soldiers and the kiss of Judas and the arrest of Jesus. The midnight trial where they accused him of crimes he didn t commit. Handing him over to the Roman authorities, and putting him before the crowd, asking, Who should we release? The criminal Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth? And the crowd shouted, Release Barabbas. Crucify Jesus! His agony and suffering. His death on the cross. The placement of his lifeless body in the tomb. And the waiting until Easter morning and the empty tomb. As we make our way through this journey, we will make our way through the final 24 hours of Jesus life. As we do so, we hope for two things. We hope that we will discover anew the meaning of these stories that we will find fresh details and fresh experiences in these stories. But we also hope that we will discover anew the significance beneath these stories the profound meaning that they have for us and our faith today. So we begin 24 hours before Jesus lifeless body is placed in the tomb. We know that he was placed in the tomb on Friday just before sunset because they didn t want to violate the Sabbath once the sun had gone down. So we back up 24 hours and we find ourselves at Thursday afternoon, just before sunset. The city of Jerusalem where Jesus and the disciples gathered was abuzz with the Passover celebration, one of the greatest holidays of the Jewish calendar. It s the celebration when all people come to Jerusalem in order to celebrate and give thanks that God has released the people from slavery into liberation. And they recognize each year that they are free because they are God s people. So, on Thursday afternoon, Jesus disciples are sent to prepare the Passover meal. Hear these words from Mark, chapter 14: 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

2 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. (Mark 14:12-24) As the disciples prepared for the Passover meal, they were led to this large upstairs room. It must have been quite substantial. It was a dining room in which all the disciples were able to gather. I know my dining room would have trouble fitting thirteen people plus servants. They believe that this same upper room was the site of the important events that took place in the Bible. The Last Supper was held in this room. Jesus washed his disciples feet in this room. When Jesus was crucified and the disciples scattered, they all came to this room to hide out, which means that the resurrected Christ would have appeared to the disciples in this same room. Thomas was not present and said he would not believe in Christ s resurrection until he saw the scars on his hands and his side. So Jesus appeared again in resurrected form in this same room. And Bible scholars wonder if the Pentecost event, the day when 120 of Jesus followers experienced God s Holy Spirit moving among them when the Christian church was born, may have taken place in the same upper room. So it was clearly a quite large room and a very important space, and yet we know nothing about whose house it was or why they made it available to Jesus. All that we know is that a man who is unnamed is carrying a jar of water and leads the disciples to this upstairs room. I realized that some of the most crucial events that took place happened here, yet we don t know whose house it was. We don t know their name. They receive no credit. They receive no recognition whatsoever. How often is that true of us? Maybe we don t have a large upstairs room in which Jesus will meet for a meal. But what do we have that we could offer? What could we offer if we don t need the recognition if we don t need the credit if we don t need anybody to know that we gave the gift? This person had a room and made that room available for God s service, and they did so without recognition and without credit. How can we do the same? 2

3 When they arrived at the upper room, it says that two of the disciples began preparing the table and preparing the meal. We know Leonardo da Vinci s painting of the Last Supper, but it turns out he got most of it wrong. We know that the meal took place in the evening, since the Jewish day does not begin until after sunset, so it would have been dark when they ate the meal. But the painting clearly shows the daylight outside the window behind the disciples. In the Passover meal, we know that unleavened bread is important, yet the painting shows bread that is clearly fully risen. We know that in the real Last Supper, Judas was sitting to Jesus left because the Bible tells us that he shared the same bowl with him. Yet in da Vinci s Last Supper, it s John who is next to Jesus. (Although if you ve read Dan Brown s novel, you know it s really Mary Magdalene next to Jesus, right? Right.) And the table that da Vinci shows is not accurate, either. He shows a Western-style dining table, but really Jesus would have sat at a triclinium. A triclinium is a Roman-style dining room table. Tri simply means three, as it is a three-sided table. And clinium is where we get the word recline, as it was a table where you would not sit but rather would lie down. When you reclined at a triclinium, you would lie on your side on cushions that were around the perimeter of the table. It meant that you d use your unclean hand (your left hand) to support your weight by leaning on your elbow, and then your right hand would be used to feed yourself and to pass the food to the person next to you. It also meant that while the guests would lay around the perimeter of the table, there was space in the middle for the servants to bring the food. It really makes some sense. I was thinking about the experience we often have at a restaurant where the waiter has to reach over your shoulder to serve the food. Then there s that weird moment where you realize it s a little awkward so you offer to take the plate, but the waiter always says, Oh no, it s too hot for you to touch! Which always makes me wonder how come it s too hot for me to touch but not too hot for them to touch. But at a triclinium, the servants would be able to come into the middle of the table to serve the food, refill the drinks, and remove the dishes. It also helps us understand the story of the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and then dried them with her hair. (Luke 7:36-38) I always thought it was a little strange that she would wash his feet, but when you realize that Jesus was sitting at a triclinium, then it makes sense, since his head would be all the way over at the table but his feet would be nearest to the woman. Now, the other thing that da Vinci got wrong is the place of honor at the table. The painting shows Jesus at the exact center of the table, as we would assume that s the most important place at the table. However, at a triclinium, the place of honor was the second spot from the right. That s because they considered the person being served to be more honorable than the one serving somebody else, so the servants would place the food in the center and the very first person would take the food and serve the person to their left. That would have been considered the place of greatest honor, and it is the place where Jesus would have sat. 3

4 Then right next to Jesus was the second greatest place of honor, as they would be the second person to be served their food. We know that Judas sat in this place, because of what we just read: Jesus said, The one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me is the one who will betray him. Who would share the bowl with Jesus? The one sitting immediately next to him in the second greatest place of honor. Here s the important lesson, though. We might think it s somewhat interesting to know about the place of honor in that culture, but in the Scriptures it s of critical importance because they realized when they sat down there was a little bit of a pecking order in how they sat. And they had just been having a debate about the subject. In the Gospel of Luke we hear about it. He starts out the same way by saying they will enter into Jerusalem and they will find a man who will show you a large room upstairs. Make preparations for us there. So they went and found everything as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal. (Luke 22:12-13) Then Luke tells us about the debate they had that gives us the context for how important their seating order is: A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. (Luke 22:24-30) So you see that when they sat at this table and they discussed who was to be regarded as the greatest, that was the context in which this meal was held. The last thing to realize about the triclinium is that it means that foot cleanliness takes on a special importance. If your feet are underneath a table, how clean they are doesn t make too much difference. If you re lying down and your feet are sticking out, having dirty feet at the meal would just be gross! So upon entering any house, you would remove your sandals. Usually a servant was available to wash your feet. But even if no servant was present, there would be a basin with soap and water and a towel so you could wash your own feet. But with this dispute that had just been held about who was to be regarded as the greatest among them, no one dared wash their own feet. They knew that was the servant s job to do! Nobody wanted to take on the role of a servant! And they knew that if they knelt to wash their own feet, one of the other disciples might take advantage of it. Well, as long as you re washing your own feet, you may as well wash mine also. So the basin sat. Everyone glanced over at it, but nobody moved toward it. 4

5 Until Jesus said something. Jesus said, Among those people who are not God s people, they use authority to lord it over others, but not among you. As they are laying around this table disputing who is to be regarded as the greatest, Jesus asks them the question, Who is the greatest among you? The one who is seated at the table or the one who serves? Clearly, it s the one who is seated at the table, right? But. But. But I am among you as one who serves. I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:27) And with that, Jesus takes everything that they understood and turns it upside down, and confuses them completely, for he is truly radical at this moment. As the Gospel of John tells us, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. (John 13:4-5) They are aghast, for the messiah, the Lord of the universe, the One who is superior to them all, is the one who is taking on the role of the servant and washing their feet. And in that moment, Jesus takes everything they were arguing over about who is to be regarded as the greatest, and he blows it all out of the water. All the hierarchies that we ve created, all the sense of superiority and inferiority that we ve created, they mean nothing in God s sight. When he looks at humanity, he sees equality across the board. The child born into great affluence in the United States and the child born into grinding poverty in Peru, he sees as equal in every way. But there s one exception to the rule: You call me Teacher and Lord and you are right, for that is what I am. (John 13:14) As much as I love equality, I will accept that there is One who rises above all others. There is One for whom equality is not applicable. There is One who is superior to us all the Savior, the Lord of us all. And yet at that moment, Jesus takes his Lordship, he takes his superiority in every way, and lays it aside. He says: I no longer call you my servants, I call you my friends. (John 15:15) And he kneels down and washes their feet. That whole discussion they d been having about who is to be regarded as the greatest, that s gone. For Jesus takes that one simple act and makes them all clean We need to remember that when Jesus cleaned their feet, he was cleaning the feet of the man next to him who would betray him only hours later with a kiss. When he got to Peter, Peter said, No! No, Lord! You are not washing my feet! And Jesus said that if you don t get this if you don t understand why you need cleansing then you won t share with me. (John 13:8) If you don t get this, you re missing something crucial about what Jesus is all about. Peter s eyes were opened and he said, Wash everything about me. Wash my hands, wash my hair, wash my very heart and my soul. But Jesus knows that just hours later, Peter will deny him, not once, not twice, but three times: I swear I don t even know who that man is! Yet Jesus cleanses him anyway. 5

6 Jesus knows that everyone else around that table will abandon him in his time of need. They will scatter and they will hide out in fear. It s in that context that Jesus cleanses them cleanses not only their feet, but cleanses their hearts, cleanses their minds, cleanses their very souls. And I think that applies when we approach this Communion table. When you ask, Am I worthy of this meal? Am I worthy of your grace? Am I worthy of your love? No! No more than any of these disciples who abandoned and betrayed and denied Jesus were worthy. Yet he cleansed them. When we come up this aisle and we think, Have I made too many mistakes to receive God s grace? Have I been off on the wrong path too many times to deserve God s love? And we say no, for this grace was provided by Jesus to those disciples in the washing of their feet and the cleansing of their souls, and it s offered to us today. As we prepare our hearts for Communion, we realize that we need this cleansing just as those disciples did. If that cleansing was just some dirt off their feet, it wasn t enough. Yet that cleansing goes down to the depths of our soul, so that it cleanses us inside and out. Yet everything that Jesus was doing there is all a preparation for the meal they would have together. The meal itself was the Passover meal. The Passover meal has not changed too much over the centuries. Thirteen-hundred years before the birth of Christ, the people of God were enslaved in Egypt. For hundreds of years, they toiled under the cruel oppression of slavery. They called out for a deliverer, and God responded, sending Moses. Moses went to Pharaoh, saying, Let my people go. And God led those people from bondage into freedom. Every year since then, the Jewish people have gathered around the Passover table to commemorate what God had done and to continue to recognize what God is continuing to do. So each portion of the meal was meant to represent part of the story. They would eat an apple paste that reminded them of the mortar of the bricks they had laid while in slavery. They would eat the bitter herbs the horseradish and parsley reminding them of the bitterness they felt. They would dip their food into saltwater, reminding them of the tears they had shed. They would eat lamb, reminding them of the blood of the lamb that had been smeared on the doorposts, allowing the angel of death to pass over their home and allow life to continue within. They would eat unleavened bread, reminding them of the haste in which they were led into freedom as they didn t even have time to allow the bread to rise. And they drank from four cups of wine, reminding them of the four promises that God had made to the people to liberate them into freedom. Each portion of the meal had special significance. And each time they celebrated the Passover meal, they remembered anew the ancient bondage of their people. And they remembered whatever personal slavery or bondage they had experienced in the past year. And they celebrated how God liberated the people from slavery and how God continues to liberate them from the personal bondage they had experienced. 6

7 So when Jesus gathered around this table, he was doing so in the context of this Passover meal, this meal that reminded them of God s promises that were fulfilled. And it reminded them of their identity as a people. They began the meal as they normally would, with the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread and the saltwater. And each portion had a ritual associated with it, words that would be spoken with each part. Yet this was when Jesus went off script. When he lifted up the bread, he said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19) We know that within the next 24 hours, Jesus body was broken. And after the supper was over, Jesus took a cup. In the Passover meal, the cups of wine represented the promises of God and how they had been fulfilled by God. When he lifted this cup, he made a new promise. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28) They recognized that God s promises were being fulfilled in a new way. And within the next 24 hours, Jesus blood was shed. They were doing the same things that the Passover meal had been doing for a thousand years, but they were doing it in a new way. They were recognizing how the promises of God had been fulfilled in history and fulfilled in them. Only now, the promises of God were being fulfilled through the broken body and the shed blood of Christ. And they were remembering who they were as God s people. Only now, they were the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. So each time we approach this table and each time we say that we are the Body of Christ, redeemed by his blood, we are once again remembering that meal. Not in the sense that we are just recalling some event that happened a long, long time ago. We are remembering that meal in the sense that we are re-living it and we are re-engaging our identity as God s people each time. As we gather for Communion this day, let us do it with the understanding that we need to be cleansed. We need our feet to be cleansed. We need our hearts to be cleansed. We need our minds to be cleansed. We need to be cleansed, inside and out. And we need to be fed. We need to be fed with God s promises. We need to be fed with that remembrance of what Christ did that remembrance of who Christ was and who Christ continues to be for us. And we remember who we are. We remember our identity. For we are God s people, redeemed by the blood of Christ so we may be the Body of Christ in the world. Praise be to God, amen. 7