For You

April 6, 2023

Maundy Thursday

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Matthew 26:17-30

For You

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is joy in hosting a meal. Eating is so essential to all of us. But beyond just the basic biological need for refueling, hosting a meal is something larger. We all know how important it is to sit down for a family meal. Growing up, my family always came together at the end of the day as we shared a meal round the dining room table. Each of us shared the events of our day. The conversations were quite unmemorable, but there was a communion going on there in the shared moment of dining. It knit us together.

So many of our special memories of family gatherings are connected with a meal! The 4th of July picnics, the birthday celebrations, the Thanksgiving turkey, the wedding party, smores around a campfire.

We connect certain foods with particular people. I remember my Danish grandmother’s dumplings. They were like tender, delicate clouds afloat in her homemade chicken soup. The soup and the dumplings were filled with grandma’s love.

There is a meal, a special meal, that we associate with Jesus. We weren’t even there on that evening – but is sure seems like we were, doesn’t it? We’ve heard the story so many times. They gather in that upper room. It will be Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. Somehow, it’s like we were sitting there, too.

In just a few hours he’ll be arrested, and then the whole cascade of events will lead inevitably to his death. This was his last opportunity to gather over a meal with his friends. And he transformed it into a meal that will never, ever end.

Surprising things happened when Jesus was present at a meal. They became demonstrations of Jesus’ boundless generosity. At a wedding in Cana, he produced an astonishing amount of wine. When he was gathered on a hillside with a crowd the size of a small city, he fed them all with a boy’s lunch.

This final supper would be no different. Jesus provided a meal without end. It’s a meal that will last and last until this world is no more. And the meal we receive is Jesus himself. Jesus comes in this meal. He comes and joins us in this holy communion.

This new meal was confusing to his disciples that evening and it’s something we’re still trying to figure out today. But the mystery doesn’t make it any less genuine.

Here he was, sitting at table with his closest friends. One would betray him. Another would deny ever having known him. All of them would scatter to the winds. But none of it mattered. It wasn’t about THEIR measuring up. It was about his love, his gift, his generosity.

And whenever we celebrate this meal, he comes among us, too. He is in this meal. It’s his meal; he’s the host. He’s with us here, he’s IN us. “It’s for you,” he says. We don’t have to measure up. We don’t have to pass a benchmark of goodness or worthiness or understanding.

This meal is simply about Jesus’ generous act of love. It’s FOR YOU; it’s FOR ME. It’s filled with Jesus; it IS Jesus. In this meal, we join around that table so long ago. We gather along with the many innumerable tables where it’s been celebrated since then and will be in the future. We still receive the cup from his hand. The meal is his love. It’s Jesus, coming to us. He spans across time, across every boundary to be in this meal. Jesus among us; Jesus within us; Jesus for us.