Sermon Maundy Thursday
Today we remember the events that occurred on Thursday of Holy Week usually reckoned to be about AD 29.
It is the most talked about week in the history of mankind
It has been estimated that about a third of all the events that we have recorded in Scripture about Jesus’ life occurred during this week:
Some people have suggested that Holy Week was a series of unfortunate chance events culminating with the Crucifixion
I don’t believe that
I believe that Jesus planned it meticulously and used code words on Palm Sunday and on Wednesday of Holy Week what is called Spy Wednesday
1. Palm Sunday
The disciples on Palm Sunday were sent to get a donkey and when the owners asked them why they were taking it they were told to reply” The Lord needs it”
Now the fact that the donkey had owners shows that the owners were poor as they did not have enough money to own the donkey alone
So the donkey was a sizable investment
If that is the case, why do you think that the owners of the donkey didn’t ask who the Lord is.
I would suggest to you it is because this was a safe password that Jesus had pre-arranged.
Jesus’ name isn’t mentioned so the owners of the donkey won’t get into trouble with the High Priest and his party after the Crucifixion
The sentence “The Lord needs” could refer to anybody with money, so it didn't put the owners in danger
2. Maundy Thursday
Now preparations are needed to be made for Maundy Thursday, and Jesus tells his disciples to do something a bit strange
He doesn’t say go to the home of a particular person.
Rather Jesus says
“As you go into the city, you will see a man with a pitcher, follow him and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’
Again what is surprising, on the face of it was that the owner of the house didn’t say “Who is the Teacher” because he already knew who the Teacher was.
For me the sentence ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ has to be a password.
I say that because of the way the owner of the house reacts.
Tradition has it that it was the house of John Mark’s mother – John Mark being the author of Mark’s Gospel
As they gathered, they were taking part in the Seder meal, one of the highlights of the Passover week.
And it is not by chance that Jesus shares this Passover feast with his disciples and he doesn’t want to be disturbed.
Why did Jesus have to use passwords?
The Passwords for Palm Sunday and for the Passover meal in Holy Week were because of Judas
If Judas had known where the donkey was, he could have got word to the High Priest and he would have had the donkey either killed or confiscated
Inn this way he could stop Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 a prophecy given almost 900 years earlier. Let me read it to you
The Coming of Zion’s King
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
In the same way, had Judas known where the Passover was going to be held, he could have got word to the High Priest who could have arrested Jesus away from the crowds before Jesu had finished his ministry to the disciples
2.1 Passover
The Passover festival, was ingrained in the life of the Jewish nation.
It commemorated that time when the Jews were in slavery in Egypt.
Moses had warned Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh refused.
So God sent one plague after another .
Pharaoh wasn’t moved until God sent the tenth and final plague – known as the death of the firstborns in Egypt
However this death passed over the homes of the Jews in Goshen.
And so the feast of Passover was ordered by God as a commemoration of the Jewish nation’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt by their God
The meal itself was a symbolic one reminding the Jews of the sufferings of their forefathers and the power of God's deliverance.
The food that was eaten were symbols to remind the Jews of their captivity in Egypt.
1. Lamb The word 'pesach' (pasch, passover) applies to the Lamb of sacrifice as well as to the deliverance from Egypt and to the feast itself.
2. Unleavened bread (Matzoh) called "bread of affliction" because it recalls the unleavened bread prepared for the hasty flight by night from Egypt.
Three large matzohs are broken and consumed during the ceremony.
3. Bitter herbs (Moror) is a reminder of the bitterness of slavery and suffering in Egypt.
4. Green herbs to be dipped in salt water. Salt water represents tears of sorrow shed during the captivity of the Lord's people.
5. Haroseth (or 'haroses') - a mixture of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine represents the mortar used by Jews in building palaces and pyramids of Egypt during their slavery.
6. Wine is dipped from a common bowl.
There are four acts of drinking wine during the Seder feast – known as the 'Four Cups”
1. The Cup of 'Thanksgiving,
2. The Cup of Hag/adah ('telling'),
3. The Cup of Blessing, and
4. The Cup of Melchisedek (symbolising 'righteousness').
It was this Seder Meal that Jesus and the disciples were celebrating in the upper room that night.
It was at the conclusion of that meal that Jesus himself gave two of the symbols of the Seder meal fresh significance
2.2. The Bread
He took a loaf and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying:
Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.
2.3 The Cup of Wine
Then he took a cup with wine. He drank from it and gave it to his disciples saying,
“Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.”
It is significant that Jesus took the elements for the Holy Communion from the Passover festival.
Because in Passover, the children of God under the Old Covenant celebrated that God’s Salvation, a salvation which resulted in the Israelites being released from the slavery of Egypt
So in Holy Communion we, the children of God under the New Covenant celebrate God’s salvation through Jesus’ death on the Cross
And the salvation Jesus brings releases us from the slavery of sin and allows us to be with God when we die.
Looked at another way, the first Passover is an Old Testament prefiguring of Jesus’ vicarious death of the Cross – the Salvation of God.
And so it was highly significant that Jesus died at Passover.
For it reminds us of what God has done, through Jesus to purchase our freedom from sin.
As St. John put it
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Or as St Paul puts it
8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So today, let us give thanks for that wonderful gift of God – our salvation – eternal life that cost Jesus dearly – as we recall tomorrow on Good Friday.
And let us remember too the command Jesus gave his Church:
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
If we want to see our church full, then we need to remember that Jesus told us how to do this.
The late Francis Schaeffer founder of the L’Abri Fellowship said:
“Love is the final apologetic”
Tertullian in the second century reported the comments of pagans in his day:
“Behold, how these Christians love one another! How they are ready to die for each other!”
Their mutual love, Bruce Milne, the BST Bible Commentator wrote ”was the magnet which drew pagan multitudes to Christ. It has the potential to do so still.”
May I leave you with a story about one of the Warden of the Cinque Ports which the Welsh Methodist preacher Hugh Price Hughes told:
“I remember a beautiful incident in the life of the Duke of Wellington when he was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
The Iron Duke (as the Duke of Wellington was popularly known) was in church, and was going to receive the Lord's Supper, (the Eucharist) when a peasant, who had not noticed the Duke, knelt down by the Duke.
Discovering who he was, and being much terrified in the presence of a man he considered his superior, he started to get up, when the Duke put his hand on his shoulder, and said,
"Don't move, we are all equal here."
(http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/hughes/universal_equality.htm)
May I leave you with this thought:
The Eucharist reminds us that in the presence of Jesus at Holy Communion we are all equal.
Because we are all equally sinners in need of a Saviour.
