From: HOMILIES BY EMAIL

Exegesis
Holy Thursday
April 8, 2004

RCL Readings:
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10), 11-14 The First Passover
Ps 116:1-4, 12-19 Giving Thanks
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 the Lord's Supper
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 Jesus Washes His Disciples Feet

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10), 11-14
The setting is till in Egypt and before they are actually delivered.
God gives instructions to Moses and Aaron for the sacred meal
which will commemorate the "passing "over" from bondage to
freedom.

This was like a whole new beginning for them, their birth as a
people. t was to be "the beginning of months" for them. It was their
birthday (vs 2). The month corresponds to march-April. In the older
calendar is was called the month of "Abib" and later called "Nisan."
They were to actually begin on the 10th of that month by selecting
a young lamb or goat for the family, one without blemish (vs 4),
that is, one of their best (see Leviticus 22:19, 21; Deut 17:1).

Now it was recognized that not every family could afford a lamb.
So, one could be shared with other families. The important thing
was that everyone had access to the Passover lamb, that each one
participated (vs 4).

The lambs were to be sacrificed and consumed at the meal on the
14th of the month (vs 6). Scholars have suggested all kinds of
timelines for this, some saying it was done as early as 3 p.m. on the 14th - which is interesting in that it was about that time, when the Passover lambs were sacrificed, that Jesus died.

For the first observance of the Passover, the blood from the lambs
was to be smeared over or on the lintels or tent posts at the
entrance of their tents. Verse 22 says they used hyssop to do this, a small bushy plant. The purpose of this was to be a reminder to them of God's protection and to ward off the destroyer, an angel or God, who was coming for judgment on the people of Egypt and on the
gods of Egypt (vs 12). Persumably the Lord or avenging angel sees
the blood and "passes over" that tent, that is, the plague would not
enter there. It is a mark of protection and salvation. This image of
the shedding of the blood of a lamb bringing salvation is one we
find in the NT, in many sermons and hymns over the centuries as
Jesus is seen as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world.

With the lamb, they were to eat "bitter herbs" (perhaps ones like
lettuce, chicory, pepperwort, snakeroot and dandelion) and
unleavened (bread or cakes baked without yeast) as reminders of
the bitterness of their slavery and of the haste or swiftness of God's deliverance of them. They were to eat in haste as well to remind them of how quickly God delivered them. You might say it was the first "fast food." Later this became a celebration that lasted a week as it was combined with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This Passover meal was to be a reminder to them continually of
what God had done for them through the whole Exodus experience
(vs 14). When they observed it in the future, it was almost as they
are transported back to that night, that they are there. It's also a
time to teach their children about this (see Exodus 12:26ff).

This Passover meal was what Jesus and the disciples most likely
observed on what we call Maundy/Holy Thursday. However, Jesus
changed it. He infused it with new meaning. We, as Christians, do
not observe the Jewish Passover or Seder. Our Passover is the
Lord's Supper or Holy Communion. It is, for us, not the celebration
of a physical deliverance (like from Egypt) to the Promised Land
but of a spiritual deliverance from the bondage of sin to an
abundant and eternal life. Christ is the paschal Lamb, the one
sacrificed for us, whose sacrifice brings us salvation. Christ takes
the bitter herbs of suffering, death, and sin for us. The bread and the cup, becoming for us the broken body and shed blood of Christ,
become ways for us, too, to remember and continue participating in
the saving work of Christ. Paul in the epistle reading says that when we celebrate the Lord's Supper we are remembering/proclaiming
the Lord's death, that is, all that God has done for us in Christ.

Ps 116:1-4, 12-19
This is a song about calling out to God for help, death, suffering,
thanksgiving, and trust. It goes well with the above reading as it
gives thanks for God's deliverance, of which the Passover was one
of the greatest examples of in their past. It's also a fitting one for Maundy Thursday. In some ways it reflects much of the feelings
Jesus must have had that night even in the Upper Room and which
are explicitly expressed later that night in Gethsemane. Just as Ps
116 shows us the psalmist near death only to be given back life and
wholeness again, we see in it the coming suffering of Christ and the
ultimate defeat of death itself through the resurrection. It also
speaks of being a servant (vs 16) and this is very much at the heart
of the Upper Room story as found in John 13:1-17. It may have
also been one of the songs Jesus and the disciples sang before
leaving the Upper Room that night (as tradition says the use of
Psalms 114-188 was common for Passover, and we read in the
Gospels that they did sing a hymn before going out). Another
connection between this psalm and Communion is that the psalm is
about thanksgiving for God's delivering power and help. Many of
us even call the Lord's Supper the "Eucharist," which literally
means "thanksgiving." It's a thanksgiving meal, celebrating our
deliverance from sin through the sacrifice of Christ. Surely that is
reason to celebrate and give thanks.

This is basically a song of thanksgiving. The Psalmist has been in
some trouble (illness or enemies), cried out for God's help, and
apparently that help/deliverance was given (see vss 6b, 7, 8-9, 12,
16c). So the psalmist is now celebrating.

You know, it seems to me that the Passover and the Lord's Supper
are really celebrations. When we celebrate, we almost always do so
at some point through a meal. These sacred meals are a celebration
of the love and goodness of God.

I'm not certain, therefore, that we really celebrate the Lord's
Supper in the right mood or spirit. I have been in some services in
which it was the saddest, most depressing part of the whole service.
Is it a memorial to a dead Jesus or a celebration of the life giving
Risen Lord who now is with us and within us? Seems to me it
should be more of a celebration than the sad, somber observance it
has become. Meals are not really intended or conducive to
mourning. Even meals I have with families after funerals often
become celebrations of the life of the person who has died. I don't
know...I understand the need for quiet and reverence, but it seems
to me this meal should be more often a joyous celebration. If, how,
or when would do this, gentle readers? (I participated once in an
Agape Feast in which Communion was a part and that comes very
close to what I have in mind. How about you? Or am I committing
blasphemy?)

Vss 1-4 speak of the love the psalmist has for God, which grow out
of the experience of being loved and helped by God (as vss 5ff
show). The psalmist is convinced that he owes his life to God. God
has saved his life. Out of gratitude, the psalmist promises to call on God, to nurture that communication and closeness to God all the
days of his life (vs 2b).

This is certainly what the Israelites could sing and say as well, for God had delivered them from bondage, given them a new life. This
is also what we believe and celebrate in the Lord's Supper.

Vss 12-19 sing about what the psalmist wants to do in response and
gratitude for what God has done for him. That display will not just
be in private but very public through sacrifices and prayers of
thanksgiving offered up to God in worship. "The cup of salvation"
probably refers to some sacrifice or offering, perhaps wine or oil
(see Exodus 29:40; Numbers 28:7). For Christians, of course, it
reminds us of the cup of the Lord's Supper, a cup of salvation for
us.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
This is an interesting passage for several reasons.

First, it is most likely the earliest written account of the Lord's
Supper as Paul's letters were written before the Gospels (at least in then opinion of most scholars today).

Second, it is a brief, short and simple presentation of the story. Paul gives us the bare but most important essentials.

Third, Paul shares this in the context of abuses of the Lord's
Supper (read the verse just before this one in chapter 11). This was
meant to honor and remember the Lord, and Paul questions
whether or not they even understand it or are, in fact, observing it
at all. The meals they have been observing were more like the
pagan banquets of their former lives.

Paul begins by saying that he is passing along what he has received.
The Lord's Supper is not something he made up (perhaps some
where questioning its purpose or if it was necessary). Paul says that it is rooted in the historic life of Jesus.

The night of his betrayal is the setting for it. We know this is a
reference to Judas (see John 13:2). That first meal was one in which
there was betrayal. Is this a subtle reminder to them that in their
actions around the Lord's Supper (getting drunk, eating all the food
before others  came, etc) were also acts of betrayal?

The other basic elements of the meal/story are also included. Jesus
takes the bread, blesses and breaks it.  Likewise the cup is taken
and blessed. Though Paul does not call this a Passover meal, he
does in 1 Corinthians 5:7 refer to Christ as the paschal lamb.

"Do this in remembrance of me" is quite fitting. Just as the
Passover was a meal of remembrance, so the Lord's Supper was to
be one way of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus and the
deliverance that brings. (The Corinthians knew about such meals to
remember those who had died - a Greek custom. Most likely they
had participated in them. But this was much different - it was the
celebration of not a dead Jesus but a present and Living Lord).

The mention of the blood of Christ ties this to the Exodus 12
passage and to Jeremiah 31:31ff which we studied not too long
ago. Some of us more mainline Christians are a little reluctant to
talk about the "blood of Jesus." Perhaps because it sounds too
fundamentalist who are always talking about the "blood" or being
'washed in the blood" as the old hymn sings. But the blood is there.
What do we do with it? What do we make of it?

The blood of Christ is for the creating of a new covenant, that is, a whole new relationship with God. This is seen in light of the
sacrificial rites of the day. There could be no forgiveness or
cleansing from sin without sacrifice, without the shedding of blood.
Forgiveness is costly. That forgiveness was seen as coming through
sacrifice of the paschal lambs and especially of the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. Now, as the letter to the hebrews says over and over again, such sacrifices are no longer needed. Christ became the one and only Lamb whose blood takes away the sin of the world.

perhaps the language gets in our way here. But it is something we
can understand. It is about a love that is willing to sacrifice anything for us. We can identify with that.

I remember a young woman who was in an automobile accident.
her car had flipped over and had caught on fire. A man in a truck
stopped, broke through the window, reached through the flames
and pulled her out, causing no small harm to himself. "I will never
forget what he did for me," she told the news reporters. And that is
what is at the heart of the Lord's Supper. It is choosing to
remember and give thanks for what Jesus did for us, giving his life
that we might have life.

Every time I take of the Lord's Supper I remember something John
Westerhoff told us at Duke the very first class session I had there.
We were having the Lord's Supper. He said, "Remember, Jesus, the
Son of God, loved you so much that he died for you." That touched
me, came through to me that night and ever since then. What it all
boils down to is that this is a love feast, a meal of remembering,
receiving, and celebrating the wondrous, amazing love of God in
Christ.

John 13:1-17, 31b-35
This passage is so full of meaning that I could spend the rest of my
life doing exegesis and exposition on it. But, to spare you that, let me share some things about it that stand out to me.

First, Jesus knows that the time, the hour is at hand for his death.
He could have been absorbed totally in his own pain and dread of
what was to come. He could have been thinking only of himself.
Instead, he is thinking of his disciples, even to the last - "he loved them to the end." Can you imagine such love? A love that could
even be for the soldiers who would crucify him, praying for them,
"father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Such
astounding love.

And I think this love was also for Judas. In the other accounts we
see Jesus speaking about his betrayal and all of them asking, "Is it
I?" Jesus seems to point out Judas as the one dipping in a bowl with
him. I do not think that was to condemn Judas as much as to reach
out to him one last time. Jesus loved Judas too. To love even those
with betrayal in their hearts? What love is this?

Second, this account in John is interesting in that it does not even
mention the instituting of the Lord's Supper. It mentions a meal but
nothing at all about it. For John, another act, much like Holy
Communion, takes center stage that night - the washing of the feet
of the disciples (see my sermon "Stooping to Serve" for lots of
background on this as well as the setting for it that night). Feet
washing was something no master of a house would do. Yet, Jesus
does it for them. it was one more attempt to try to show them who
he was, why he came, and who they were to be.

Third, it tells me that I must let Jesus wash me, that I must receive from him if I am to know him and the benefits of his life and death, that I let Jesus love me. It is not enough that I love someone else. They must let themselves be loved if they are to truly receive it. Peter, at first, refuses to let Jesus wash his feet. He apparently thinks it beneath the dignity of Jesus to do this (something perhaps all the disciples felt but only Peter expressed, as he so often did for the whole group). But Jesus plainly tells him that he cannot have any part in him unless he allows himself to be washed. Peter responds with the opposite way now, wishing for his whole body to be washed. "Only the feet need be washed after one has bathed," Jesus replies. Perhaps it was a reference to the custom of bathing before coming to dinner and then needing only your feet washed as they got soiled from the trip. But more is intended here. What's central is not the act of washing feet but of Peter allowing Jesus to give to him, to accept from Jesus this whole new relationship with God, and a whole new understanding of life as a servant. For us, this comes through in baptism, as it is for us a cleansing of sin and acceptance into God's household of faith.

Fourth, Jesus sets forth clearly the model which he expects us to
follow in our lives. In vss 31b-35 he gives the new commandment
to love one another as he loves us. But here in washing the feet of
the disciples, that love is demonstrated in such a practical way -
love means stooping to serve one another, just as Jesus did that
night by washing their feet and then going out to the ultimate act of lowly servanthood - giving his life on a cross. Do we love each
other like this? How are we washing one another's feet? For it is in
such love and service for one another that others truly see we are
his disciples.

Study Questions
A. Exodus 12. What's a memorable meal from when you were
growing up? Why was it so memorable? Do you have special meals
in your family? When? Where? Why?

B. Why do you think Passover is to be observed at the beginning of
their year?

C. What questions do you have about the Passover?

D. It might be good to have a rabbi come in and talk with the class
about the Passover meal, explaining each part and answering any
questions.

E. Do we observe Passover?

F. Is there a connection between Passover and Holy Communion?
How are they alike? How are they different?

G. How do you feel about all this talk about "blood"?

H. What is the purpose of the Passover meal?

I. What is the purpose of Holy Communion?

J. Ps 116. Why is the psalmist so devoted to God (vss 1-2)?

K. What was the trouble he had been facing? (Any clues in vss 8ff?)

L. How devoted are you to God? How what do you base you
devotion - on what God has done for you?

M. What has God done for you lately for which you wish to give
thanks?

N. How did the psalmist wish to express his thanks (vss 12ff)?

O. How do you plan to share your gratitude?

P. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. During your teen years, what was dinner
time like? Who sat where? Who did what? Who ate like a pig? Like
a bird? Like a cat (finicky)? Who cleaned up?

Q. What would you have seen, felt, and heard had you been there
when the Corinthians were observing the Lord's Supper (read vss
176-22)?

R. So why do you think Paul recounts the story of the first Lord's
Supper?

S. Compare Paul's account with the one in Luke 22:19-20). how
are they alike? Different?

T. If someone asked you why we observe the Lord's Supper, what
would you answer?

U. John 13:1-17, 31b-35. read over this story at least a couple of
times. What stands out to you?

V. Why hadn't the feet of the disciples already been washed, say by
one another?

W. Why did Jesus wash them?

X. Why do you think Peter was so upset that Jesus was doing this?

Y. Was Jesus telling them they needed to literally wash one
another's feet? Is that the message?

Z. If we were to do the equivalent of footwashing today, what
would it be?

AA. What is the new commandment?

BB. What does it look like or mean to love one another like Jesus
loves us? What would tat mean for our relationships at home? In
church?

CC. Can others tell by your love that you are a disciples of Jesus?

DD. Conclude with the praise song, "They Will Know We Are
Christians By Our Love."

<><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><
Bass Mitchell, Hot Springs, VA
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