Thursday - Day of Communion

A woman once took her husband to see the doctor. The man had been feeling very ill and so the doctor gave him a thorough physical examination. After the exam was over, the doctor asked the husband to step outside and he called the man’s wife into his office.

When the door had closed, the doctor said to the woman “Your husband is suffering from a very rare disease, which is made worse by stress. If you do not actively intervene to reduce his stress level and take care of him physically, your husband is going to die.

Here is what you must do: Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Speak to him softly and pleasantly and make sure that he is in a good mood to start the day. Make him a nutritious lunch that he can take to work. And for dinner, prepare his favorite dishes with all the trimmings.

You must never burden your husband with household chores, as this could increase his anxiety level. And above all, please do not discuss your problems or complaints with him. Try to help him relax in the evening by giving him a backrub while he sits in his easy chair reading the newspaper. Encourage him to watch some kind of enjoyable sporting event on television each night and make him a delicious snack before bedtime.

If you will commit to doing these things every day for the next 10 months to a year, I believe that your husband will regain his health.”

On their way home, the man asked his wife “What did the doctor tell you?”

The wife replied “Honey, he told me that you’re going to die.”

I guess we could say that closeness was lacking in that couple’s relationship! And closeness is a subject we want to talk about today. Not the closeness of a husband and wife, but the level of our closeness with God.

Intimacy is a word that we hear alot about today. But what does it really mean? The dictionary defines it this way: A relationship that is intimate is a relationship marked by familiarity and closeness; a relationship that involves kindness, caring, and the sharing of two people on the deepest level.

There are a couple of important things to remember about intimacy.

1. Intimacy depends on interchange: it’s a two-way street. You can’t have true intimacy if one of the parties in the relationship is hiding, or holding back. Both parties have to be committed to intimacy if it is to happen at all.

3. Just like those baskets of ripe strawberries at the grocery store, intimacy is a perishable commodity. It constantly needs renewing and refreshing. Just because you had it last week in a relationship doesn’t mean that you have it now.

Now at this point, you might be asking: “What does all this have to do with the Week that Changed History? I thought we were talking about Easter.”

Well, here’s an extraordinary thing. As the events of Easter week approach their climax—as Jesus moves inexorably toward the cross—his sphere of public activity and public exposure narrows down to just a small group of people. You would think that someone who knew he was going to die in just a few days would be trying to get his message out to as many people as possible in the time he had left. But not Jesus.

As the cross grows larger, Jesus’ ministry focus grows smaller, and he places more and more of a premium on intimacy.

• Palm Sunday was a very public day—the most public day of Jesus’ ministry, as the crowds roared and cheered for him on the road into Jerusalem.

• Monday was also a very public day as he cleansed the temple courts.

• Tuesday was a day of confrontation with the religious leaders—the air crackled with tension and hostility.

• But Wednesday marked a distinct shifting of gears. Jesus didn’t even go into Jerusalem—he stayed in the little village of Bethany where he was invited to a banquet at Simon the Leper’s house. His focus is beginning to narrow. There are just two days to Passover and Jesus wants to be with his friends. But even among his friends, there are enemies.

Now we come to Thursday—one day before his crucifixion. And what does he want to do? How does he want to spend Thursday? He wants to spend it pursuing intimacy with his little band of disciples.

Listen to how he describes his plans for that day. I’m reading from Luke 22:15…

And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

When he says “I have eagerly desired” he was using what is called a “double construct”: literally he said “with desire I have desired”. In other words, I really want to be with you guys. I have no other priorities on this day higher than this—I want to spend time with you. I want to be with you; I want to eat this Passover with you.

John puts it another way in John 13:1…

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Thursday was a day that Jesus devoted entirely to his disciples. And his goal for that day was to show them how much he loved them.

I find that staggering. On the night before the greatest trial of his life; on the eve of the most stupendous event in human history, Jesus’ thoughts were not for himself. No, he wanted to spend quality time with his followers. He wanted to love them and to build his relationship with them.

Do you think that Jesus’ desires have changed in any way? Does he not want to love us? Does he not want to spend time with us? But remember: intimacy is a two-way street. How much do I want to be with Jesus?

When you want to build a relationship with someone; when you want to really get into their life, I figure that there are four very significant things you can do.

1. You can spend time with them. You look at two people who are in love. They just want to find ways to be together. We’ve already seen that this is what Jesus wanted to do with his disciples. That was his plan for Thursday—just to be with them. To spend time with them.

2. You can do something nice for them. When you want to show that you really care about someone, you’ll do nice things for them. In a sense, what you are doing is serving them, and in serving them, you’re letting them know that they are significant to you.

3. You can have a meal with them. There’s something about sitting down to eat around a table that helps us to build relationships. (Maybe one of the reasons that our relationships are so threadbare in this age of hustle bustle and television is that we have lost the “art of the meal”.) Some of the best conversation and interaction can take place around the dinner table.

4. You can pray for them. If you really want to develop a meaningful relationship with someone, start to pray for them. And you will discover how God will put that person on your heart and in your heart.

So you’ve got these four things… spending time, serving, eating, and praying. And guess what? Jesus did exactly these four things with his disciples on the day before he died.

We’ve already seen how he spent time with them. They gathered together in the upper room where, at the instructions of Jesus, Peter and John had made preparations for the Passover Meal. And as they sat down (or more precisely, they reclined) at the low table to eat that meal, Jesus saw that he could do something for his disciples. Let’s see how John describes it in John 13… (v.2ff)

The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

The one who “had all things under his power” (v. 3); the one who “had come from God and was returning to God” got up from the meal, took in those all-powerful hands the tools of servanthood and humbly washed his followers’ feet.

The custom of foot washing was an important act of hospitality in the ancient Middle East. People wore sandals and walked all day on dusty streets and roads. Their feet were dirty. And when you went to a banquet, or a dinner, it was customary for the host to enable you to have your feet washed.

(In Luke 7, Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. Now Simon was no fan of Jesus. He probably invited him over to challenge him in a theological debate. So in a rather insulting way, he didn’t even provide for Jesus to be able to wash his feet.

But a sinful woman—probably a prostitute—heard that Jesus was at Simon’s house, and somehow she managed to get inside. And she washed Jesus feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.)

The task of washing the guests’ feet was usually assigned to a servant, often the lowest servant in the household. This servant wasn’t even important enough to wait on the table. So they gave him the task of washing the guests’ feet.

(Remember what John the Baptist said about Jesus? He said “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” He was referring to the foot-washing ceremony. He said “I am not even worthy to be the servant who washes Jesus’ feet.”)

It was a humbling task, as you can imagine, and one that was done pretty much anonymously, because the guests were reclining at the table, with their feet out behind them. You weren’t face to face with the servant who washed your feet.

So here is Jesus, taking upon himself this responsibility of washing his disciples’ feet. He put himself in the position of the lowest servant. And that was too much for some of them, particularly Peter. Look at verse 6…

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

And I like to think that, at that point, there was a lot of good-natured laughter in the room. There is a great deal of spiritual significance to what Jesus was doing here—lessons that the disciples were not to appreciate until much later and lessons that we don’t have time to go into right now.

For the time being, it was all they could handle that Jesus—their Master, their leader—was serving them, in a humble servant’s way. He was doing something that had occurred to none of them to do. And he was doing something that brought him face to face with them at their worst. They had dirty feet that needed washing. And Jesus washed them.

Some church denominations have continued the custom of foot washing to this day. And I have been told by friends in those churches that you can be sure of one thing: On the day of the foot washing service, nobody has dirty feet. Everyone has showered, everyone has on their best socks (without holes!), everyone’s toenails have been clipped and trimmed and cleaned.

But that’s not how it was with the disciples—they had dirty feet. And Jesus, in his desire for intimacy with us, is ready to take us as we are too. We often feel that, in order to come to Jesus, in order to have a relationship with Jesus, in order to get close to Jesus, we need to clean up our act. We need to get our lives straightened out first, or we will somehow “offend” him with our sinfulness.

We are wrong to think that. Jesus takes us as we are. He is the one with the basin and the towel, and he will clean us up. Jesus served them.

Jesus fed them. They were eating the Passover Meal. The Feast of the Passover is full of spiritual significance. Each element, each ingredient, stands for some component of God’s program of redemption as revealed to the nation Israel in the OT and then brought to fulfilment in the person of Jesus Christ.

• The roast lamb, which is the main dish and served to remind the Israelites of the lamb whose blood was sprinkled on the doorposts; the lamb who died as a substitute for the people, so that God would pass over that house and spare them as they sheltered under the blood.

• The wine, which symbolized the shed blood of that lamb.

• The unleavened bread, which reminded the Israelites of the haste with which they left Egypt—they were in such a hurry that they didn’t even have time to put yeast in the dough and let it rise.

  To this day, Jewish families observe a tradition which, unknown to them, is rich in Christological significance. They prepare and put on the table three portions, or slabs, of unleavened bread. (A Christian would think of the three members of the trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.)

  Then, they take the second one of the three and break it. Half of it they eat. The other half, they wrap in a linen napkin and hide somewhere out of sight. Then, at the end of the meal, they bring it out again with great celebration.

  Think of what this symbolizes. Think of how Jesus, the second member of the Trinity came to earth describing himself as the living bread which had come down from heaven, how he invited us to partake of him, to eat of him. How he was broken for our sakes, how after his crucifixion he was wrapped in linen and buried in a tomb. Think of how he rose again in triumph. All this is symbolized in the eating of the bread at the Passover meal.

• The bitter herbs, which reminded the Israelites of the bitterness of their suffering and slavery.

• A cup of salt water, which reminded them of the tears that they shed during their enslavement, and then of the salt water of the Red Sea which God parted and led them through to freedom.

• The charoseth, a pastey sauce made of apples and nuts—what we would call a chutney—which symbolized the clay they used to make bricks for Pharoah.

All of these things are rich in symbolism and significance as reminders of God’s deliverance. But on the night before he died, Jesus took the bread and the wine and gave them a new significance. I’m reading now from Luke 22:19…

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Question: Which piece of unleavened bread do you suppose he took? He took the second piece, didn’t he? And he broke it. And he told them exactly what it stood for. This is MY body which is given for you. Take and eat it in remembrance of me.

(v. 20) In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. (Matthew adds that it was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins)

The Passover Feast of the Jews hearkened back to the old covenant, but it anticipated the new covenant. Now, Jesus tells his disciples, the new covenant is here. The new covenant is written in His blood shed for us on the cross. And it enables us, as individuals, to come into intimate relationship with God.

Jeremiah, the OT prophet, spoke of the nature of that new covenant.

“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

The blood of Jesus takes away our sin and removes the great and terrible obstacle that separates us from God. The new covenant written in his blood brings us into the family of God, where we enjoy intimate fellowship and closeness with him.

And this is what Jesus sought to communicate to his disciples at the Last Supper. It was a message of intimacy and closeness and family. Jesus said “I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Those words “with you” sum it all up. This is where Jesus’ heart was—he wanted to be with his disciples. And he wants to be with you. He wants us to be there with him in his Father’s kingdom.

Jesus served them… He fed them… and he prayed for them.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke each devote just a part of one chapter of their Gospels to the events of Thursday evening. But John covers Thursday in much greater detail in chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and part of 18. Jesus taught his disciples many things in that Upper Room at the Last Supper. He taught them…

• how they must love one another. The old covenant came with 10 commandments; the new covenant came with only one—to love one another. And the Latin word for commandment—mandatum—is how we get the term “Maundy Thursday”. Thursday was the day Jesus gave his disciples this new commandment.

• how he would soon return to his home in heaven

• how he would send the Holy Spirit to be their counselor and guide

• how they must abide in him in order to be fruitful for him

• how the world would hate them and persecute them on account of his name

• how they could ask for anything in his name and they would receive it

And then he prayed for them. Jesus’ high priestly prayer for his disciples is found in John 17. There is so much that we could say about the content of this prayer, it would take a year of sermons to say it. We are almost out of time today, but let me draw your attention to these things…

In verse 9, Jesus says: I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

And then, in verse 11, he prays: Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.

In verse 17, he says: Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

And then in verse 20, he says: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message

In other words, Jesus prayed for you and me! On the last day before he died, Jesus was thinking of you and me. And what did he want for you and me? It’s found in v. 24…

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Jesus wants us to be with him. He is interested in a relationship with him that will last for all eternity. He wants us to be with him in glory, in heaven forever. And he wants to begin working on that relationship with us now.

But intimacy can only happen if we are willing to let it happen. Are you willing? Do you have time for Jesus, today?