Maundy Thursday: The Last Supper

This supper is the same supper we commemorate every Sunday and every day of the week. Why? Because Our Lord told us so. It is the heart of the Christian religion. The last supper is like the hub of a bicycle wheel. The supper is the revolving centre holding everything together for us. From this centre many spokes go out to the circumference were we find the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, pentecost and the whole marching company of the people of God; other spokes reach out to the transfiguration, to the prediction of the passion, to all that went before, to the teaching and healing ministry, to the finding in the temple, to the epiphany, to the nativity, to the annunciation. The supper draws everything together and holds it all together for us. It is through the supper that we feed on all that God has promised and prepared for us.

Now there was quite a lot more to this supper than appears in the Bible. The supper began with relishes, pickled herrings and wine. That's the way the supper had begun for 1000 years among the Jews, and that's the way it still begins for them. That's the way Jesus began the annual supper every year with his disciples. It was an annual event - a well established feast. Then he took bread and said the traditional Jewish blessing "Blessed be thou Lord God, eternal king who bringest forth bread from the earth" Then bitter herbs to remind them for the hard labour in Egypt and the bitter 40 years in the wilderness. Then the feet washing done by the youngest. Then a lot of talk. It was a supper. And then the cup and the blessing "Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel who bringest forth grape from the vine”.

Now you will quite rightly tell me that there is something missing here. Yes, I have missed out the extra words that Jesus said over the bread and the wine."This is my body, this is my blood". I missed them out to emphasize that these are new words added to an old feast. The point is that Jesus took the old feast and gave it a new meaning.

Now what is common to old and new is that they are both love feasts among friends. Jesus did not abolish the old. He says this again and again. But he gave a different emphasis. He gave a new meaning, and the new meaning was always a deeper meaning. In St John's gospel He washes the disciples feet, much to their annoyance. It should be the youngest doing the washing. But as Jesus points out he is not destroying their customs but fulfilling them. The greatest among them is to be their servant. He is giving them a new meaning.

What the church has done is to follow his command and to take the new and deeper meaning of this ancient Jewish feast and to make the new and deeper meaning the hub of our Christian worship. For Jesus the bitter herbs point to his consecrated will and his passion. The bruised corn points to his consecrated will and passion. Wine as the blood of the grape points to his consecrated will and passion. The new and deeper meaning is "This

is my body and this is my blood". If the last supper is the hub of the Christian religion these words and the consecrated sacrifice they express are its dead centre.

The mass is a love feast. How is it possible asks St Augustine that this bread is his body and that this chalice or what it contains is his blood? These things are called sacraments my brethren because we are to understand something other concerning them than what we see. Hear ye therefore what the apostle says: "Ye are members of the body of Christ". If then ye are Christ's body and members, then it is your own mystery that lies here on the table of the lord and it is your own mystery that you receive. It is to what you yourselves are that you reply Amen. Be therefore truly a member of Christ's body that your Amen may be sincere.