"Everybody Drink" (Matthew 26:26-39)

 

October 4, 2020

 Watch here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0DPHMCqOq8

            I hate the sound of silence at the dinner table.  Several people sit together, but the only sounds are the clinking of silverware and the crunching of croutons and lettuce.  No one talks.  In this tension-filled quiet, you can hear someone’ gulping throat as they swallow their drink.  Much more pleasant is the loud intimacy of us chatting as we eat.  We talk, maybe about important things, maybe about nothing.  Either way, the meal is sacred time we share with one another. 

            “Drink with me.”  It could be a coke, a coffee, a beer; “with me” is the important part.  “I want you with me.”

            “While they were eating,” we read in Matthew 26.  The “we” is Jesus and the 12 disciples.  Having stayed with Matthew for 26 chapters, we know something important is coming.  Jesus has spent three years showing that the Kingdom of God is breaking into this present reality. 

            At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, in chapter 28, the resurrected Jesus instructs the disciples he has trained to go to all nations.  Last week, we stressed, from John 3:16, that God loves the world; that’s all people.  Now, we see, as Matthew closes, Jesus send his hand-picked disciples to all nations. 

            In this supper, where he breaks bread, “while they were eating,” he indicates what the disciples will do when they go to the nations.  They will grow communities of disciples.  Across the globe, they will multiply what Jesus has built because God so loves the world.

            He broke the bread and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  They could see him, the bread in his hands.  They weren’t eating his actual body.  He did not say he would turn himself into bread which they would eat.  Yet, somehow in future meals, when they ate bread, they would remember that he lived in them and they in Him. 

            A mystery, to be sure; these disciples would always be individuals made in the image of God.  Yet in Christ, they and we become one.  We talk about dying to self, dying in sin, being born again, becoming new creations; we pray that others would see Christ in us.  Eating that bread, we remember.  We are a part of Christ.  We affirm that He is in us and we are in him. 

            Next, he pours that dark red wine.  He calls it his blood, and he mentions covenant and forgiveness.  God made covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and David.  Each covenant affirms that God is the Lord and that humans are invited into relationship with God; God is master, Lord, Father, Savior; we are sons and daughters, forgiven and redeemed, new creations. 

            Jesus’ blood, the “blood of the covenant” as he calls it, is “poured out for the forgiveness of sins.”  To sin means to miss the mark.  When we sin, we reject God as Lord of our lives.  We put ourselves in God’s place.  We declare ourselves to be masters of our own destiny.  We hurt others because we see our own desires as more important than another’s wellbeing.  Sin takes countless forms, but generally speaking our sins can be categorized.  In some way, we violate one of the 10 commandments.  When we sin, we fail to love God and love neighbor.  It is a disruption in relationship. 

Forgiveness acknowledges that the relationship has been disrupted, but the acts of disruption, the sins, will no longer be held against us.  Forgiveness means relationship has been restored.  Our sins no longer count against us and community is possible once again.

Jesus then makes the point that the promised harmony is eternal.  “I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom” (26:29).  They watch him die on the cross, remember his words, and all seems lost.  But then, he comes to them, resurrected, and breaks bread with them, and drinks wine with them.  The risen Lord is with them in a tangible body, takes in food, and touches them.  His resurrection is the sign!  The eternal kingdom is inevitable and imminent. 

The promised unity of “while they were eating;” the removal of sin and restoration of relationship; the new era where death is defeated; it all comes to this.   Jesus dies out of faithfulness to God and our of love for us.  He is raised in the power of God.  And we know we can count on him.  What he promised will come to pass.  We will eat and drink with Him in the Kingdom.  He says to us, “I want you with me.”

Take another look at verse 27.  Jesus says, “Drink from it all of you.”  We hold these words from the Bible in our hands and in our hearts.  “All of you” meant the disciples.  “All of you” includes the people the disciples would meet when they went out into the world.  They made disciples who in turn passed the faith on to the next generation and then the next, continuing on down to us.  “All of you” includes all of us and all the people who will come to faith in Jesus through our witness.

The Lord’s table summarizes the entirety of the Gospel and encapsulates the narrative of salvation, yours and mine.  The Lord’s table is an instrument of unity.  Every person sins, causing a rip in the relationship with God and with neighbor.  The Lord’s table holds the promise of forgiveness and new life.  The Lord’s table is open to everyone.  “Drink from it all of you.”  Humanity comes together in Jesus. 

I don’t know if you watched the presidential debate this past Tuesday.  I don’t know if you read the reporting or commentary following the debate.  One conclusion I take from it is an image of a hard, unmovable line drawn right down the middle of America, and you have to fall on one side or the other.  You have to be red or blue.  Moreover, you have to demonize those opposite you.  This hard line dictates that we hate all those not on our side.

The air we Americans breathe fills us with tension and anxiety.  We’re set on edge, pushed into conflict.  Nothing could be further from Jesus’ command to love our neighbor than the current political climate in America.  We’re defined by what we’re against.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers another way of seeing and another way of living.  We are invited to take our seat at the Lord’s table and to love whomever sits down next to us.  Whoever it is, we have the freedom to say to that person, “I want you here with me.  Drink with me.”  There’s no enmity at this table; that which disrupts relationship – sin – has been forgiven.  Jesus said so.  There’s no exclusion at this table.  God so loved the world.  Drink from it all of you.  All are made in God’s image, all are welcomed, and all are loved. 

At this table, it’s not my job to judge anyone else.  It’s not for me to even judge myself.   We come to the table receiving from God.  We sit as forgiven sinners among forgiven sinners, and we are invited to love those on our left and right.  I believe Jesus offers the solution to every human problem, relief for every struggle.  More specifically, I believe a dangerous threat faces America right now: political polarization.  It is tearing us apart.  Jesus brings us back together.  Jesus unites us.  The only thing Jesus destroys is death.

“While they were eating;” you are invited to the Lord’s table.  “Drink from it, all of you.”  You are invited into the covenant, to be the people of God, sons and daughters of God living in relationships of peace and good will with God and with your neighbor; your Asian neighbor and Arabic neighbor, black and white; Latinx and Native American; red and blue. 

When the anxiety and tension of our times start to engulf you like choking smoke, and you feel your heart tremble and your courage fail, remember.  You are God’s child.  God’s got you.  God’s makes you new.  Our Lord Jesus tells us who we are.  He wants us at his table.  He says to us, “Drink with me, sit, laugh, talk.  I want you.”

We know God wins.  So, have hope and good cheer.  At this table, you have a place and nothing gets in the way of peace.

AMEN

 

 

The Last Supper Commandment - Matthew 26:26-29

            ‘Mandatum’ is a Latin word that means ‘commandment.’  The Anglo-French rendering is ‘Maundy.’  We call this day, the Thursday before Easter, the day we commemorate the Passover meal Jesus had with his disciples before he was arrested a crucified, Maundy Thursday.  English words ‘mandatory,’ and ‘mandate’ come from this Latin word.  Jesus sits at the table with his closest followers, gives them bread, and says, “Take this,” and “Do this in remembrance of me.  It’s not a suggestion.  It’s a commandment.  Gathering for the Lord’s Supper is mandatory for his followers. 

            What exactly is the commandment?  What does it mean?  And when does it take effect?

            What exactly does Jesus command his disciples and us to do when he tells us to take the bread and drink the wine?  From the writings of Paul and the practice of the very first Christians, we know all in the church were invited to the table for the bread and wine.  The Lord’s Supper was not reserved for elites within the Christian community.  There were not to be elites.  Regardless of one’s social status, rich or poor, powerful or unimportant, all were welcomed as one family at Jesus’ table.

            The assumption is that anyone who desired to follow Christ or claimed to be a follower of Christ would join with the church for communal worship. There was no such thing as a solitary, individual Christian.  In the earliest Christian Communities, the Lord’s Supper happened within worship.  When Jesus commands, “Take this bread, drink this cup, do this to remember me,” he’s commanding us to worship with one another in the gathering of the church.

In the tradition of the practice of the first century Church, when we gather for worship and come around Jesus’ table, we are to welcome all as equals.  Here, there are no rich or poor.  People of all racial and ethnic backgrounds are welcomed in love.  Jesus commands it to be so.  Come to worship.  Remember him by eating the bread and drinking from the cup.  And tell of the salvation he gives by inviting people you know outside the church to come with you.  This was recorded in the gospels.  All four gospels were written with the intention that they be read publicly and repeatedly for the purpose of telling Jesus’ story and drawing lost people to him.  

It’s Maundy, mandatory: gather with the church family; worship; eat and drink; remember; and, bring others with you.

What does it all mean?

Jesus says, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  It sounds bizarrely cannibalistic.  In some worship traditions, believers are certain the bread literally becomes his body as we eat it, and the wine literally becomes his blood as we drink it.  Such thoughts would not have occurred to the disciples at Jesus’ table or to the earliest Christians.  They were eating the Passover and as they did, Jesus transformed it.

The unleavened bread hearkened back to the meal the Jews ate when they were slaves in Egypt and the angel of death killed the firstborn in each Egyptian family.  Moses instructed the people to kill the lamb and spread the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses.  The angel saw the blood and passed over the homes of God’s chosen.  The lamb each family sacrifice died in their place.

Jesus is the final sacrifice covering not only Israel’s sins, but the sins of the world.  Remember, we’re commanded to take this supper.  It means we are all sinners, every last one of us. We are cut off from God because of the sins we have committed and there is nothing we can do to atone for our mistakes.  Sin has stained our souls.   Without Jesus, we’re eternally lost.

But, we’re not “without Jesus.”  He has come, died on the cross, and rose.  When he says, “Take, eat, this is my body,” he means he is going to suffer violence on our behalf.  In Paul’s rendering of this passage, 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus says, “This is my body that is for you.”  Jesus is for us.  He - God in the flesh - came for our good, our benefit.  However hard life might be, and life can be pretty trying, God loves us.  Jesus gives himself for us.  We’re not alone.

Nor are we trapped in our sins.  “He took a cup ... saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant which poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).  In Jesus blood shed on the cross, sin loses its hold on us.  All are invited to drink, but Jesus knew not all would.  Even though this is a command, Jesus knew not all who heard it would obey it.  Many people meet God, receive his invitation to relationship through the forgiveness of sins, and reject that invitation.  God honors that response and those who meet Him and choose to turn away from Him, are cut off, separated from God by their own choosing.  Those who obey and turn to Jesus and take the bread and drink the cup are forgiven.  Our sins are washed away and we become new creations. 

We’ve said what Jesus commands.  We are commanded to worship with God’s church treating all people as equals, as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to come and worship, take the bread and cup and receive forgiveness, and to tell the story of salvation to others who have not heard.

We have said what Maundy Thursday means.  God is for us because God loves us.  Thus our sins are forgiven.  That which would cut us off from God has been removed.  In Christ, we have access to God.  Nothing stops us from living in relationship with God as His sons and daughters.

When does this story take effect?  That happens when we respond to the grace of God, the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts, and step to God in faith.  The original disciples took this step after they met Jesus in resurrection.  Shortly after this Passover meal, the last supper, Jesus would be arrested, and his disciples fled in terror.  They abandoned him and went into hiding. 

However, when he rose from death and they met him and touched his resurrected body, they were changed.  From fear to courage, they went through dramatic transformations.  Tradition tells us that the disciples became so determined to tell the world about Jesus that most of them ran afoul of the Roman Empire.  Under the governance of Rome, the law dictated that all subjects acknowledge the emperor as divine.  “Caesar is Lord,” was the decree.  The disciples could not abide by such a sentiment because they knew that Jesus is Lord.  Most of them died deaths as gruesome as Jesus because they would not recant and acknowledge the divinity of Caesar.  They didn’t care what Rome did.  They believed and insisted that Jesus and only Jesus is Lord.

We mostly likely won’t be threatened with death as our forebearers were.  It doesn’t happen that way in our culture.  So how will we know we have obeyed the command of Jesus?  Obviously we are all here in this worship service, singing songs of faith, confessing our sins and turning to Jesus as we prepare to take the bread and cup.  In that sense we are actively obeying his command.

How we will know this obedience has taken hold in our lives once Holy Week has passed and we are away from the church family?  We become self-giving, following the example Jesus set.  We look out for others and give of ourselves for their benefit.  This happens 100’s of ways, from donating blood to investing in someone else’ life to giving generous monetary donations to works that help people who need it.  The giving of ourselves happens in relationships with people we’ve know all our lives and in interactions with strangers.  We become love-banks extravagantly doling out the love of God to everyone we meet.

In addition to becoming self-giving, we also become storytellers and the story we share is the Good news of forgiveness of sins people can have in Jesus.  God is building the kingdom of God through His church.  Every time we share the story of Jesus, a brick is put in place.  Every time we invite someone to church, a brick is put in place.  Every time we help someone see what the life of a disciple of Jesus looks like, a brick is put in place.  God is building the Kingdom.  He works through the work of the church and the witness of individuals in the church; people like you and me.

Are we saying all that stems from the dinner we call the “Last Supper,” a simple remembrance in bread and wine?  Yes, that’s exactly what has been said. 

Tonight, perhaps you needed to put it all together, the connection from what the 12 went through that night to the life of faith you are currently living.  

Or, perhaps, you’re in a different place. You needed to be reminded that yes, you are a sinner, and yes, your sins cut you off from God.  However, Jesus has covered your sins and opened the way.  The pathway is clear for you to walk into God’s loving embrace.  Tonight, maybe communion is time for you receive forgiveness and begin truly living as God’s daughter or son.

Or, maybe you’re getting a sense of this entire story for the very first time.  You never knew what it all meant, but now you do, at least a bit.  Now that you know, you realize how much you need Jesus.  Tonight, for the very first time, you want to ask Jesus into your heart to be your Lord and Savior.  You can do that as you come to eat and drink.

Everyone is invited to come and meet Jesus in this bread and cup.  Take a few moments in silent preparation.  Pour out your heart to God and ask Him to reveal his love to you.

After we’ve had silent contemplation, join in as we gather at the tables to receive what Jesus has for us.

AMEN