Hungry in the Desert - Part Seven (final)

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'" And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" He answered, "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." Judas, who would betray him, answered, "Is it I, Rabbi?" He said to him, "You have said so."

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
[Matthew 26:17-29, ESV]

We conclude this “Hungry in the Desert” series with a feast in a city.

Sharing a meal together was very significant in Jesus’ time. “Being welcomed at a table for the purpose of eating food with another person had become a ceremony richly symbolic of friendship, intimacy and unity.” [S.S. Bartchy] The ceremony revealed where someone fit in the social pecking order of the village, town or city. One’s position around the table was important. Who was invited to the table was very significant. The Pharisees were disgusted that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners.

“One distinctive feature of Jesus’ ministry was his practice of radically inclusive and non-hierarchical table fellowship as a central strategy in his announcement and redefinition of the inbreaking rule of God. In doing so, Jesus challenged the inherent exclusivism and status consciousness of accepted social and religious custom and presented a living parable of a renewed Israel.”

[“Table Fellowship” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, S.S. Bartchy]

The Passover was the most significant meal of the year. It was a meal to remember the great deliverance Yahweh brought to his people when they fled slavery in Egypt and became the people of God.

This was Jesus’ last Passover on earth. He wanted to share it with those closest to him. He used it to institute the remembrance feast. Through this feast, his followers would for generation after generation (unbroken now for 2000 years) remember the work he was about to do on the cross at Calvary. Just as Israel had been delivered from slavery and formed into the people of God thousands of years earlier, Jesus’ life and his death on the cross would now deliver the new people of God from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God.

And yet, amidst this fellowship and significant commissioning, was a traitor. The instructions about where the Passover would be celebrated were cryptic. Many commentators suggest
this was to keep Judas from betraying Jesus too early. The whole middle paragraph of this account is taken up with the question, “Who will betray Jesus?”

“…betrayal or unfaithfulness toward anyone with whom one had shared the table was viewed as particularly reprehensible.”[S.S. Bartchy]

Jesus knew who would betray him, and he still shared this meal with him. He still dipped his and in the dish with him. His table fellowship was so radical it included his betrayer. He is the ultimate model of grace.

I have celebrated the Lord’s Supper hundreds of times. At times I have done it so frequently it was in danger of becoming a routine instead of a remembrance. At other times it seemed so infrequent that its message was stale. But I definitely remember those times when the church I was in was experiencing conflict. Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:23-24 sat at the front of my brain. I wondered how those sitting there could think they were able to take the bread and the wine in good conscience. And then I remembered 1 Corinthians 11:28 and started wondering whether I had something against them!

Unresolved conflict within the body of Christ makes it impossible to worship him properly. Too often we let little things simmer along underneath the surface. They may seem too small to mention, but they are too big to forget. Our relationship with each other is tarnished. It isn’t as innocent as it once was. We are hiding something from each other. There is a barrier. We are protective or ashamed. Let’s reflect on how Paul describes this scenario:

For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you…

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
[1 Corinthians 11:18, 23-30, ESV]

In this passage, Paul is very concerned about the divisions within the church. They are divisions along social lines – between the wealthy and the poor. These are the very divisions that Jesus broke down with his example of table fellowship. Through the provision of his own body and blood, everyone is now equal in the great wedding feast of the kingdom. The remembrance feast is a foretaste of that future reality. And if anyone participates in the remembrance feast without “discerning the body”, that is, without accepting that radical inclusiveness based only on the grace of God, what are they really celebrating? It has just become a ritual or a social club.

If someone sits in church week after week with an unresolved issue between them and someone else, they are not discerning the body. They have rejected someone or refused to love someone that Christ himself has accepted and loved. How can any participation in the communal worship of the church be anything but a sham?

I have seen taking communion become a matter of pride (“I do this, but they don’t”) or routine (“But I have always done this”) or selfishness (“But this is MY church”) or shame (“If I don’t do it, people will KNOW that something is wrong”). In each of these situations, the focus shifted from Jesus to themselves. They were comparing themselves to someone else. They were thinking about what they wanted to do. They were claiming their right. Or they were concerned about their status in the community. They forgot that Jesus took the nature of a servant. They forgot that Jesus said, “Not my will, but yours be done”. They forgot that Jesus emptied himself of all his rights on their behalf. They forgot that Jesus bore all the shame and disgrace while hanging naked, beaten and bloodied on the cross.

Jesus table fellowship was so radical that it included his betrayer. At the end of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul marvels that Jesus would include him, a persecutor of the church, in his kingdom. The truth is that each of us has rebelled against Jesus. Each of us has betrayed him. And yet we are also included at his table. In fact, Jesus concludes his instruction about communion looking forward to the consummation of the kingdom where he will share the great wedding with all those who were redeemed by his broken body and shed blood.

Those of us who began the journey hungering and thirsting in the desert will ultimately rejoice with Jesus in the greatest banquet of all at the end of the age. Whenever we may feel dry or discouraged or distant from God, let us cling to the hope, just as Jesus did. Let us cling to the vision of the feast.