Maundy Thursday…the first Communion, the Last Supper of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This evening millions of Christians will gather around the world to take part in this Christian tradition of Communion that originated from the Jewish custom of Passover. The Christian tradition began on the night that Christ was arrested nearly two thousand years ago, while the Jewish custom began the night before Moses led his people out of exile in Egypt some 3500 years ago. In my tradition we believe that it was on this night nearly 2000 years ago that Christ gathered with his disciples to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover, after all Jesus was a devout Jew. This night he broke bread with his disciples and said, “This is my body broken for you, eat in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took a cup and filled it with wine saying, “This is my blood shed for you, drink in remembrance of me.” Finally he took the bread and the cup and said, “As long as you eat the bread, and drink the cup you will have life everlasting.” These are not only Christ’s words from Scripture, but they are the words that will be spoken in many different languages and in many different ways throughout the world this evening. When we share table with one another we often only think of those who are sitting at the table with us, or sitting in the pews next us, however the table is a place that unites us all with one another and the body of Christ. While we may celebrate communion on different days than our fellow Christians, this night is one of the few that millions of Christians will participate in it on the same day. This night represents where the tradition of Communion comes from, and when we come to the table it is important to remember that we are not sharing this meal with only those members of our local church, but we are participating and celebrating with the church universal, the “holy catholic church”, as it says in the Apostles’ Creed.
Thirteen years ago I was baptized and confirmed into the church. I was baptized on Christmas Eve 1996, and it was the first time that I was able to share communion. At that time, I only knew that now I was able to eat a piece of bread or wafer and throwback a shot of grape juice. However, as I reflect on that moment thirteen years later I recognize the importance of that night, and communion. It was the night that I was baptized into the community of believers, confirmed in the church, and shared in Communion, which unites all of us in the Body of Christ with everyone who has shared that meal before us, with us today, and will do so in the future.
Let us also not forget how this night ended 2000 years ago. Christ was arrested after praying to the Father, and even in the midst of being betrayed and turned over to the Roman authorities he remained the same. Instead of instructing his Apostles to fight the soldiers, he instructed Peter to put his sword away, and when Peter did not and struck one of the soldier’s Christ picked the soldier’s ear off the ground and placed it back on his head and healed him. Thanks be to God for sending us his son to die on the cross for all of our sins. Thanks be to God for also giving the church such a tradition that unites the church as one body of Christ.
