Eucharist of the Last Supper

Canon Tim Schofield, Canon Emeritus of Chichester Cathedral

One of the difficulties of being a Christian is that so often the Lordship of Jesus surprises us and makes us strangers to what we think we know. In the gospel reading we just heard, Peter thought he knew who Jesus was – his Lord and master, the generous host at the Last Supper. So, he is thrown into confusion when Jesus acts out of role, as Peter saw it, and reveals himself as the one who serves and washes fetid feet. It’s a confusion similar to that which occurs at a rather different, fictional meal portrayed in the film “Babette’s Feast”.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Babette is a French refugee who lives with, and acts as a servant, to two sisters. The sisters are part of a puritan sect in Lutheran Denmark and for years they have faithfully maintained the worship of the sect. But as time has gone on the group has become fractious and joyless, imprisoned by past slights and hurts; unable to forgive each other. And then the servant Babette comes into a huge sum of money. The sisters are unaware that Babette used to be a famous, master chef in Paris so they are surprised and confused when Babette, the servant, asks them if she can host and cook a real French dinner. Reluctantly they agree and Babette spends all her money and all her energy to produce the most amazing feast, worthy of the best Parisian restaurant. The sisters and their fellowship group assemble for the dinner and as they begin to taste the exquisite food and drink something happens. They start to become more gracious with each other – past hurts are set aside; deceptions are forgiven, and they are set free. Tasting a superb meal has become a means of grace. What’s more, although as puritans they were very suspicious of such a meal, as they feast together, they become human beings alive again to God and to each other. And a famous father of the church once said that “the glory of God is a human being fully alive”.

Although that taste of freedom occurred in a fictional meal, it is full of spiritual insight. And tonight, we recall how tasting freedom was also a key part of the Last Supper. The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that the Last Supper was a Passover meal. Every year God’s people were commanded to gather together to remember the first Passover – to tell what it was like to be enslaved and what it felt like to be free. This remembering of the Passover event was acted out in a family meal which begins with a child asking their father… “why is this night different from other nights?  And the father then tells the Passover story by passing food around the table. He explains how the unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, and a dish of bitter herbs reminded them of the suffering and bitterness of being slaves in Egypt. Next would come green vegetables or parsley dipped in salt water which reminded them of the tears shed in exile. They would taste Haroset, a dish of fruit, nuts and wine that represented the mortar with which they had to make bricks while slaves. They would eat roasted lamb, as we heard about in tonight’s Old Testament reading. Besides the symbolic foods there would be four cups of wine to drink, each one tasted on a stage of the journey to liberation. And as they tasted the food and drink, so they lived again the persecution in Egypt; and experienced again the saving help of God, who set them free at the exodus. But this was not just some sepia-coloured memory. The word “remember” in this context has as its opposite, not forget, but dismember. Their “re-membering” made alive the very presence of God – made real that divine power and presence which saved them from death and set them free to journey to the promised land.

But as our Lord presided over the Last Supper, the disciples discovered that, at this Passover feast, there were elements that were new. The Passover was normally celebrated within families yet on this occasion Jesus acted as host to a new family – to his disciples, what we might call the family of the church. And at this Passover Jesus spoke of a new Covenant – a new sacred bond between God and his people which was no longer ratified by shedding the blood of a lamb and the eating of its body. As Jesus inaugurated this new covenant he spoke of his own body as he broke the bread, and of his own blood as he shared the cup. He then commanded his disciples to do this “in remembrance of me” and the word used is that same word used of the Passover. In future as the disciples give thanks over bread and wine; break the bread and share this food and drink, Jesus will be re – membered, made alive and present to them in all his saving love and power. Jesus has created a new Passover – a new way of tasting spiritual freedom.

I mentioned earlier how at every Passover four cups of wine were drunk. In Luke’s account of the Last Supper scholars have identified the drinking of the third cup, called the cup of blessing, but after that Jesus and his disciples finished the meal, sang the traditional psalms and went out to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. On this occasion there was no fourth cup, another element that was new. Tonight’s liturgy concludes with a vigil or watch when we remember Jesus praying through the night in the Garden of Gethsemane. We recall that as he prayed in anguish, he said: “Father if you are willing, move this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Here is that fourth Passover cup. The passion and death of Jesus are the cup of suffering which he drains to the dregs in order that we might taste freedom from sin and death. Jesus is the new Passover lamb who will be sacrificed, not just for the chosen people, but for the whole world.

And tonight, we taste this goodness of the Lord that can gradually liberate us from those things that diminish our humanity and instead make us human beings who are alive. It is a feast that “mends in length”, in the long term, in George Herbert’s memorable phrase. How this wonderful gift is made possible is beyond our grasp. But as C.S. Lewis pointed out, “Jesus said, “Take eat, not take and understand”.

I began with the way Jesus upset the preconceptions of the disciples when he washed their feet. It was an act not only of humility, of the Lord kneeling in service. It was also, says Julian of Norwich, a sign of the courtesy of Jesus in which he always puts our needs before his own. His courtesy, though, does not end there. In Luke’s gospel Jesus warns his disciples to be alert for his return in these words: “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12 v.37). The humility and courtesy shown at the Last Supper are but a foretaste of what will happen at the heavenly banquet.

So on this Maundy Thursday we not only look back to the glory of God in the Passover meal; we not only rejoice in the presence of our Lord giving us a taste of freedom in this holy Eucharist; we also look forward to the heavenly banquet when our Lord, with extravagant courtesy, will serve us and bid us taste the freedom of being fully alive to God and to each other – for “the glory of God is a human being fully alive”.