04/14/2022
Lots of Christian traditions practice this rhythm of Holy Week we are in the middle of. Some folks follow them tightly, recognizing Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Resurrection Day/Easter. This week is not a mandate to faith. It's just a rhythm to participate in and the life of Christ to be reminded of. Maundy Thursday, aka Holy Thursday, is an observance of that last supper Jesus shared with his disciples just before his arrest. "Maundy" essentially means "mandate". The "mandate" in Maundy Thursday is that after washing his disciple’s feet at the last supper, Jesus left a "new command". In John 13:34, Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.".
When I see paintings and pictures of the last supper it's hard to not recognize how significant the shared table is. I can hear the bustling in the room of this image. The utensils and cups rattle as the volume rises in the conversations, the wine jug passes hands, and the food preparers mingle about ensuring things are going ok. Jesus knows he's giving a new command, love each other. Then Jesus gives them and us something else, the first Holy Communion/Eucharist/Lord's Supper. These extremely significant moments and Jesus picked the shared table to be their launching point. Of all of the places, it happens in a house that's long been forgotten and built on top of many times.
Did that table they gathered around ever sit the same?
Surely news of Jesus's capture, death, and resurrection made it back to the homeowner and he went back upstairs to just stare at that table and wonder what had happened there?
Did the early believers walk by the house and ask to see the room, to see the table?
I'd want to see the room and the table. If anything, to get an idea of how Jesus and his crew gathered when it really mattered. The shared table seems to have been a big deal to those early believers (Acts 2:42,46).
That Last Supper moment and Jesus took those last moments to exemplify full, perfect humanity through perfect hospitality, patience, and humility at very slow table. This left us a great example of a perfectly slow church with a great new mandate; "love one another as I have loved you". This love led to inconceivable grace by way of the cross, which makes Good Friday, good.
The great part of participating in the rhythm of Holy Week is knowing that the moments we're recognizing have already been completed. There's nothing we have to do, it's already done. Create a shared table and see how it sits.
