HOLY AND GREAT THURSDAY: BREAD BROKEN, LOVE OPENED

On Holy Thursday, carrying the foreknowledge of his imminent crucifixion, Jesus instructed his disciples to prepare for a meal in an upper room that had been set for them. From the Gospels, we know that this meal fell within the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Western Christianity it is sometimes suggested that on Holy Thursday, Jesus may have been celebrating the Passover Seder. This is based in part, on references from the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). In this chronology, the last supper would have included the telling of the Passover story, when the firstborn sons of God’s chosen people were “passed over” and spared from God’s wrath.

In the story of the Old Testament Passover, as the 10th plague was being inflicted on their Egyptian oppressors, the people of God ate unleavened bread that had not been allowed to rise. In Exodus 12:11 we see that the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Thus you shall eat it, with your belt on your waist, your saddles on your feet and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. This is the Lord’s Pascha.” They ate the pascal lamb fully dressed, with their shoes on, standing at the ready for the word of the Lord to unveil the plan for their escape from slavery.

As an interesting contrast, Orthodox tradition and liturgy does not correlate the Mystical Supper with the Passover Seder meal, but instead follows the timing outlined in the Gospel of John that says Jesus died at the time that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, thus focusing on Christ as the Paschal lamb.

Regardless of the exact timing of how this meal lined up with the events of the Festival, it is useful to consider the prophetic elements of the Passover story, both as the backdrop for Christ’s last meal, and more profoundly as the precursor to his sacrificial death, Resurrection, and redemptive plan, that would play out in the hours and days following. While the Old Testament symbolism enriches our understanding, it is important to pay attention with new eyes as Christ was not just commemorating God’s past faithfulness and the old covenant, but He was in fact, changing the game. Christ layered on elements of new symbolism, illustrating and crystallizing his years of teachings in a way that his disciples would remember once he was gone.

Ever the didactic teacher, Christ begins the evening by taking elemental components of the shared meal and through them revealing his new plan of redemption. Breaking bread and sharing wine, he offers them to his followers saying words that are familiar to us now, but which must have sounded so unusual to those who first heard them: “Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you,” and, “This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many.”

In this profound moment, Christ through his establishment of the Eucharist invites his disciples to partake in his human/divine nature and to drink of his sacrificial redemption. As his blood is “shed for many,” he is also opening the covenant of divine relationship to those who would partake – Jew and Gentile alike, both those present in the upper room that day, and those like us who would join the mystical table at a later time.

In his book, Great Week and Pascha in the Greek Orthodox Church, Fr. Calivas, Prof. Emeritus of Liturgics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, speaks of the Eucharist as follows:  “We have learned to equate food with life because it sustains our earthly existence. In the Eucharist the distinctively unique human food – bread and wind – become gifts of life… In the Eucharistic meal God enters into such a communion of life that He feeds humanity with His own being, while still remaining distinct. In the words of St. Maximos the Confessor, Christ, ‘transmits to us divine life, making Himself eatable.’  The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke recall Christ sharing communion. Interestingly, John does not, but instead describes another story. John relates that after supper, Jesus rose from the table, poured water in a basin and began to wash the feet of each disciple, despite Peter’s initial protest. Said Jesus, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you… A servant is not greater than his master…” (John 13: 15-16)

This act of extreme humility, the washing of feet, affects me when I hear it, and when I see it enacted at the Holy Thursday service. Feet are dirty and smelly. The idea of washing the feet of another, and allowing my feet to be washed, is uncomfortable. Why was it important for Christ to do this act on this night? Why feet? Filling a basin with water and scrubbing something down with soap is not a hard task. But, being vulnerable to others about our own weakness is hard. And meeting our brothers and sisters in their state of need and vulnerability, is, in fact, the very heart of Christ’s Gospel.

Father Alexander Schmemann reflects: “The act of the washing of the feet is closely related to the sacrifice of the Cross. Both reveal Christ’s kenosis [i.e. self-offering]. While the cross constitutes the ultimate manifestation of Christ’s perfect obedience to His Father, the washing of feel signifies His intense love and the giving of Himself to each person according to that person’s ability to receive Him.”  At the conclusion of Last Supper, John recounts Jesus’ words, “Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer… so now I say to you, ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you should love one another; as I have loved you… By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ (Jn. 13:33-34) Here we have the very Author of Life, who penned his own story and participated in a corporal death to make way for a new covenant.

And on the night before his death, He leaves two final lessons… Each central to His teachings: First, the gift of the life-giving Eucharist, through which we commemorate his incarnate life, death, and Resurrection but also actively participate and partake. Second, He leaves us the legacy of humility and service – vulnerability to each other and demonstrated love in action. One lesson is not complete without the other.

Jesus Christ offered a continual encounter with Himself through the gift of His Body and Blood. He gave us a model for how we should act towards others.  Our response is to give God thanksgiving (Eucharisto – the Eucharist) and praise—the “sacrifice of praise” that we sing at every Divine Liturgy.  It is in the Liturgy that we commemorate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and actively encounter the risen Christ.  It is here – in the Liturgy – that we begin to pray and care for our neighbor in love and humility.  Most pointedly, it is in the Liturgy that we manifest and continue to grow into the community that we are called to be, as Fr. Calivas says, “continuously changing from a human community into the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit…”  As we then partake and receive spiritually, let us also act and serve – in humility, in love, and with a sacrifice of praise. Why? Because Jesus Himself directed the Apostles to “Do this in remembrance (anamnesis) of me.:”

Faithfully in the Lord,

Fr. Dimitrios