On this Night, these words are spoken in the midst of each Seder. As Jews gather around the table to remember the Passover and Exodus, the rituals are very prescribed. The words of this night are teaching words. Each and every one present knows the words that will be spoken before they are even uttered. The family gathers around the table and the youngest child asks the first question – why is this night different from all other nights? And the story begins with these answers: On all other nights we eat leavened products and matzo, and on this night only matzo. On all other nights we eat all vegetables, and on this night only bitter herbs. On all other nights, we don’t dip our food even once, and on this night we dip twice. On all other nights we eat sitting or reclining, and on this night we only recline.
Thus begins the Passover Seder. That is also where our service begins this evening. You and I have been walking with Jesus during this Holy Week. In walking with Jesus, we find him gathering with his disciples, friends, and their families to share in the Passover Seder. This evening, our service will follow the flow and experience of Jesus on that first day of unleavened bread, Passover, through late into the night. Our service this evening is based on the brainchild of a friend of mine, Rev. Candy LaBar, serving in Stroudsburg, Pa. She began thinking about giving congregations an experience of the last day in the life of Jesus. This service begins in the Upper Room; we will have communion at that point. The service moves from the Upper Room towards the Garden of Gethsemane after Jesus experiences being betrayed by one of his close friends, Judas. Jesus prays in earnest and is truly in pain. Jesus prays to change the very will of God. You and I will then follow Jesus to the cross.
As we share together this sacrament, I want to point out a few things. On this night, we continue a tradition that precedes Jesus. Communal meals were a part of the Jewish practice. They were places for families to gather and teaching to occur. Jesus continued this practice and tweaked it. Jesus gathered family and taught. However, he did not just gather with his biological family, but the full society – the larger human family. He ate with tax collectors and sinners; he ate with betrayers and deniers. He ate with those he liked and those he did not like. He ate with those who had the correct understanding and those who did not understand what was going on.
He ate with people of all ages – it was children who asked the first questions. They have an important role in the story. It is not just the Leonardo DaVinci picture of the last Supper that we should imagine this evening, but we should imagine men and women, children and adults, disciples and friends, milling around, serving and eating, listening to the teaching and worrying about the details. Just the way it looks for you and I as we will gather around our Easter tables on Sunday afternoon – that is what the Passover Seder looks like.
That is what our sacrament of Holy Communion looks like. It looks like eating with tax collectors and sinners, eating with betrayers and deniers. Eating with those we liked and those, we do not like. We eat as those who have the correct understanding and those who do not understand what was going on. We eat together as men and women, children and adults, disciples and friends, milling around, serving and eating, listening to the teaching and worrying about the details. We come to the table, just as the disciples, friends, and families came long ago.
With that wisdom, we echo the question that is still asked around Passover Seder tables to this day – What is different about this night? On all other nights we consider how Jesus walks with us – on this night, we walk with Jesus!
Mark 14:12-25
The Passover with the Disciples
12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 13 So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” 16 So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
17 When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, “Surely, not I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread[a] into the bowl[b] with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”
The Institution of the Lord’s Supper
22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the[c] covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”