And so it begins. The last supper, the last teachings, the last and most important things, the last night. What Maundy Thursday shows us and teaches us about Jesus is absolutely central to my faith and to your faith. While the cross shows just how far Jesus’ sacrificial love will go and the empty tomb shows just how far God’s love extends, it is the events of Maundy Thursday that, in retrospect, will serve as the keystone of the life of the church. After the cross and after the empty tomb, it is what Jesus said and did on his last night that his followers will take hold of and continue. In a sense, the events of Maundy Thursday form the true “constitution and canons” of the church – the real work that Jesus calls us to continue.

So, let’s reflect on the words and actions of Jesus on that last night. We begin with the footwashing. Quite frankly, it loses something of its appalling nature in the translation from the 1st century to our own. Jesus isn’t just doing a nice thing to illustrate ways we can be kind or helpful to one another; instead he is illustrating that we need to undergo a radical reversal of roles in order to be one of his followers. Jesus takes what was considered the worst of all possible positions, that of a slave, and performs the most degrading of all possible jobs, washing somebody else’s dirty feet, to illustrate a new way of thinking about others and a new way of treating others. And the point of that dramatic action is that our position as Jesus’ followers is not to be determined by any kind of rank order, with preferences given for more important people. In fact, servanthood is to be the true mark and bearing of Christians, towards each other in the church and towards every human being in the world.

The nature of the servanthood Jesus demonstrates is something very new and uncomfortably different. By his own illustration, Jesus levels the playing field so that there are to be no more distinctions between superior and inferior people. Servanthood is to transcend all previous distinctions and become the guiding principle of human interaction.

But let’s face it, this is a guiding principle that as a principle sounds good, but in practice, is not easy. It seems to be our tendency as human beings to categorize, to measure ourselves and others in terms of where we think we fit and others fit in God’s scheme of things. This is the very thing that Jesus has been fighting against since the beginning of his ministry. From his point of view, we will have to work against our own natural inclinations because no longer are the lost, the lonely, and the hurting to be excluded as members of God’s community. No longer are the sinners to be left out in left field. Jesus teaches through his actions that everyone is included in God’s family, and not only included, but to be treated on equal footing.

The master will serve the slave as the slave serves the master. The priest will serve the people as the people serve the priest. The teacher will serve the students as the students serve the teacher. Sinners will serve the righteous as the righteous serve sinners. Fathers and mothers will serve their children as their children serve them. From now on, it’s not to be our vocation or our status or our heritage that merits any kind of preferential treatment; rather, it’s to be that our vocations and status and heritage are to be used in God’s service, for God’s service.

The second thing about Maundy Thursday was the supper. The materials were right at hand; bread and wine, and the instructions couldn’t have been more direct: “Do this in remembrance of me.” There has never been anything as simply constructed that has provided more meaning than the Passover meal which would, on the other side of the Resurrection, become a thanksgiving meal; a eucharist.

I wonder what it was like for the followers of Jesus following the resurrection, when they gathered together and reflected back on the last supper. What was it like when they first did as a group what Jesus had told them to do? My guess is that there were tears of joy and sorrow and an unbelievable sense of community as those gathered offered their prayers, took turns saying the blessings over the bread and wine, and then ate together. Where what Jesus had done initially had seemed confusing and somewhat bizarre to them, now they were filled with the sense of having come full circle in understanding. What’s more, there was a profound feeling of communion with the risen Jesus, the Lord himself. It must have been heart-wrenching in its simplicity, in its emotion, and in its intensity.

And it still is. From the simplicity of the first of the eucharists to the elegance which surrounds ours; from the everyday dishes used by Jesus to the sterling silver patens and chalices we use now; from the small group of first followers to the millions of present followers, this meal remains the single most important thing we do as we worship our God. Whatever we might surround the meal with, in terms of beauty and richness, it remains at heart the truest, clearest, and deepest expression of our souls’ communion with the Risen Lord. It is a simple act filled with passion, intensity, and emotion.

But in the end, there is more to it than even all this. By eating the bread and drinking the wine and doing it as a way to remember Jesus, something bigger happens, which is that Christ becomes present to us and among us. While we never had the chance to actually meet Jesus and to touch him or listen to his voice or walk with him, in the eucharist he comes to us, meeting us, touching us, listening to our voice and we find that we are, joyfully, in his presence. Christ is truly present in the bread and the wine. Christ is truly present to us, for us, in us.

And to complete our Maundy Thursday reflection, there are the parting words of Jesus: “Peace is my last gift to you, my own peace I now leave with you; peace which the world cannot give, I give to you. I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.”

We’re left with so much more than we had before he came. We’re given the gift of his peace, a brand of peace which “passes all understanding”. We’re given the gift of his own being, his physical body broken but his spiritual body present in the everydayness of bread and wine. We’re given the gift of his love which endures no matter what. And in return, being given these good gifts, Jesus tells us to share them with others.

And as it began; the last supper, the last teachings, the last and most important things, the last night; so it continues through our own lives in the Risen Lord.

Amen.