Maundy Thursday sermon - "Covenant"

Today – tonight – is Maundy Thursday.  The name “Maundy” comes from the Latin word “mandatum”, meaning “commandment”.   From this Latin word mandatum, we also have the English word “mandate”.  And what is the “commandment” or “mandate” for which this evening is named?  It is Jesus’ commandment or mandate of love:  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)  Jesus commands us to love.  Love is our mandate.  Love is why we are here as a church, why we exist.  It’s what we do.

Tonight we remember the last night Jesus shared with his disciples, those who had followed him during his earthly ministry.  On their last night together, Jesus ate the Passover meal, celebrating the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, with his closest friends.

Jesus had left nothing to chance.  When Jesus sent Peter and John to make arrangements, they asked, “where do you want us to arrange for it” – after all, they were coming in from out of town, and it wasn’t as if they could look up ratings for Passover dinners on Yelp.com.   But Jesus was already way ahead of them.  “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.”  These instructions sound a little obscure – “Which man carrying a jar of water?” we might ask – until we remember that in that patriarchal culture, in which gender roles were assigned to nearly every task, it was women who carried jars of water, often on their heads, not men.  Those of a certain age may remember the 1940’s and 1950’s era Brazilian entertainer Carmen Miranda with her fruit hat – or those slightly younger may remember the Chiquita banana lady cartoon, which was modeled on Carmen Miranda.  Now, our man carrying a water jar on his head in that culture wouldn’t have stuck out as much as a Carmen Miranda impersonator, but he would have been noticed, likely drawing side-eye from some who noticed him.  And yet it was this not-entirely-gender-conforming man whom Jesus chose to lead Jesus’ disciples to the site of their last meal together.  Jesus’ instructions continued: “Follow him – the man carry the jar of water - to the house he enters, and then ask the owner, ‘The Teacher asks you, where is the guest room where I may eat with my disciples.’  The man will lead you to a large furnished room.”  We’re told the disciples found everything as Jesus had described, including the guy with a water jug on his head, and made the necessary preparations.

As it happens, Jesus hadn’t been the only one making plans.  Luke tells us that “Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.”  So Jesus had made plans, and so had Judas, and both sets of plans would play out on this fateful evening.

Jesus and the disciples found their way to the arranged room at the appointed time.  Jesus began by telling him that he had eagerly wanted to share this Passover meal with them, because he would not eat the Passover with them again until the coming of God’s reign.   He took a loaf of bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and shared it among the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in memory of me.”  He did the same with the cup, saying, “The cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.  But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table.”  Just a few moments later, seemingly out of the blue, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  Remember that Jesus had given Simon the nickname Peter, meaning “Rock” -  but, Jesus said, this evening the Rock is going to crack and crumble.  And Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.”

So Jesus spoke words of covenant – that is to say, promises of mutual commitment and loyalty between Jesus and his disciples.  We know these words of Jesus as the words of institution for communion, for it was at the Last Supper, which we remember on Maundy Thursday, that Jesus instituted what we know as the sacrament of Holy Communion.  But Jesus also spoke of betrayal, saying that one of the disciples, whom he had not yet named, would dime him out, and that Peter would in effect disown him, denying he had ever known Jesus.  So what is breath-taking is that Jesus made a covenant – an agreement of mutual commitment and mutual loyalty marked by solemn promises – with his disciples, knowing that the disciples would break their end of the covenant before the night was through.   I suspect that because we celebrate communion as often as we do, at least once a month, sometimes more, year after year, the words become rote, and it’s easy to go on autopilot.  But we remember the breathtaking reality of betrayal every time we celebrate communion:  “The Lord Jesus, the same night he was betrayed, took bread, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, given for you”…in effect inviting his disciples to take Jesus into themselves, making Jesus a part of them, to incorporate Jesus into their very beings. And later Jesus “took the cup, after he had supped, saying ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood, drink this, as often as you do it, in memory of me” –  in effect Jesus is making what we would call a blood oath of commitment to his disciples – his disciples who would sell him out, dime him out, and disown him at the first hint of danger.

That could have been the end of the story….and yet, remember Jesus’ words to Peter: “I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”   It was Peter, the Rock, who cracked and crumbled, in a moment of weakness disowning Jesus, and yet it was Peter, the cracked and crumbled Rock, whom Jesus tasked with strengthening the rest of the disciples.

It is the same for us.  When we eat the broken bread of communion, we are not only remembering Jesus as some long ago religious teacher, but taking Jesus into ourselves, making Jesus a part of us.  We remember and take part in the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, that is, Jesus’ blood oath of commitment, when we take the wine or grape juice.    Like Peter, like the other disciples, we, you and I, betray and deny Jesus time and again when people cannot experience Jesus in our words and actions.  With every un-Christlike word and action, we betray and deny and disown Jesus. And yet, Jesus has prayed that even at our worst, our faith will not completely fail, and that we can strengthen one another and restore one another to the beloved community of God’s people.  May we, like Peter the crumbled rock, be restored to covenant and restorers of others to the covenant of Christ’s body and blood that holds together the beloved community of God’s people.   May we live out Jesus’ commandment of love.  Amen.