CHURCH OF SCOTLAND ST ORAN’S CONNEL
MAUNDY THURSDAY 2007
a sermon by murdoch mackenzie
From Passover to Communion
Luke 22:14-15 And when the hour came he sat at table and the apostles with him. And he said to them: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall never eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
The Last Supper. What was it? A communion service? Not really. It was the Passover and might better be described as the Last Passover. Almost the last moment of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, the Old Dispensation – and the beginning of the New Testament – ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.’ (I Corinthians 11:25)
The fruit of the vine which had sustained Israel for more than a thousand years was to take on a new meaning. It was to symbolise the life-blood of the Son of God, a new, a living way into the holiest of all – what we now call Communion. And it is there in the Upper Room that we see this symbolically portrayed. This movement from Passover to Communion from the Old Covenant to the New.
The Passover commemorated the deliverance of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. The angel of death passed over the homes of the Israelites because the lintels of their doors were smeared with the blood of the lamb. (Exodus 12:22) As Jesus approached Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he could see the elaborate preparations being made for the Passover. Roads were repaired. Bridges were made safe. Wayside tombs were whitewashed, lest the pilgrim should fail to see them and so touch them and become unclean.
For a whole month the story of the Passover was the subject of the teaching in every synagogue. Every male Jew, who was of age, and who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem was bound by law to attend the Passover. But it was the ambition of every Jew in every part of the world, as it still is today, at least once in his lifetime, to come to the Passover in Jerusalem. Even today when Jews keep the Passover in every land under heaven they pray that they may keep it next year in Jerusalem and if you have ever been to a Passover meal you will know that it ends with the great shout: ‘Next year in Jerusalem!’
Thus it was that every year a great crowd of people came to Jerusalem for the Passover and Jesus and his disciples were part of that great crowd. But what did they come for. What was at the centre of the Passover? The Emperor Nero always tried to belittle the Jewish faith. He thought it was rather unimportant. Cestius, who was the governor of Palestine in the time of Nero, tried to prove to the Emperor that he was wrong. In order to do this he took a census of the lambs slain at one particular Passover. It came to 256,500! The law laid it down that the minimum number for a Passover celebration was 10. Thus it was that perhaps two and a half million pilgrims came for the Passover and it was in a really crowded city that the drama of the last days of Jesus were played out.
These people had come for the Passover – the Passover of the Jews. They did not know, they could not tell, that a new age was about to begin – that there would be communion – not just for the Jews but for all humanity. Outside the great crowds were surging through the streets. Inside were Jesus and his twelve disciples in the Upper Room. The Upper Room! It has been called the first cathedral of the Christian church. There was no altar, no choir, no nave, no crucifix, no stained glass windows, no bells and no tablets on the wall. It was without Gothic arches and steepled splendour. There were just the four bare walls of a common room, but there never was built a house that held more of God than that plain room.
To that Upper Room of many memories our thoughts return now. We see the Master and his friends reclining at the holy table. We sense the quiet intimacy of that mystic fellowship. We hear the rise and fall of the dear voice as it speaks its never-to-be-forgotten words of parting and solace. We finger lovingly the precious pages of St John, burdened with the prayers and promises of that immortal hour. We think of the generations of men and women who have nourished their devotional life and revived their thirsty souls at those unfailing springs. The words Jesus spoke in the Upper Room. He speaks them to us now. ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. In my father’s house are many mansions. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Abide in me and I in you. These things I have spoken to you that your joy might be full.’ (John 14 and 15) The words of Jesus in the Upper Room. And to that Upper Room of long ago and far away, that quiet sanctuary amidst the clash and clamour of the world, the hearts of Christians everywhere continually return. Here, if anywhere, is holy ground.
And it is on that ground that we stand tonight – you and I – as we gather round this table. This table is at the centre of our church. It is at the centre of our lives – our busy lives – here at the centre is an oasis of peace and communion. It is also at the centre of the universe because it represents that table in the Upper Room at which the Lamb of God broke bread and poured wine. It represents not simply deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, which is what the Passover was all about. It represents deliverance from the bondage of sin and death which is what Communion is all about – a new, a living way into the holiest of all.
Are you afraid of death? Have you ever really thought about it? Tomorrow is Good Friday. You can think about it then.
Luke 22:14-15 And when the hour came he sat at table and the apostles with him. And he said to them: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall never eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
The Last Supper. What was it? A communion service? Not really. It was the Passover and might better be described as the Last Passover. Almost the last moment of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, the Old Dispensation – and the beginning of the New Testament – ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.’ (I Corinthians 11:25)
The fruit of the vine which had sustained Israel for more than a thousand years was to take on a new meaning. It was to symbolise the life-blood of the Son of God, a new, a living way into the holiest of all – what we now call Communion. And it is there in the Upper Room that we see this symbolically portrayed. This movement from Passover to Communion from the Old Covenant to the New.
The Passover commemorated the deliverance of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. The angel of death passed over the homes of the Israelites because the lintels of their doors were smeared with the blood of the lamb. (Exodus 12:22) As Jesus approached Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he could see the elaborate preparations being made for the Passover. Roads were repaired. Bridges were made safe. Wayside tombs were whitewashed, lest the pilgrim should fail to see them and so touch them and become unclean.
For a whole month the story of the Passover was the subject of the teaching in every synagogue. Every male Jew, who was of age, and who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem was bound by law to attend the Passover. But it was the ambition of every Jew in every part of the world, as it still is today, at least once in his lifetime, to come to the Passover in Jerusalem. Even today when Jews keep the Passover in every land under heaven they pray that they may keep it next year in Jerusalem and if you have ever been to a Passover meal you will know that it ends with the great shout: ‘Next year in Jerusalem!’
Thus it was that every year a great crowd of people came to Jerusalem for the Passover and Jesus and his disciples were part of that great crowd. But what did they come for. What was at the centre of the Passover? The Emperor Nero always tried to belittle the Jewish faith. He thought it was rather unimportant. Cestius, who was the governor of Palestine in the time of Nero, tried to prove to the Emperor that he was wrong. In order to do this he took a census of the lambs slain at one particular Passover. It came to 256,500! The law laid it down that the minimum number for a Passover celebration was 10. Thus it was that perhaps two and a half million pilgrims came for the Passover and it was in a really crowded city that the drama of the last days of Jesus were played out.
These people had come for the Passover – the Passover of the Jews. They did not know, they could not tell, that a new age was about to begin – that there would be communion – not just for the Jews but for all humanity. Outside the great crowds were surging through the streets. Inside were Jesus and his twelve disciples in the Upper Room. The Upper Room! It has been called the first cathedral of the Christian church. There was no altar, no choir, no nave, no crucifix, no stained glass windows, no bells and no tablets on the wall. It was without Gothic arches and steepled splendour. There were just the four bare walls of a common room, but there never was built a house that held more of God than that plain room.
To that Upper Room of many memories our thoughts return now. We see the Master and his friends reclining at the holy table. We sense the quiet intimacy of that mystic fellowship. We hear the rise and fall of the dear voice as it speaks its never-to-be-forgotten words of parting and solace. We finger lovingly the precious pages of St John, burdened with the prayers and promises of that immortal hour. We think of the generations of men and women who have nourished their devotional life and revived their thirsty souls at those unfailing springs. The words Jesus spoke in the Upper Room. He speaks them to us now. ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. In my father’s house are many mansions. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Abide in me and I in you. These things I have spoken to you that your joy might be full.’ (John 14 and 15) The words of Jesus in the Upper Room. And to that Upper Room of long ago and far away, that quiet sanctuary amidst the clash and clamour of the world, the hearts of Christians everywhere continually return. Here, if anywhere, is holy ground.
And it is on that ground that we stand tonight – you and I – as we gather round this table. This table is at the centre of our church. It is at the centre of our lives – our busy lives – here at the centre is an oasis of peace and communion. It is also at the centre of the universe because it represents that table in the Upper Room at which the Lamb of God broke bread and poured wine. It represents not simply deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, which is what the Passover was all about. It represents deliverance from the bondage of sin and death which is what Communion is all about – a new, a living way into the holiest of all.
Are you afraid of death? Have you ever really thought about it? Tomorrow is Good Friday. You can think about it then.
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‘To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,’ (Hamlet 111i56) |
To be or not to be? Death stalks the world , monstrous, greedy, insatiable, all-devouring. If you’re not sure of the eternal hope, how futile all your quest for peace, how precarious your every smile. How would you have felt in the Upper Room with the mob waiting to crucify you? Would you have talked about peace and joy? Our doubts, our fears, our love of this life so often bind us and we prefer the fleshpots of Egypt to the risk of unprotected living as we follow our Lord and Master..
There is the bondage of the fear of death and of its separating stroke. Is that your bondage? Are you still living in the old world of the Passover? Is there any voice that can still your fears? I heard the voice of Jesus say: ‘ I am this dark world’s light.’ Will you not trust Christ’s loving certainty rather than your own fearful doubt? The certainty of a man, who in the face of death, could say:
There is the bondage of the fear of death and of its separating stroke. Is that your bondage? Are you still living in the old world of the Passover? Is there any voice that can still your fears? I heard the voice of Jesus say: ‘ I am this dark world’s light.’ Will you not trust Christ’s loving certainty rather than your own fearful doubt? The certainty of a man, who in the face of death, could say:
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In my father’s house are many mansions, many upper rooms, many oases of peace.’ Of the man who says to us tonight – ‘ I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall never eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ |
And to God’s Name be the praise and the glory. Amen
Murdoch MacKenzie
Programme
Murdoch MacKenzie
Programme
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10:00 - 10:30: Registration and Coffee
10:30 - 11:00: Welcome and Opening Worship 11:00 - 12:00: Taking Forward the Ecumenical Audit An examination of local relationships 12:00 - 12:45: Updates – ACTS, Scottish Friends of Ecumenism, More than Gold 12:45 - 13:45: Lunch 13:45 - 14:45: Practical resources for engaging churches in the Future of Scotland debate. Resources “to deepen and widen debate and participation in the Future of Scotland.” Scottish Churches’ Parliamentary Office and ACTS materials 14:45 - 15:15: Conference of European Churches – And now what are you waiting for? Report and Message from the 10th Assembly, Budapest 15:15: Closure and Departures: Churches Working Together. An Eye to the Future |