Exodus 12:1-14
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=exodus+12%3A1-14
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=psalm+116%3A1%2C+10-17
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=1+cor+11%3A23-26
John 13:1-35
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=john+13%3A1-35
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how every time we celebrate Communion, it comes down to this. This is the night when we remember most especially what has been handed down through the generations - that "on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat, This is my body, given for you." " What happened on Maundy Thursday resonates through almost everything we do as Christians, and it leaves its imprint on our most basic understanding of who this Jesus from Nazareth was. From the images of Passover to the bread and wine to the foot-washing to the last command to love one another, our celebration of this evening is rich with symbols that shape us in many different ways.
But tonight I want to focus on one specific thing, something that I think is often overlooked when we have our Communion celebration of this meal. Specifically, I want to look at what it means that we begin our recounting of this meal with the words, "On the night of his betrayal." You see, this isn’t any old "last meal" with friends on the eve of a man’s death. This isn’t about fond farewells and I’m-glad-I-got-to-know-yous. This is, like any good suspense movie, about a night of betrayal. In the movies, this is the night when everybody but the main character knows what’s going to happen and sits in suspense waiting for "it" to happen. Except that in this case it’s completely reversed: nobody but the main character knows what’s going to happen. Nobody but Jesus Christ knows that Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of Jesus’ most trusted disciples - let’s not forget that part: he was entrusted with the money after all - nobody but Jesus knows that this most trusted treasurer is going to sell Jesus out for thirty coins of silver. Now, there are plenty of theories for why he did this, from being goaded by Satan to thinking the authorities wouldn’t go through with the execution to expecting Jesus to rise up and protect himself to many others. But at this point in the story, it’s not important why Judas was going to betray his Lord. It’s only important that he was, and that Jesus knew he was.
It’s important because of how Jesus handled his imminent betrayal. And there are a number of things that Jesus does that all fit into one grand picture that tells us who this Son of Man/Son of God was. So how does Jesus handle it? Well, the first thing that happens in our story is that Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. All of his disciples. The writer of the Gospel of John has taken pains to describe the details of the evening, and nowhere does it say that Judas was exempt from this foot-washing. And so we’re led to conclude that Jesus washed the feet of the man whom he knew was going to betray him. Jesus humbled himself before his betrayer-to-be and served him.
The next thing that happens is Jesus passes some bread around. And, knowing how vague the writer of the Gospel of John is when it comes to the sacraments, there’s a good chance that this a reference to Communion. Now, our Communion tradition tells us something important. It’s something I say and you hear every week when we celebrate Communion. And it’s this: On the night of his betrayal, our Lord Jesus took bread and gave thanks. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus gave thanks. Isn’t that amazing? Knowing everything that was going to happen to him, knowing that he would most likely end up on the cross, an excruciatingly painful place to be, knowing that one of his disciples would betray him and the rest would abandon him, Jesus gives thanks. Despite everything that was about to happen, and in keeping with Jewish tradition, Jesus gives thanks for the Exodus deliverance, for the food that grows out of the earth, and for the fruit of the vine. And then he shares the bread with those around him. Including Judas. John’s text is very clear about that part - Jesus gives him a piece of bread. Yes, Jesus seems to be giving Communion to Judas who is about to betray him. Jesus shares the meal that is intended to bond him and his disciples together in a covenant of love and forgiveness of sins with the one who seems least capable of grasping what that means.
And then the last thing that happens at the table, after Judas disappears into the night, is that Jesus tells his disciples to love one another as he loves them. Moments after a loved one’s betrayal of him is put into action, Jesus tells the disciples that the most important thing for them to remember - the thing that will define them as followers of Christ for the rest of their lives - is that they love one another. This isn’t suspenseful irony - this is Jesus, knowing all things, yet speaking from his heart.
And all of these pieces - the foot-washing, sharing the bread, and loving his betrayer - add up to portray a man who, on the night of his betrayal, continued to follow through on everything he’d taught his disciples. The one who’d come up with the phrase "turn the other cheek," who’d said that the most important commandment was to love the Lord your God, and your neighbour as yourself, who’d gone out of his way to include the untouchables in his circle of love wasn’t about to change his stripes. No - he was going to die, if that’s what was going to happen, the same way he lived - full of love for everybody, even those who betrayed him.
Now, I gotta say, that’s not how we react to betrayal. And we have plenty of opportunity to - these days it seems as if betrayal is the standard form of behaviour in relationships. We are betrayed by friends - I remember when I was in junior high, my best friend told the guy I liked that I liked him, which you don’t do when you’re a junior high girl, and I had never felt so betrayed or hurt in my life. We are sometimes betrayed by our family or our spouses - often in very serious, life-altering ways. We are betrayed by employers who decide that our twenty years of dedicated service means nothing when it’s time for cutbacks, by airlines who don’t tell us they’re going under. We’re even betrayed by ourselves - when we do things that violate our integrity, or go against everything we believe in, or when we don’t stand up for ourselves. And when these betrayals occurs, when people turn traitor on us, what do we do? Do we go and serve these people humbly? Do we give thanks to God for them? Do we love them?
On the contrary, we are far more likely to contemplate revenge. Or to avoid those people altogether. Or to harbour deep and abiding resentment and even hatred for them in our hearts. There are many things we do. What we do not do is serve, give thanks, or love those who betray us.
And ultimately, our refusal or inability or whatever you want to call it to do those things is, in itself, a continued betrayal of Jesus. We are on par with Judas. You see, Jesus’ last command to his disciples - his dying words, as it were, were to love one another as Jesus loved them. And given what had just happened, and given what was about to happen, these were no idle words. These words, and the washing of the feet and the sharing of the meal, were the epitome of who Jesus was, of the God whom he represented, of what his purpose on earth was: To serve and love everybody. They are one of the most important things he says. And what do we do with these last words of Jesus?
We avoid them. We minimize them. We ignore them. We act in downright opposition to them. And that is betrayal. We, who call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ, who are supposed to be known by our love for one another, we betray Jesus by rejecting his model of servitude and forgiving love towards all people.
But Jesus’ reaction to our betrayal is the same as his reaction to Judas’. Knowing all that we do, all our betrayal of him, of ourselves, and of others, he serves us, shares a meal with us in Communion, and loves us. And in the end, he is determined to go to the cross to prove what he says, this his whole life is oriented towards loving all - that his body is given for you, his blood is shed for you, for the forgiveness of sin.
And so we end this evening with Jesus’ betrayal on our minds, with his last meal and his last words lingering in our hearts, and with the cross looming on the horizon. But we also end with the knowledge that Jesus’ love for his disciples, for us, for the world, was so much a part of him that he would not and did not and will not ever betray it. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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