The Last Supper is so part of secular and religious culture that it has taken on its own mythos. The scene of Jesus's supper as a free man, dining among friends, celebrating the Passover, while silently one of his best friends and disciples betrayed him for silver - is the drama of pain, suffering, love, betrayal, fear, hope - and while this is one of the holiest meals, the final supper for the Messiah on earth - God chose to have it play out in the most humble of circumstances. The feast takes place in an upper room, a rented space. The setting is nothing spectacular in the first century A.D. The Last Supper in many ways is in a way the window into human life - our grappling for truth and light in a dark and sinful world...the grace of something as simple of a meal - is the food that nourishes us so we can live another day.
I recently read an article discussing the possibility that Van Gogh's famous Cafe Terrace at Night has a portrayal of The Last Supper hidden amid the scene of a street cafe on a seemingly normal mundane night. A man leaves the scene (Judas) showing that betrayal lurks among friends, but more importantly the hope resonates that God is at work in ordinary and forsaken places.
I emphasize the point of the ordinary nature of The Last Supper not because I'm downplaying its holiness, but rather showing the EXTRAORDINARY nature of God, for HIM through is Son Jesus, to institute the foundation of the liturgy - the communion - in a run of the mill upper room with borrowed silverware. Christ came not to free the powerful, but to heal the wounds of the broken and safe the oppressed. In the desert God gave the Israelite Manna, bread from heaven, but in Christ's breaking of the bread He institutes something which on the surface may appear ordinary but is MIRACULOUS and fills us with the food we need for life. While manna is a gift that fed the Israelites - they still hungered because while manna was from heaven it fed the flesh...when you drink the wine and eat the bread of Christ your soul is full.
Christ shows us the sacredness in simple living and that even in the midst of betrayal, trial, confusion, pain, loss...we must be grateful to God and also be ready to drink from HIS cup and TRUST the Holy Spirit within us.
When you drink of the cup of Christ you want to share that wine and that bread with others - feeding them the spiritual food of love.
Christ's facing betrayal in the midst of a meal and being arrested only a few hours later - reminds us that this world is always changing but God does not change and if we stand by HIS universal law of LOVE we can rise above the darkness...in this life and the kingdom to come.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for breaking bread with us and sharing in our meal. Thank you for blessing us with this food, spiritual sustenance to sustain us joyfully even in tears of pain. You bind our wounds and wash us clean - you hold us close that we may be safe in the shadows of life. Thank you for your everlasting cup of salvation and for bring light into dark creaky corners and joy to broken places - You God, Christ are Lord, are most holy - though you are king of creation, you humble yourself bringing miracles to ordinary spaces.
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