A thought experiment...
What if Jesus had been killed just following thanksgiving dinner?
Anyone who has lost a loved one during the holidays can tell you how incredibly hard it is to ever have "holidays" again. It changes everything. It deepens and sharpens the memory of that last dinner, that last gathering. The familiar rituals become a reminder of last words and actions.
Passover is that kind of holiday. It is a season that celebrates freedom and God's miracles. If I were a disciple I might expect Passover to be a time when Jesus pulled out some heavy miracles.
So evenyone gets on their ugly sweaters and shows up. Jesus is acting wierd. He comes out in sweats. He seems to have something in his mind. He sets to teaching. Maybe it clued the disciples to pay attention, like when Grandpa starts telling old stories and you get a pit in your stomach that he might not be there next year.
The disciples tune in. It feels like this is important. They ask questions. They savor the meal. They try to follow what Jesus is saying but it all is so cryptic.
The night turns violent. It becomes a night none of them will ever be able to shake off. Tragedy and horror unfolds. Jesus dies. It all feels so senseless. Where is God in this?
They hide. The rug has been pulled from under thier feet. Life as they knew it, the future they dreamed of, was gone.
Or was it?
Jesus came back and breathed on them saying peace be with you.
And then he was gone again.
The next year. Passover came. That terrible night came back, clear as day. The meal came back. Jesus's words. What were they? Reliving the meal, his words etched into their hearts. They weren't as cryptic this time. In hindsight, they made more sense. The visceral memory of that last holiday meal forever changed Passover for that band of brothers, but it also gave life to the teaching he had saved for that night.
Soon, they didn't wait for Passover to relive it. Recreating that terrible holiday meal, enabled them to keep the words Jesus had shared with them alive. As hard as it was, they needed to meet and remember. They needed to be together. Especially as the world turned on them and persecuted them for continuing to do so. And so it became the heart of a new faith.
Today, this time of year brings us into one story with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Passover begins tomorrow and around the world Jewish homes will be filled with amazing food, songs and a retelling of the faith. Each family has their own liturgy for the meal. It is a celebration of the freedom that God provides in a broken world and the hope that God will come and fulfill his promises.
Easter will rise with the sun on Sunday morning and Christians will dress in Sunday finest and sing of the freedom that God provides in a broken world and hear sermons with hope that God will come and fulfill his promises.
For me, the promise breathed in every last detail of this meal is that God is with us. In darkness. In light. In broken holidays. In warm family gatherings. In bread. In wine. In bitter herbs. In sweet honey. In the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Shalom. Peace be with you.
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