Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday 2011 “I am among you as one who serves.”

The preeminent religious rites of the Law are circumcision and the Passover. The preeminent religious rites of the Gospel are baptism and Holy Communion.
The Law, the Law of Moses, sets the standards for humanity and defines the sacrifices that must be offered by humanity when, not if, we break the standards. The Bible clearly observes that everyone breaks the Law.Everyone except Jesus.

Jesus never broke the Law. He came to the cross having lived a perfect life according to the Law. He did this not by law but by love. He never broke the Law because he never separated from Love.

Twice during his public ministry, our Heavenly Father declared audibly: this is my Son, The Beloved. Jesus knew who he was: The Beloved. He made a real choice in his human nature to remain who he was: The Beloved. In that choice he expressed his relationship to our heavenly Father in the prayer: Heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done.

Jesus did what our species failed to do. Our species made the original choice to say to God: not your will but my will be done. In that Original Choice to assert self will over divine will humanity separated from God. In that separation we lost our free will and immersed our souls in sin.

The Bible is a thousand year record of dozens, perhaps scores, of different individuals from different walks of life recording their observations of human behavior. The record is remarkably consistent. Human beings reject divine will in order to assert self will.

God gave the Law to Moses to restrain the evil we bring into our lives and into the wider world. Embedded in that Law is the sacrificial system. That system prepares humanity for the final solution to Original Separation. The final solution to separation, sin and death is Jesus Christ.

At that last supper Jesus was already suffering the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual torments of the final sacrifice. He did not embrace the cross as a martyr. He embraced the cross as the one pure perfect and final sacrifice for sin.

As Jesus prepares for his death he summarizes the Father’s Plan of Salvation. The Plan of Salvation requires Jesus to live a perfect life then offer that life as the final sacrifice for sin. The Plan of Salvation starts with the Law of Moses, goes through the cross of Calvary, and reaches its fulfillment in the resurrection.

As Jesus speaks the word that once created everything out of nothing he takes bread, holds it, blesses it and declares: This is my body. He takes a cup of wine, holds it, blesses it and declares: this is my blood.

Jesus speaks and creates a new reality. It is a new contract with humanity that fulfills the old contract. It is a new law that fulfills the old Law. It is a new religious rite that perfects the old religious rites.

No mere human being could have done this. No teacher, prophet, priest or King could have done this. All human beings are lost in separation from God. All human beings live from the place of self will. Every human being lives with the illusion that we can create our own reality. Only Jesus can in fact create reality with a word.

At the Last Supper Jesus declared: I am among you as one who serves. His life reveals his nature. He never sinned. He helped everyone who came to him. His constant prayer was: Heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done.

Jesus is the alternative way of being human our species rejected. Jesus chose to be who he was. Jesus chose to be The Beloved of the Father. In that choice he overcame Adam’s choice to separate from God.
In that choice he demonstrated how a soul that places Divine will above self will lives from the place of free will.

In that choice Jesus fulfilled the plan of salvation. Jesus takes the choice our species made to separate and re forms it into a sacrifice of self will rather than as an expression of the will to power. In that sacrifice, Jesus trapped Original Separation, sin and death in his own body and soul.

As the sacrifice, Jesus The Beloved, overcame Separation, sin and death and transformed it back into reunion, love and holiness.

The Last Supper is the new rite instituted by the new Adam for the new community of Faith.

The religious content of the Last Supper is the act of love Jesus performed on the cross. The new reality of the Last Supper is that by a word Jesus transforms bread into his body, wine into his blood, self will into free will through Divine Will.

All who partake of Christ’s body and blood partake of that new reality. It is not magic. It is not science. It is Sacrament. It is a new reality Jesus gives us in order to empower us to surrender our separated and sinful self will to Divine will so that we can discover free will. The evidence of the work of the sacrament in our lives is whether we pray the prayer Jesus prayed when he was on earth.

Do we pray: Heavenly Father not my will but your will be done?

Do we aspire to make a real choice in the real presence of Jesus Christ to say to all we meet: I am among you as one who serves.