Luke 22:7-13
The Preparation of the Passover
Then
came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to
be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go
and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.’ They
asked him, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for
it?’ ‘Listen,’ he said to them, ‘when you have entered
the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him
into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, “The
teacher asks you, ‘Where is the guest room, where I may eat the
Passover with my disciples?’ ” He will show you a large
room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.’ So
they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared
the Passover meal.
Isn't
it wonderful when things are prepared for you? Rachel and I don't go
out to eat very often, but there's something so relaxing about
knowing that all of the cooking and preparation will be taken care
of—we don't even have to wash dishes! We simply get to sit back
and enjoy a relaxing meal in each other's company. We have a role to
play, but so much is already done for us.
Today's
Gospel message invites us into this reality—in today's message, we
reach the Last Supper, the celebration of the Passover meal before
Jesus is arrested and put on trial. In today's passage, we see where
all the preparation has been leading.
But
before Jesus is arrested, before he heads off to the garden to pray,
he eats a meal with his disciples. And he sends them off to prepare
the meal, but the story conveys the message that God has been
preparing for this for a long time. Things have been set in motion
hundreds, even thousands of years, each of them leading up to this
moment.
But
Jesus still invites the disciples into the action. He gives them a
role to play—they are to go and prepare the meal. They are to
accompany Jesus these last few steps of the journey. They are to
take the message to the world after he ascends, to be Jesus'
witnesses.
In
the same way, each of you are invited to join in with what God is
doing. We don't have to make all the preparations. We don't have to
determine the path to salvation. It has all been done for us. God
has made everything ready, and he invites us to play a role, to join
with him in what he is doing in the world. Today, we gather to
celebrate God's mission, and in our worship we are rejuvenated to go
out into the world and share the Good News of God's love and grace in
the world.
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Luke 22:14-23
The Institution of the Lord’s Supper
When
the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with
him. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not
eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then
he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and
divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I
will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God
comes.’ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given
thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body,
which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And he
did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is
poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the
one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For
the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that
one by whom he is betrayed!’ Then they began to ask one
another which one of them it could be who would do this.
Imagine
with me, for a moment, that you worship in a church that has tall,
vertical windows up and down the walls of the sanctuary. Now, this
might not be so bad if the church were located in a suburban area
where there's nothing but trees and parking lots as far as the eye
can see. But imagine this church is in the middle of a highly
developed area, where there is constant change just outside the
window. Perhaps, just as a bonus, we'll throw in a siren every
thirty minutes or so, just as another noise. Imagine trying to focus
in such an environment. It would be difficult, right?
The
world is filled with distractions. Many of them are harmless, but
some are much more than that—some turn our attention away from God,
and when we turn from God, it leads our vision away from God, and can
easily lead our feet, our hearts, away from the path God has set
before us. Before we know, we're far from who we want to be, and
it's not always easy to find our way back.
In
the passage I just read, Jesus is talking about how the betrayal of
one of the disciples is upon the group. Each disciple is stunned,
and notice what happens just after Jesus introduces this fact—the
disciples begin to ask one another who it could be that would do such
a thing.
It's
only natural—we'd do the exact same thing. These men have spent so
much time together over the past three years. They are as close as
brothers, and they've just found out that one of them will betray
their leader. They want to know who, and why, and all sorts of other
information.
But
notice what the distraction does—it turns their attention away from
Jesus.
This
is what sin does—it turns us away from God. It distracts us and
drags our hearts and minds away from the worship of God. Sin keeps
us from thinking about God, and we end up with our minds set on the
things of this world—before long, we're so busy that we forget to
notice that Jesus is still at the table with us. Before long, we
might even forget why we're at the table.
Sin
does the same thing to us today that it has for thousands of years—it
turns us from God. I don't know what the sin in your life is,
whether it's big and all-consuming or small and insignificant, but I
can tell you what it does to your life, because it does the same to
mine—it turns our hearts and minds away from Christ. When we
gather together to confess our sins, we set our hearts and minds back
on Christ, and begin once more to struggle against sin, to struggle
to live for Christ.
I
invite you to join me in a time for silent confession of sin, to
reflect about the things in your life that turn you from God, and
pray for God's forgiveness, that we might once more direct our lives
back toward God.
Please
pray with me.
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