The Old and the New
Dating long distance is hard. When we dated, Hee lived in California, and I lived in Chicago. We had many trips back and forth between where we lived. It was always difficult to say goodbye after a short weekend visit most of the time. Things changed after we got married. No more navigating the two-hour time difference to talk on the phone. No more four-hour plane rides to see each other. No more wishing that we could be with each other. The new way of being married to the one I love and living in the same house is so much better than our old way.
In our passage today, we are presented with the Old Way. We enter into the scene of the day of Unleavened Bread. The town was bustling. The markets were filled with customers purchasing sheep and goats for the sacrifice. Herbs, spices, wheat, and other things for the Passover meal sold off the shelves. Preparations for the meal were made the day before the Passover including the slaughtering of the Passover lamb “that had to be sacrificed.” The unleavened bread signified the hurried last meal before the Israelites left Egypt. There was no time for the bread to rise. In contrast to this scene, Jesus sent Peter and John to follow his very specific instructions to secure a “large upper room furnished” for them to prepare the Passover. This meal was to remind them of God sparing the firstborn son of each household that had blood on the doorposts and the freedom granted from Egypt’s enslavement. This was in remembrance of their salvation—the old way.
In this upper room, Jesus communicated to his disciples there will be a better way. Though this was a meal of celebration in remembering what God did for Israel, the next time they do this, it will be in remembrance of what Christ defeating sin and death on the cross for them. And better yet, when the kingdom of God comes, the meal will no longer be a memorial but a feast of celebration. Until then, we live in remembrance of what Christ has done on the cross and that he “earnestly desires” to eat and drink with us when the kingdom of God comes. On this Maundy Thursday, let us remember that God gave us the better way to salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross which had to start with the betrayal of one man.