Being there ... on Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday – Being There through the Week and at the Last Supper

As we follow Jesus into Jerusalem through that last week to this night when he broke bread and shared a cup let us think of ourselves as being there. Part of the crowd, one of the disciples, in Christ.

While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, 

‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,

‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.”

Look, your king is coming to you,
   humble, and mounted on a donkey,
     and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking,

‘Who is this?’ 

The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them,

‘It is written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
   but you are making it a den of robbers.’

 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him,

‘Do you hear what these are saying?’

Jesus said to them,

‘Yes; have you never read,
“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
   you have prepared praise for yourself”?’ 

He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Hymn 128 My song is love unknown verses 1,2,3 and 7

In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry.

“Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and questioned him.

In his teaching he told them parables.

‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

 Jesus said to them,

‘Have you never read in the scriptures:

“The stone that the builders rejected

   has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

   and it is amazing in our eyes”?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

More parables and more questions followed.

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 

He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Hymn 137 It is a thing most wonderful

Then Jesus shared with the crowds and with his disciples his last great teaching.

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

Then he asked them,

‘You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

‘Immediately after the suffering of those days

the sun will be darkened,

   and the moon will not give its light;

the stars will fall from heaven,

   and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples,

‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’

 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said,

‘Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’

But Jesus, aware of this, said to them,

‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’

 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I betray him to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

291 Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts

On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’

He said,

‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” ’

So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

The Table is prepared

 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said,

‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’

And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’

He answered,

‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’

 Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’

He replied, ‘You have said so.’

 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said,

‘Take, eat; this is my body.’

A Prayer of Blessing and the Bread is shared

Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying,

‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’

A Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Cup is shared

 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

131 When I survey the wondrous cross

Lord Jesus Christ,

Go with us into the night that lies ahead

Go with us through the valley of the shadow of death

Go with us towards the day of resurrection

Be in our hearts

Be in our minds

Be in our thoughts

Be in our homes

Be in our world

Now and forevermore.

Amen.