Thursday, March 20, 2008

Thursday: Getting Ready for Passover

Tonight at sundown, the Passover meal will be eaten. In the Jewish system, Friday begins at sundown. Thursday morning is thus spent getting ready. A room is readied for Jesus and his disciples.

Some think that Jesus' instructions show he has already prearranged to set up the meeting secretly. Go to such and such a place and you'll see a man with a jar. He'll give you further instructions.

The words that Jesus uttered over supper--this is my body; this is my blood--these are mentioned so early. Paul mentions them in the early 50's and claims the words come from Jesus. Since eyewitnesses were around to disagree, it is hard to imagine that Jesus didn't actually say these things.

So Jesus knows he is about to die.

1 comment:

Angie Van De Merwe said...

It is so interesting how Jesus and the Lord's Supper (traditionally?)have been "assoicated" to the Passover in theology...Messianic Judiasm, Liberation theology (Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as many Latin countries adhere to this understanding), traditional conservative Christianity; saved from the "world" and "sin" to enter a "promised land", etc...is there not then a "real" truth?
Is there only ONE truth? Or is there difference in understanding depending on context (experience)?And should we seek to speak within context, seeking to enlighten "those in darkness" such as Paul understood, in "metaphorically interpreting" "truth"? Or should we be adamantly oppose structures that oppose and resist change, such as Jesus?

I think both are necessary to understand, because moral order is important, as is redeemption. So, why wouldn't Jesus believe he would die in Jerusalem? Jesus had come to his own and his own had recieved him not...he taught in the "traditional structures", but "tradition" dies hard when it is blind and fearful.

Judas' betrayal was his misguided attempt to bring about the "kingdom of God" in his own way and with his own understanding. Just as with every other person of "faith", we see through a glass darkly and need one another to "give light". That is what the Enlightenment was about at the end of the Dark Ages.