Thursday of Passion Week

Thursday of Passion Week begins the very familiar happenings of the end of the earthly ministry of Jesus. As I read through Matthew 26 today, I found it particularly unnerving that the day before, Judas made his deal with the chief priests, and then here at the Last Supper, he asks Jesus if he is the one who will betray Him. For whatever reason, I never really focused on that aspect of this timeline, and I am glad Matthew recorded it. Not that I need to be more angry toward Judas, but it must have saddened Jesus more to know what was happening, to state to His disciples what would happen, and then have Judas pointedly ask Jesus if it is him. That kind of thing just adds to the grief I feel for Jesus. I suppose only God could deal with knowing everything and still go to the cross for all sinners.

Sometimes the hardest lessons learned turn out to be the best. Jesus institutes the Last Supper, using the Passover meal, no less, to clearly signify the Passover Lamb pointing to the Christ. And the lesson He shares through this last meal with His inner circle of friends is for them to always remember. It was a clear theme in the Old Testament. The Jews were to wear tassels and use phylacteries to not show off, but to remember God, and remember His commands. Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me. Paul in 1 Corinthians rehearses Luke’s account of this meal, and adds the point of our call of proclaiming Christ’s death until He returns. “Remember” is the message I hear.

So when Jesus tells these men that they will each abandon Him before the next day is over (“fall away from Him”), each of them vehemently denies it, Peter being the most vocal. We know Peter’s story, yet before they leave the Garden of Gethsemane, all will have fled, every one of them. So of course, Jesus was right, that’s not the point. Each of them will later remember what He said, that it was true, that when push came to shove they “forgot” Him, in less than a day’s time.

So what would they do with the lesson, wallow in guilt and selfishness (Judas), or change the world? Tradition tells us much about the disciples, the first apostles, and how they each, except for John who was exiled, were martyred for their faith. When the opportunities again presented themselves to deny or stand for Christ, they upheld their faith and stood their ground on the truth to the very end of their lives on earth.

Jesus, as human as He was, prays for His task to be accomplished in another way, and yet remains in complete submission to the Father. “Remember”, He did this for all of us. He knew the agony that was now a day closer to reality. Luke records Jesus sweating drops of blood, which I believe was truly hematohidrosis, whereby one’s stress is at such a high level that capillaries burst, causing blood to exit the body through the pores with sweat.

He knew His friends would desert Him, and He planned all along to pass His ministry to them with the help of His own Spirit. “Remember”, we, too are part of that master plan of God. It may be difficult to really be in the moment with Christ, since we were not physically there. Yet if we believe in what He did, then we can just as readily remember.

SO WHAT?

So when we talk to friends and family through this Easter time, and beyond, let’s remember Jesus, remember what He did, and let’s remember what He said, He is coming again for those who will now accept Him.

So, maybe we should pray tonight a bit longer, a bit harder, in thankfulness to Him, and somehow try to “keep watch” with Him, perhaps identifying a bit better with what He would have been going through this vey night not quite 2000 years ago.

So, let’s let others see that our very lives show that we do indeed remember Him.