The Last Supper is set against the scene of the Passover–a celebration of freedom.  With His gift of himself–“This is my body.  This is my blood.”–the Lord has freed us from sin and death.

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Luke tells us in the Gospel lesson that the events of this night are played out against the Passover celebration.  Passover would have a very specific meaning for those gathered around the table with the Lord.  Each, as a child, would have asked the four questions:  Mah nishtanah ha-lailah hazeh mikol ha-leilot?  Why is this night different from all other nights?  Why only matzah, unleavened bread?  Why the bitter herbs?  Why are we relaxing and leaning on cushions as if we were kings?  Each question serves to underline identification with those who were slaves in Egypt.

Can you imagine that first Passover night?  An unblemished lamb, a year old, was killed and roasted.  It was to be eaten with unleavened bread, hurriedly.  The people were to be dressed for a journey with staff in hand.  Its blood was used to mark the doorposts and lintel to identify the household as members of the children of Israel.  And in the darkness of night the last and most terrible of the ten plagues took place.  The angel of death swept over the land.  The devastation was so great that the children of Israel were literally expelled.  And then they were pursued by the Egyptian army until God opened a way through the Red Sea for them to escape.  God delivered them, and so the remembrance of the Passover became a celebration—a celebration of freedom.

The disciples gathered around the table to celebrate the Seder, the ritual of the Passover and began with the recitation of Kiddush over a cup of wine, a proclamation of the holiness of the holiday.  In the course of the Seder the Lord took the matzah and pronounced the customary blessing over it, broke it, and gave it to them.  “This is my body,” he said, “given for you.”  Later in the Seder, he took the wine–possibly the third cup of wine which has become known as the Elijah cup, because Elijah was the one traditionally thought to return to introduce the Messianic Age.  The Lord pronounced the appropriate blessing.  Then he said, “This cup, poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood.”

The Lord himself became the paschal lamb without blemish.  Within a matter of hours it would be his body hanging on the cross, his blood trickling from a wound in his side that would be given and shed in order that the freedom promised in the paschal feast might be obtained.  In this sacrament the Lord frees us not from slavery in Egypt, but from slavery to our own passions.  The parting of the Red Sea freed the children of Israel from massacre by the pursuing Egyptian forces and led them forward into the wilderness where God would declare them his people.  Through his suffering and death the Lord has freed us from the guilt of our sin and opened to us a new way of life.

A taste of wine, a morsel of unleavened bread, it seems so little to convey the gift that God has promised through it.  Yet that is the promise of our gathering around the table of the Lord.  Somehow, Luther said “in, with, and under the bread and wine,” the Lord interjects himself into these elements to assure us that our sins are in fact forgiven.  “Here,” he says, “take this in your hand.  Taste this with your mouth.  Experience through your senses that the promise is real.  You are indeed forgiven.”  The Lord’s body and blood, given once on the cross, is again given to you as a seal that forgiveness is real, complete, total.  Your sins are erased.”

That Passover night the children of Israel were freed from bondage in Egypt.  They could proclaim the wonder of God’s salvation as both Moses and Miriam did, but in their eyes the future was uncertain.  They faced a wilderness journey, which would ultimately extend for forty years.  God did lead them to a mountain experience and declared that he was their God and they were his people.  Yet, they stumbled.  They complained.  At times they forgot who they were and where they were going, but God remained with them throughout the journey.

That is the other aspect of the sacrament we celebrate this evening.  The future has not yet been inscribed on our lives.  Some of us face the aches and pains of age.  Some are coping with constant illness.  Some are struggling with depression, or financial difficulties, or issues with their marriage or children.  For some the future is a wide open series of possibilities and the struggle is in making wise choices.   Our experience with life is a great deal like that of the children of Israel.  We stumble.  We complain.  At times we forget who we are and where we are going.  In the sacrament, the Lord says “Take and eat.  Take and drink.  Be assured that you are not alone in life.  I will walk with you every step of the way.  Do not be afraid.  I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  The assurance that God gives us in the sacrament is that he will walk with us throughout life, and give us courage to face a future which must ultimately be in His hands.

There is another aspect of the sacrament that we often overlook.  The Passover reminds us that it was the people, the children of Israel that God freed from slavery.    God made of a motley collection of slaves his people.  As we gather around the altar or as we walk through the line to receive the sacrament, we are not alone.  We are surrounded by others who need forgiveness, who need strengthening to face the next hours or days of their lives.  With family and friends and yes even with those who are strangers to us we are bound together into an extended family, the communio sanctorum, those who share in holy things.  The sacrament binds us together as the people of God.

And the final piece, John in his Gospel doesn’t relate the story of the Last Supper.  He didn’t need to.  By the time that he wrote his Gospel, Christian communities were probably celebrating the sacrament each Sunday.  They would have known well the story of its beginning.  Instead, John tells us that Jesus laid aside his outer cloak, took up a towel and basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.  Peter objected.  This was demeaning.  It was a slave’s task.  Jesus replied, “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but later you will understand.”  Yes the meal that evening, the gift of the Lord’s body and blood would free them to serve others.  His actions reinforce the words that Mark wrote in his Gospel:  “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.”  If the Lord himself could serve by giving his body and blood on the cross, then we could learn to follow in his path and serve one another.