Around A Table - Episode 16 Transcript
(This is a transcript from the podcast released this morning. Two posts in one day - this is what Maundy Thursday brings!)
Today is Maundy Thursday – the Thursday of Holy Week. Today is the start of the major events in the days leading to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In the Christian world, Easter is THE Holy event.
There are a lot of things I could say about this day in particular – but I think the thing that has struck me the most since this past Sunday, Palm Sunday, is that, as I look at the week leading up to the crucifixion of Christ, just how many times he was around a table. Indulge me for a moment as I share some of my heart on this subject.
Jesus was a lover of people. He loved the sick, the poor, the rich. He loved those who had lavish homes and those who had no home at all. He loved those in large families and he loved the widow with no family to care for her. He loved the strong and able-bodied as well as the ones who were lame and weak. He loved the worldly prostitute, and he loved the innocent children.
He loved his people. His dear friends. He loved his band of 12 brothers who were intimately woven into his daily breath. Jesus also loved a particular family who had celebrated with Him, had often taken care of Him while He was traveling and with whom he mourned and cried with the sisters, Mary & Martha, the day that He raised their brother, Lazarus, from the dead.
Jesus loved his people so much that he spent some of His last days and hours on earth with the friends who had become family to him. I can only imagine how precious and treasured these times must have been. As he shared meals, told stories, and laughed – it must have been unspeakably emotional as he looked with great love into the faces of those whose names would soon be written not only on His heart but also on His hands as he hung from a cross.
Just a week prior to his death he sat around a table with his friends. Eating, sharing and enjoying time with each other. It was in the middle of this dinner that Mary shocked them all. She had spent so much time watching him, I’m sure many times she watched from a far with the other women relegated by their culture to the farther side of the crowd. But here, in the home of Simon the leper (another dear friend), here is where she took the opportunity to give back to him just a small portion of service compared to what he had given to her.
I imagine she waited perhaps until there was a lull in the conversation, bellies filled with rich food and hearts filled with this amazing love from their community of friends. Then, she could simply no longer contain the love that was pushing her to do something extravagant. And the only extravagant thing she had was held in the beauty of a small alabaster jar. Perhaps a family heirloom – one that sat on a shelf for an emergency they would pray they never needed to use it for.
She had spent so much time at the feet of Jesus in wonder listening to His Word; she spent time at the feet of Jesus in her darkest hour believing that he would perform a miracle; and now she takes that jar, that heirloom, from her garment as she prepares to extravagantly give at His beautiful feet that will soon be wounded and bloody. She broke the alabaster jar and poured the fragrant and very expensive perfumed oil over the head of her friend, her Lord, Her Jesus. The amount in this vase was worth an entire year’s wages and yet poured it, in abandon, over the body of her Savior. No sacrifice she could bring was too great or too costly.
(It is noted that because Jesus will die as a criminal; only criminals’ bodies were denied the societal anointing of spices and perfume after death. Mary’s singular act of love saved Him from the disgrace of a criminal’s death & burial.)
In stark contrast, just hours after this moment, one of his ‘band of brother’ would sell him out for a mere 30 pieces of silver. It boggles my mind that, after so much time with Jesus, Judas was so blinded and driven by deception, that he would give up the King for the price of a field. After they had laughed, and shared food and wine. I’m sure after they had even shared some tears with one another. There, around a table.
And then there is Maundy Thursday, today. The day that found him, once again, around a table with the 12 disciples. The word maundy comes from the Latin “mandatum” which means mandate or command. It was here, around the table sharing a meal, that Jesus gave his new commandment. In John 13:4 it says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” There, in the midst of intimate conversation and the breaking of bread, he shares the whole of his Gospel. To love each other as he loved them. As he loves us. His great command shared, around a table.
It strikes me how many beautiful moments Jesus shared with his friends during this week- around a table, sharing a savory meal and sweet conversation. Like Jesus, we need to become people of the table. To find our community, our family our friends, our connection. To come to the place we can be most honest, more vulnerable, and more intimately connected with one another as we share a meal together. Around a table.
Oh, that we may consider a more extravagant and selfless life of serving his image bearers, instead of choosing to live lives of selfish compromise.
How will we choose to spend heartfelt time with Jesus’ the rest of this week and in the weeks beyond? Will we allow our worship to spill over into lavish, extravagant giving as we contemplate each day the price that He paid for our life?
I pray that each one of you who hears this – whether it is on Maundy Thursday or any other day – feel the grace of God that is so lavishly poured over you. As one of my pastors says, may you know that you know that you know in your knower that you are seen, known, and unconditionally loved by the Creator who creatively made YOU!
Until next time – go out and find a creative way to make someone smile!
