A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you. (John 13:34)

You and I live in a society in which eating together is less important than it once was. When I was a child the absolute norm was for all of us to sit down to dinner together. It was probably that way when you were growing up, too. Now, we eat on the run ... on the fly ... we do fast food or microwave something between piano lessons, soccer, little league, scouts and around our favorite television programs. Or, many people just eat in front of the ever bigger television screens that dominate our homes with 200 channels of nothing. Our dinner habits say much about us.

There is an ancient Middle Eastern proverb which reads: "I saw them eating and I knew who they were." Which does not seem to make much sense in our own age of fast food and on the run suppers, but in Jesus' day, what you ate ... how you ate ... who you ate with ... these were critical issues.

This was especially so among the Jews, for whom eating together was ... quite literally ... a religious experience. There were very specific rules about how to come to the table, how to prepare the meal, how to fellowship during the meal, and so on. Cleanliness was paramount ... clean food ... clean dishes ... clean hands ... clean hearts. A proper Jewish meal was in a sense a worship service in which believers honored God, not simply by asking a blessing before eating, but also by paying careful attention to the most mundane details of culinary life.

Scripture tells us that Jesus sometimes offended people with his table manners. And he thought nothing of sitting down to eat with people whose previous lives of sin declared their contempt for everything holy. This was a chief complaint against Jesus: He sometimes ate and drank with unclean sinners.

In those days, sinners fell into five basic categories. There were people who did "dirty", ritually unclean things for a living ... like tax collectors and pig farmers. Then there were people who did immoral things with their lives ... like liars and adulterers. And there were people who did not keep the Law up to the standards of the religious authorities. The common thread connecting these three categories of sinners was that they were defined by the bad things they did ... or the good things they failed to do. Two additional groups of sinners (making five in all) were Samaritans and Gentiles. People got on that list, not by what they did, but by who they were. Not being Jews, they were presumed to be outside the circle of God's love.

Thank God that Jesus decided there was a place at His table and in His kingdom for those who were not perfect. Because unless that was the case none of the disciples could have been there. And if perfection were the rule no one else could be invited to the Lord's Table including you and me.

Jesus was and is not blind to the sins of those invited to His Table. Rather Jesus calls lost sinners to repentance and offers them a new start by grace through faith imparted to those he calls.

Maundy Thursday, also known as "Holy Thursday" is the Thursday of Passion Week, one day before Good Friday (the Thursday before Easter). Maundy Thursday is the name given to the day on which Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, known as the Last Supper. Two important events are the focus of Maundy Thursday. he word "Maundy" is derived from mandatum, the Latin word for "command." The name arises from the Gospel of John (13:34) when Jesus says: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you"

Maundy Thursday is the celebration of the first Eucharist. A new and better rite in which Christ, the true Lamb of God offers Himself as the bread of life to sinners who turn to Him in faith.

It is in Christ's word that the Christian Church receives the Lord's invitation: "Take and eat; this is my body."

The Lord's timing in instituting the Lord's Supper is most significant. He selected the night of the Passover meal as the setting for this action. The Passover festival commemorated God's deliverance of His people from a prideful Pharaoh and recounted how God had provided a means to spare the firstborn sons of the Israelites as the angel of death passed over the land slaying every firstborn son. A lamb was to be slain in each household and its blood sprinkled upon the doorpost. When the angel saw the blood, he would "pass over."

This blood of the lamb redeemed the life of the firstborn even as it was a part of that action by which God led the children of Israel to freedom. This great deliverance of the past was to point Israel to that future deliverance which would be won by the Lamb of God – the Messiah (Is. 53; 1 Cor. 5:7).

Jesus' selection of the Passover, therefore, connects the institution of the Lord's Supper with Israel's history. In fact, as Christ now distributes His own body and blood, God's redemptive purpose in Israel achieves its fulfillment and goal. The blood of the New Testament (Matt. 26:28; Jer. 31:31; 1 Cor. 11:25) now replaces that of the Old (Ex. 24:8). Christ's sacrifice on Golgotha for the sins of all people is the final and complete sacrifice (Heb. 8-10). Through His death for sin, all people may now be free from sin's curse and may live for God (Rom. 2- 3).

The clear claim of Christ in Holy Scripture is that His true body and blood are truly present and distributed to those who eat. All four Scriptural accounts (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:15-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26) assert: "This is my body." "This is my blood of the new covenant" (Matthew and Mark). "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (This according to both St. Luke and St. Paul).

Scriptural passages other than the words of institution forthrightly teach the Real Presence. St. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 10:16: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"

The institution of the Lord's Supper is based on Christ's atonement. By His work of atonement the Lord sacrificed Himself for the sins of all people. This action was completed in its entirety when our Lord uttered the words "It is finished!"

Jesus clearly states the significance of the Lord's Supper for His return in glory. In Matthew we read: "I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matt. 26:29; cf. Mark 14:25). St. Paul also links the institution of the Lord's Supper with the second coming of Christ: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor.11:26). Thus the communicant confesses or "proclaims" confident faith in the Lord's promised return when he partakes of the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper is a corporate meal. Jesus used plural verbs and pronouns as He spoke to the disciples in the upper room (Matt. 26:26-29 and parallels). St. Paul wrote to the whole church at Corinth when he learned of abuses in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Thus there is both a vertical and a horizontal dimension to proper preparation for the Lord's Supper. Each communicant must examine himself before God (1 Cor. 11:28) and must also conduct himself in a Christian manner over against his fellow Christians (1 Cor. 11:17 ff.). To partake of the Lord's Supper with malice toward a fellow communicant is sinful (Matt. 5:23-24). To commune without faith in Christ's promise is to eat and drink judgment upon oneself (1 Cor.11 :29).

Lets go back to that Middle Eastern parable: "I saw them eating and I knew who they were."

When Christians gather for the Holy Communion it reminds us and proclaims to others who we actually are: we are redeemed sinners, received and invited to the Lord's own table. In Christ we are offered a new way of life. And as we are restored to fellowship with God, we are also restored to fellowship with each other. When we eat and drink this holy food together we are identified as His people. People who see us eating know who we are.

A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you.