LENT 2016 -  GOING TO JERUSALEM

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

 The Passover with the Disciples, Part One: Matthew 26: 17 – 19

             I always get a little nervous when someone asks me where there is a good place to go and eat in the city. What restaurant would I recommend?  Now, we don’t go out a whole lot for dinner but we do have a few favourites. It depends on the mood we are in, what we feel like eating, and if it is a special occasion or just dinner out.

            But our choices might not suit your expectations. Are you concerned over the prices? Are you looking for Chinese or a steak dinner or seafood? Are you looking for some quiet, classy ambience or will a noisy roadhouse do? There is a lot of responsibility in recommending a restaurant to someone. What if you hate the place and the food is awful? What if it is too expensive? What if the service is terrible that night?

            Look, here is a coupon for Harvey’s – go and knock yourself out! It’s on me!

            So, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him where he wanted to eat. Being the big, Passover Holiday the “restaurants” are going to be busy and reservations hard to come by. “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” Jesus seemingly had made some prior arrangements with “a certain man.” (Matthew is a little less cloak-and-dagger about the arrangements.) So off they trot to check it out!

            It is probably a long reach to throw the disciples’ practical, plain, natural question back into some of the previous texts which we have read. Nonetheless, it has reminded me of the task of preparing on  Jesus' behalf  as we wait the advent of his Kingdom. It hasn’t been that long ago since we read about the faithful servants in charge of the daily, meal program while the Master is away (Matthew 24:45 -51).

            Even the issue of preparing such a sacred meal as this, or for us recreating it through the sacrament of communion, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, has a missional vibe to it. Go into the city. Meet someone, perhaps even a stranger, on the street.  Invite yourself into their context, i.e. home. Make Jesus welcome right where they live. It may seem a little presumptuous, but being incarnational is usually audacious and maybe a tad impudent sometimes. We would never even think of ever inviting ourselves into someone’s home for supper, would we? But hospitality was much different in the Middle East, than our inhibited, North American customs. A lot of our modern houses don’t even have separate dining rooms or even a good-sized, eat-in kitchen.

            But I am very curious about that “certain man.” How did what he had witnessed that evening in his home affect him and his family? Was he on the outside looking in, just a spectator? Or did he take part in the Passover meal himself, and was he  invited to share the cup and the bread? How did he understand the symbolic words which Jesus spoke that night? When he was cleaning up the dishes, sweeping away the bread crumbs, tidying up the room, and later, talking it all over with his wife, as most couples do after a dinner party, what did they get from the evening?

            When you and I, as disciples of Jesus, go into our neighbourhoods and prepare the places where Jesus may invite his friends, we never know what impact it might have on others.  When we shuffle over and make room for them at the table, that inclusive gesture speaks volumes of the welcoming grace of Jesus in their presence. When we say that we want to fellowship with them wherever they are, and do so in the name and love of Jesus, we may bless them with the signs of God’s sacrificial gifts.

            So, what are you having for supper tonight?  Is there room for one more?