Readings: Exodus 24.3-8; Hebrews 9.11-15; Mark 14.12-16, 22-26
Two disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “Take this; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. Jesus said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God (Mark 14.22-25).
Mark’s gospel clearly makes Jesus’ last supper with his disciples a Passover meal. In gathering for this festal meal, Jews then and now remember and celebrate the event that founded Israel as God’s people—their exodus out of slavery into freedom. They celebrate the exodus in story.
At his last supper, Jesus makes bread, broken and given, a sign of his body—of himself. Through this sign his life nourishes ours. This sign calls us to turn into bread for others, to become what the sign signifies.
Jesus makes wine, poured out in a common cup, a sign of his life blood and of a new covenant between God and humankind in his person. This gesture links the outpouring of his life with the blood of the lambs that saved the early Hebrews. The cup of wine Jesus blesses at the meal also anticipates the cup of suffering he drinks in his passion. Jesus keeps this new covenant pledge unto the end on the cross.
- What pledges have you kept in your life?
- How do you keep the pledge that sharing Jesus’ cup expresses?