GOD’S LOVE: ARE YOU STILL AMAZED?
When Jesus gathered His disciples – not one, not three but all twelve – to have a final meal with Him before His death, there was no ambiguity that it would be their last supper together because He told them, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before My suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
Today, this famous Last Supper is synonymous with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It’s God’s ‘three-part’ plan and the rest, as they say, is His offer of salvation to all people through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Let’s take a closer examination of what these verses are really saying.
“I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you…”
It is hard to believe that Jesus expressed such passion about a meal, in the same breath He talked about the suffering that lay ahead for Him. He had as much certainty about eating with His disciples as He had clarity about the atrocities He was to experience later.
There was no downplaying of the brutal realities He had to face. Later, alone in the Garden of Gethsemane with three of His disciples, He told them plainly, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.” The language was graphic and left little to the imagination.
Yet no one could not change His mind about the Last Supper even if they tried. Regardless of how He felt inside, or how much darker the next day would be, He had been very eager and even arranged a large guest room for the communal meal.
“…before My suffering begins.”
In the various biblical records of events leading up to Good Friday (the day Jesus was crucified), we see that Jesus kept it real. At the Last Supper, He told His disciples everything that would happen in Jerusalem and did not leave out anything in favor of more palatable supper conversations.
However, today, we live in a pain-averse and pleasure-driven world where we assess the value of our lives, our jobs, our calling, and our relationships based on the amount of pain or pleasure we get out of them. As soon as painful issues surface, we think there is a problem and we look for a door to appear and hope it has a sign above it that says ‘Exit Now’!
Or perhaps our ordinary, untutored minds are to blame, but Jesus’ mission seemed flawed in so many ways:
The place. How could Jerusalem be His final destination because his popularity ratings there were so low that people demanded to have a hardcore criminal released, and to have Jesus take his place and be executed? It seemed untenable that God would call Him to fulfill His mission in a place that had such intense hostility toward Him.
The image. Did the disciples hear wrong about the mode of transport that would take Jesus into Jerusalem, and mistake a donkey for a horse? Picture Jesus entering Jerusalem in the final leg of His journey on earth in a common tok tok (three-wheeled passenger motorcycle) that scores on fun and functionality but nothing as dignified as a luxury chauffeur-driven sedan. How would that appear on mainstream media and global news networks today?
The details. Jesus could have died in a number of ways that did not involve the brutality He suffered that was beyond cruelty. How undignified! What if He died of assassination like some famous leaders and then had a few tender moments to share headline-grabbing words as He took His last breath? Wouldn’t they be more frame-worthy to decorate our walls with, than the scream He let out on the cross: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
His emotions. Jesus went through such agony that He experienced a medical condition known as hematidrosis or sweating blood. How could God have called one so wounded and vulnerable to be a Saviour?
The wrong place, the wrong picture, the messy details, and the emotional drain – they are all there from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. And they will be present in our lives even when we obey God. We think we heard it right from Him at first, and then find it hard to be enthusiastic when we sense a dreaded outcome in a workplace situation, or when there is a difficult relationship that needs our response, or when all we feel is our powerlessness to change anything. How could Jesus be so focused to stay the course even when it was so hard!
“I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
The Last Supper was a passion meal that Jesus wouldn’t miss for the world because it was as important as His death on the Cross in order to fulfill God’s plan to reconcile man to Him.
Those who ate with Him had to accept the full expression of His love, including His unthinkable suffering. The symbolism of the cup of wine and the bread that was broken would have been hard to swallow if we were at the table with Jesus. It was nothing compared to the cute plastic cups and the mini wafers we have nowadays. But it offered a taste of God’s love in its full expression.
Because of Easter, we can now be sure that the love of God works through miracles and messiness, hardships and highlights, pain and pleasure, regrets and redemption: it never fails.
This is God’s love: are you still amazed?
