Holy
Thursday, long with Good Friday and Easter form a part of the Holy Week season
known as the Triduum, which means the three day. The Triduum focus our hearts
and minds upon the outward manifestation of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ
in a way which we can almost understand what Jesus, through his incarnation,
death and glorious resurrection has wrought on our behalf’s.
St.
John and the other writers of the Gospels tells us that after Jesus’ entrance
into the Holy city and his indictment of the religious establishment at the
Temple of God and spending the week, which we now commemorate as Holy Week,
teaching the people, that he gathered in a rented upper room of a house,
possibly owned by the family of the young John Mark. This Upper Room which has
been referred to by some as the Cenacle, or Cenaculum which is from the Latin meaning “I Dine”. This room has been historically called the Upper Room.
The Cenacle, the Upper
Room, is also thought to be the very same location where after the Ascension of
Jesus into the Heavens that the one hundred and twenty Disciples gathered
together and where the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them and manifested the
reality of the living Jesus to them and in them, empowering them to go forth
and to proclaim the Gospel to all Jerusalem and to the ends of the Earth.
The Last Supper-First Supper
Jesus and his
Disciples came together for his Last Supper before his arrest, trial and
crucifixion and then his resurrection. This keeping of the Passover, which was
enjoined upon the people of Israel under the Old Covenant.
It was this very supper, which Jesus himself
shared with his closest disciples, this Passover which would be, not only his
last supper before his death, which began as the commemoration of the pouring
forth of the blood of the Paschal Lambs resulting in the national liberation of
the people of Israel of from Egypt with them, but would also become, through
the transformational work of Jesus, the very last supper of the Old Covenant
itself.
Through Jesus, this
Old Covenant sacrament become the first supper of the New Covenant which looks
to not the pouring out of the life’s blood of Paschal Lambs but rather to the
very pouring out of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“this is the my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for
forgiveness of sins”Matt:26:28
This sacrament, the
Lord’s Supper, the Communion, the Eucharist which Christians celebrate, is that
supper given to us and empowered and given it’s transformational properties
through Jesus’ death an resurrection.
Poured Out
Jesus tells us that
his through the page of the Scriptures, life is “poured
out” for us, in this, he is echoing the Prophet Isaiah who , under the Holy
Spirit’s inspiration foresaw this “pouring
out” of Jesus’ life.
“he
poured out his life unto death” Isa:53:12a
The Prophet continues to tell us the divine reason that
Jesus “poured out his life”.
“For he bore the sins of many, and made
intersession for the transgression.”
Isa: 53:12b
This “pouring out” was to show us that our
sins have been fully and completely dealt with in and through the person of
Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, the Second person of the Holy Trinity, in and by
his incarnation, fully God, yet fully human.
This “pouring out” of the life of the humanity
Jesus has been hinted at in many places found throughout the Scriptural
record.
We this even as the
Patriarch Jacob “poured out”
anointing oil and a drink offering upon his pillow stone after seeing the
vision of angelic messengers descending and ascending the ladder between Heaven
and Earth, erecting the stone a pillar to stand a memorial of the Lord’s divine
work, calling it “Bethel”, where he
said “Because God has spoken to me”.Gen:35:14-15
We see this “pouring out” in the consecration of the
Priesthood of Israel with anointing oil “poured
out” upon them to set them apart for the service of the Lord this was
especially true for the High Priest.Ex:29:7
and Lev:8:12
David who was called
to be King rose to be anointed by the Prophet Samuel by having anointed oil “poured” upon him to consecrate him as
the chosen King of Israel. 1Sam:16:13-15
David gives us a
prophetic glimpse into this “pouring out”
of the life of Jesus through one of his Messianic Psalms. David gives utterance to the experience of Jesus’ Passion upon
cross seven hundred years before it became a reality in the stream of human
history.
“I am poured out like water” Ps: 22:14
All these “pouring out” in the pages of the
Scriptures witness to us that the promised Messiah, be “poured out”, that is, his life would be given for us bring us to be
able experience the forgiveness and sanctification and even participation in
and with our Lord Jesus.
Jesus Poured
St. John, in his
Gospel account now brings to us a view of our Lord Jesus acting out his being “poured out” for us and to us. There in
the Cenaculum , that Upper Room, after the sharing of the transformed and elevated
sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus
arises , and removing his outer garment, symbolizing the temporary setting
aside of the radiant glory of his eternal deity, yet still retaining his full
undiminished divinity through the incarnation humble himself and taking on the posture of a household servant,
symbolized by a towel , takes a foot washing basin and “poured water” into it and
then proceeds to wash the Disciples’ feet .This is demonstrating to each and
all of us why Jesus’ is “poured out”
.
“(Jesus) got up from supper, and laid aside his garments; and taking a towel,
he wrapped it around himself. Then Jesus poured water into the basin, and began
to wash the Disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was
girded” Jhn: 13:4-5
What our Lord has done
is far more than may at first appear. Jesus is not just modeling a way of life,
that of being a servant to others, which in truth he is doing, rather, Jesus is showing the means by which this way of
life is entered in upon.
Those Disciples in
that Upper Room would not fully understand their Lord’s actions. Jesus then proceeds
to explain what he has done for them and to them and each and all of us.
“he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely
clean; and you are clean, but not all of you”(10)
Jesus now asked the Disciples,
and all of us a monumental question to which we all need the answer to, that is
the answer to why Jesus has removed his outer garments and poured the water and
took the servants towel and washed them.
“Do you know what I have I have done to you?” (12c)
Jesus now elaborates.
“If I then, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example that you
should do as I did to you. Truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his
master, nor is the one sent greater than the one who sent him. I you know these
things, you are blessed if you do them” (14-17)
What is Jesus showing
us? Jesus is telling us that he himself would through his own would be “poured out” through the Passion of the
cross, as David had wrote in Psalm :22
“ I am poured out like water” unto
death, that is , Jesus would die through the Passion of the cross to manifest the washing away of humanities
sins, making us clean completely, forgiven. This is the heart of that New Covenant
which our Lord has made for us, of which the sacrament of the Communion speaks
to us regarding.
This Forgiveness was demonstrated
through Jesus’ divesting himself of the glory,
that is the removal of his outer garments, and becoming as servant even to the point of
being “wrapped” in burial shroud of death, as the towel “wrapped” about his waist.
When come to see, that
is “know these things”, that Jesus
has “poured out” his own perfect holy
life, for us, we are then are called and anointed as Priesthood and sent to proclaim
this message to the world around us that they too, as St. Paul speaking of the
Church, wrote that it is through the “washing
of the word” can experience this forgiven.
“That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of the water by the word, through the promise of free justification and
sanctification in Christ, received……walk in
love, as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us” Eph:5:26
What we are being told
is that Jesus “poured out” his life
like water so that we might be experience the completed work of salvation that
he has accomplished for us, and that we in turn proclaim that to around us. When
others hear that message and believe it, they then are to be transformed.
Jesus Still Poured Out
Those Disciples who
gathered in that the Cenaculum, the Upper Room, were then given an even great experience
of the Lord Jesus’ holy life being “poured
out” to them. This “pouring out”
on the Day of Pentecost empowered them, and all believers to go forth as we are
sent. This “pouring out” was shown as
the Holy Spirit, the Third person of the Trinity, manifest himself in the very Upper
Room where they gathered, where Jesus “poured
water” and washed their feet after he had instituted the Communion of the
New Covenant.
St. Luke in his
account, records the words of St. Peter in his reference to the Prophet Joel,
explaining to the multitude of Jews from around the Roman Empire what was taking
place that day on streets of the Holy City.
“And it will be in the last days; God says I will pour
out my Spirit upon you all, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your
young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams; even on my bound
slaves, both men and woman, I will in those days pour out my Spirit “Acts:
2:17-19
In the coming of the Holy
Spirit, Jesus has and is still “pouring
out” his life to us and in us; as Jesus told the Disciples only hours
before his arrest and crucifixion and he being “poured out like water” in the Passion of the cross, that he would himself,
come to them, and to we all, in through the agency of the Holy Spirit speaking
of his “pouring out” to them shortly
after he “poured water” into the
basin.
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” Jhn: 14:18.
Jesus has and is still
“poured out” to each and all of us to
sanctify us and send us forth into the world around and proclaim to each and all,
that Jesus has poured out his life for, to and in us and even now “pours” himself into our very being that
we might have eternal fellowship with our God, the Holy Trinity.
The message we
are concentrated to and sent to proclaim is ,that Jesus’ is
“poured out like water” that we might experience the forgiveness to each and all who will but freely be receive it.
“poured out like water” that we might experience the forgiveness to each and all who will but freely be receive it.
Benediction: May we each and all experience our Lord Jesus’ “poured
out” life and be forever transformed, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion 2101 Old National Pike. Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301
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