A Devotion for Holy Week 2023

Mark 14:22-24; Matthew 26:26-28; Luke 22:17-20, John 13-17

“In the night in which he was betrayed Jesus took bread broke it and gave it to his Disciples, ‘This is my body, which is given for you… This is my blood, poured out for you.’”

On this night.

Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior gathers with those closest to him. Through the scriptures we know that the twelve disciples are there. It is likely that Jesus is also celebrating the Passover feast with other people too, such as his mother and Mary Magdalene at the very least. Whatever the final headcount the followers of Jesus are gathered on this night in honor of the Jewish Passover Meal. Wherein, they remember and thank God for His delivering the people of Israel from slavery at the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt into freedom in the Promised land.

On this night.

They remember that in the Tenth Plague all the first born in the land of Egypt where to die; as punishment for the murder of all the Hebrew infants. But even in this God gave his people and all who where with them a sign that they might be saved. That any home that had the blood of the lamb covering the lintel would be passed over. Death would not touch those covered by the blood of the lamb. Rather those that trusted and followed God’s word would be brought into freedom. Freedom sustained and magnified by the people’s relationship with God through the Covenant.

On this night.

God’s people remember their walk through the wilderness into the Covenant that begins the path of redemption and righteousness. The Covenant which outlines the ways in which the people of Israel will conduct themselves in relation to the holiness of God. For the freed people of Israel are no longer to act as those enslaved by sin. They are to no longer act as they had under the power of Egypt. No longer are they to be mundane. For God has set them aside to be a Holy people, His Holy People. Though the journey through the wilderness will be difficult. Israel will find that with the great I AM anything is possible and much that would break us can now be endured.

On this night.

While God’s Holy people are gathered in the promise of His love. Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, gathered with His disciples will share the stories of God’s saving work for the people of Israel. Not just those of the distant past in far away Egypt, but of what God is doing right now at their very table. He will proclaim freedom to the captive. Healing to the sick and the broken. Grace and love to the castaway. Jesus reveals that He is the vine, that He is the way and the truth and the life and that through Him we will find God. That we will find new life and joy beyond that world’s understanding in His free gift of love. But that this love and this gift will cost Jesus everything.

On this night.

Jesus will take bread and break it. He will share it with all those around the table. Proclaiming, “this is my body, which is given for you.” He will take the cup and give for all of them to drink saying, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” And that we should do this in remembrance of Him. For on this night Jesus Christ will and has shown us that He is the true Paschal Lamb by whose body we will be set free and given life. We see that He is the New Covenant, written in our hearts in his blood poured out for us and our salvation. We will see that God has set before humanity a new path to righteousness and redemption in the way of Jesus.

On this night.

We will see the love of God in the breaking of the bread and the sheading of the blood. For this the body of Christ.

Amen,

Pr. Spencer