The Final Meal
Notes
Transcript
A lot of you know this but I grew up in Maryland, but for a short period I did an internship in this small town called Richland Center Wisconsin.
And it was a small town surrounded by trees with nothing around
And the culture is a little different (not in aa bad way, just different)
But I remember one of the things I noticed when I first moved to that area was someone would invite me over to their house for dinner.
And where I grew up whenever we would go to someones house the food would be ready right when we got there, we would eat aa few minutes later and we would hang out for a little after and dinner would last maybe 2 hours
But then this area I would go to someones house and would ask whats for dinner and they would go “I just put it in the oven (or the crockpot)” (thats how you know it would be a long night)
And then we would talk for an hour or 2, and then maybe play a booard game
And eventually we would eat and then maybe talk a little longer.
And I am telling you this because you probabably remember this from last week but we are looking at this last week of Jesus’s life
And today we are looking at a meal He has with his disciples known as passover and this meal was a meal that lingered.
Because in Biblical times eating with people was a very intimate time, it showed that you were close to someone and you would be so present during that time.
And this meal was considered the most sacred meal that they would have all year.
And I want to start in verse one
And you might notice we are doing things a little out of order, from last week and the reason is because the first Sunday of every month we remember this meal
But this shows how this years meal that the disciples had would be even more important. It says this:
John 13:1 (NIV)
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Isn’t that a beautiful verse? And we will come back to the second half later, but did you catch the first part.
Because Throughout Jesus’s ministry Jesus had times where people would come to him, and go Jesus can you do this?
Mary would came to him when His ministry first started to turn water into wine, and He said my hour had not come
They came to Him to heal Lazarus, He said wait.
And there are more examples
But here is Jesus going I know my hour has come.
So this is a really sacred moment, because He is going my hour has come, and they begin enjoying this meal together but look at the next few verses because there is a problem(2-5)
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
They are enjoying thiss beautiful meal and this verse two comes and it says that satan had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus.
In fact most people believe Jesus had already been paid for telling where they could find Jesus
And so this puts a damper on the meal, because Jesus knows theres this guy that is getting ready to betray Him and He is the one that opens the door for Him to die on the cross
And you get to verse 3 because the build up in this verse is strong, and let me read it again because it goes “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, (okay!) and that He had come from God and was returning to God, (alright), So He got up from the meal…
Any one else at this point going Jesus is getting ready to smite Judas, (I mean He has all the power and authority) I mean I think if I was here lightning would come from the sky and take him out.
Maybe I would turn Him into a pig or something.
But the passage keeps going so Jesus takes off His outer clothing (okay maybe He’s going to do an old fashion first fight) and wrapped a towl around his waist, and He begins to wash the disciples feet.
This would have been shocking to read, because this is not how you treat your enemy is it?
And I just want to pause here because this is a really big statement, because you could be sitting in this room and say “I hate Jesus” or “I want nothing to do with Him”
And Jesus would say well “I love you”
And not just that but I love you more than you will ever know.
I mean if you have a kid they can do a ton wrong, they can hurt you, they can say mean things, your kid might get really mad and they might even go “I hate you!”
but the truth is you love your kid right? And there is probably almost nothing they could do where you would go “Get away I do not want to see your face again”
And really we see this with Jesus, but on a such larger stage. He loves you regardless of your beliefs, feelings toward Him, He loves you whether you have messed up a crazy amount or done things that are awful
And His heart breaks like a parent, but He loves you.
And lets look at this next part in verses 6-17. It says:
John 13:6–17 NIV
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” 10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
So Jesus begins to wash the disciples feet and this was a nasty Job,
in fact in biblical times they only had sandals and did not have cars.
And not just that but the roads were disgusting, because people had animals and not to be a little TMI but animals go to the bathroom where they want. And so after awhile the roads basically become disgusting
And so if you walk through this your feet get nasty
And so their feet are disgusting and In fact this was usually the job of a servant (who was the lowest in the household) to wash everyones feet.
I mean does anyone remember the show dirty jobs? Where the guy goes around and does the disgusting jobs that no one wants to do? Well this is one of those jobs.
But whats shocking is Jesus begins to wash everyones feet
And this is unheard of because it means that the person they were following was serving, but also making them clean.
And so Jesus is washing feet and He gets to Peter, and Peter actually tells Jesus “you will never wash my feet”
And you can picture his thought process, I mean you are the Messiah (Your a savior not a servant!) And even if you were a servant this job is nasty, and I don’t want you to wash my filthy feet.
But here is what I want you to get because while this is a nasty job, we serve a God who specializes in dirty jobs.
Because what happens in our lives if I had to guess each one of us have done things that we are not proud of, and when this happens we feel ashamed,
And a lot of times we keep those areas away from others because we think this area is to dirty to show anyone
And it might be an addiction, It might be a mistake we made, maybe just we go I have hurt people of said hurtful things
And we do our best to hide that from others because we think if someone saw that part of our life they would want nothing to do with us.
But the beautiful thing is Jesus does not do that, but he says no, There is no place you could go, or thing you could do where I will say you are to filthy
You know we can give Jesus the dirtiest part of our lives and He will love us,
And not just that but He helps us become the person He has called us top be
Its like if you have ever been in my car (it looks like this!)
Maybe its not that bad, but its probably close because we have two kids that destroy it.
Where its filled with trash, toys, goldfish, It sometimes has weird smells, there are spills in it.
And you kind of end up in a nasty and its not the picture I had when I purchased it.
And what happens if I ever give any of you a ride you might notice this (but I will try to cover up just how bad it is) I will throw it in the back or move it places, I might throw a blanket over everything
(And we do clean it but its usually destroyed the next day)
But you know on a serius note, there are things in our life that are holding us back from where God is calling us, And often times I think we end up in a place in our life where we might go, I did not picture this is how life would be.
I never thought I would be here.
And we might try to cover it up and act like things are fine.
But can I just say thats not where Jesus leads us.
Becaause He does not just want to cover those places in your life, but He wants to take them and make them clean.
He wants to help you become the people He created us to be.
And lets just finish by reading John 13:21-26
Because the scene shifts from the foot washing part to where they are actually eating.
John 13:21–26 NIV21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” 22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.” 25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
So they are now sitting around a table and Jesus tells them one of them will betray Him In fact He tells them the person who betrays them is the person he gives this bread too.
And He proceeds to give the bread to Judas.
Which showed Judas would be the one who betrays Jesus and is the reason He is crucified
But the insane part of this meal is that Jesus does not just give the bread to Judas, but He gives it to all the disciples, almost implying that each of them would betray Him or turn their backs on Him.
But here is the beautiful thing, because some people would say wow Jesus really used the bread as a judgement tool right?I mean you do not want to be the person who gets the bread...But the bread does not represent Judgement, but Grace.And the beautiful thing is He is extending His grace to everyone.
And I just want to point out one final part about this meal as we get ready to close, because some of you have probably seen this painting (SHOW PAINTING), while its a beautiful painting its probably not what that last supper looked like (they were not all sitting on the same side of the table)
because the last supper most likely looked something like this (SHOW PAINTING)
They most likely had this set up where there were three tables and they would have traditionally reclined on their left arm and would lean towrds the person on their left and then they would use their right hand to eat.
And one thing thats interesting about this taable set up is scholars believe (from the different descriptions of this meal that on one side of Jesus was John and on the other side of Jesus was Judas.
And this is crazy is these two seats would have been a place of honor (since Jesus was hosting this meal) and you think Jesus would have went, you know Judas is getting ready to betray me I want him as far away as possible.
But He does something a little different, because Jesus has Judas sit next to Him.
And whats crazy about this is one side of Jesus was a discple that was leaning into Him,
And on the other side was a disciple that was leaning away from Him.
And so as we close I think thats a question that we should be asking. Do I look more like John leaning into Jesus or Judas leaning away.
Both were far from perfect (aand if we are honest had their own baggaage, but they leaned different directions
And so as we close we are going to remembering this meal that Jesus extended to His disciples,
because the truth is we are all have a little bit of filth in our life, but I can promise you that your filth is not to dirty for Jesus.
And so as we close we are going to remember that grace, that Jesus has extended to us through receiving something we call communion. And its just a way that we remember this meal and the sacrafice that Jesus did on the cross.
And so during this last song I would invite you to reflect.Maybe there is an area in your life that just feels not great this morning.
Maybe you recognize its an area thats different then where God desires it to be. Heres the good news this bread and juice does not represent judgement, but Grace and we can lean into that grace. Amen?
Pray
Song
Does anyone remember that verse we talked about at the beginning that I said I would talk about at the end? It was verse one:
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.’
Jesus loved us to the end and as He died on the cross for us, and even as He served this meal for His disciples it was His way of saying “I will love you even as I die on the cross for you”
Lets lean into that this morning…
This morning this is the Body of