This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me

 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.  Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."  And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.  But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.  And truly the Son of Man goes as it had been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"  Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.

- Luke 22:14-23

In our current readings, it is Holy Week, the final week of Christ's earthly life as Jesus.  Yesterday we read that in the daytime Jesus was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet.   Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.  Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.  And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.  Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.  So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.  And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.  So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.  Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.  And He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."  So they said to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare?"   And He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters.  Then you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready."  So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.  Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  My study bible says that Christ has a fervent desire for this Passover because this meal will give the mysteries of the new covenant to His follows.  Also,  it will inaugurate the deliverance of humanity through the power of the Cross.    In this solemn moment He is clearly acknowledging His suffering and death to come, and Resurrection in the kingdom of God.

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."   My study bible indicates to us that this first cup is a conclusion of the Old Testament Passover meal that Christ eats with the disciples in order to fulfill the Law.  Until the kingdom of God comes is about Christ's Resurrection -- at that time He will eat and drink with His disciples as noted in the Scriptures (24:43; Acts 10:41).

And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."  The root of the Greek word for gave thanks is "eucharist."  My study bible says that this word immediately came to refer both to the Liturgy and the sacrament of Holy Communion.   Before the end of the first century after Christ's birth, a manuscript called the "Didache" ("Teaching") refers to the celebration of the Liturgy as "the Eucharist."  In 150 AD, St. Justin writes of Holy Communion, "This food we call 'Eucharist,' of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing [holy baptism] for the forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ commanded us."  Christ tells His disciples, "This is My body."   From the beginning the Church accepted Christ's words as true, "that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from Him is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus" (St. Justin).  For the Orthodox East, this was and remains simply a mystery, as was the Incarnation itself by the power of the Holy Spirit.

"But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.  And truly the Son of Man goes as it had been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"  Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.  We note that Judas is also invited to the table for this mystical supper.  My study bible notes that Jesus is trying by all means to save Judas.  It is Judas' unworthy participation that leads to his destruction (see 1 Corinthians 11:27-30; compare Esther 7).

My study bible comments that it is Judas' "unworthy participation" in this first Eucharist, the mystical supper given by Christ, that leads to his destruction.  He has a chance to repent, to "change his mind" (as the Greek word for repentance in the Gospels, metanoia, literally means).  He intends to betray Christ, and he follows through.  He does not return to the flock, He does not return to Christ when he realizes what he has done, but takes matters into his own hands.  He does not return for confession and even possible reconciliation (Matthew 27:3-5).   To our modern ears this seems harsh, unmerciful.  How is it possible that the endlessly merciful Christ would not somehow manage to save Judas?  Why does he meet his own self-destructive end, even for the betrayal of Christ?   It seems to me that our modern ears somehow do not take the mystical reality of Christ's words and teachings for great substance.  That is, the realities behind the teachings, the words, the actions, the choices of each of us somehow do not register as significantly as they should.  Judas eats of this first Eucharist, even while he plots to betray Jesus to His suffering and death.  What we might fail to grasp within each of our choices is the significance of the betrayal of spiritual truth and power.  Does Christ's mercy simply mean that we can ignore our own sins?  Does it mean that we don't need to take seriously the power of our own words and choices,  because Christ's mercy is always present to us?   Somehow, it seems to me, we frequently tend to diminish the power of spiritual truth because of our understanding of Christ's infallible and unfailing mercy, always present to us and always reaching to us.  It is as if this inexhaustible mercy negates any need for self-responsibility, our own process of change and transformation -- metanoia in the Greek, "change of mind."  A change of mind is a depth of change within that is more than simply a decision that we have erred.  It is a commitment to do differently, to be different, to think differently.   Christ's mercy does not negate the power of our own choices.  It does not mean that our refusal of such mercy is without consequences in our own lives.  In a modern context, we quite frequently have an understanding of what it means to be a decent and good person, but outside of the spiritual realities of the teachings of Christ.  We know what it is to be good and kind to others, to be respectful of persons.  We know the importance of charity.   We debate about healthcare and the right of healing to all.  We have a proliferation of social rules governing how we should behave toward one another.  All of this is complete outside of any context of faith or religion at this point in a secular society.   But where does that leave our understanding of the power, authority, and consequences of spiritual truth and our refusal to hear it?   Where does that leave us in terms of the realities of our souls, what touches us most deeply, and especially the true power of choices?  Because we understand behavior that is derived from the use of abstraction, principle, reason, it seems that we can discount the spiritual reality behind these truths.   Where is the soul, and where is the spirit?  How does all of this truly impact us at levels deeper than that which we normally perceive and perhaps ignore completely in our day-to-day lives?  These questions remain important, because as long as God or faith is a concept that remains outside of intellectual reasoning or abstract thinking, we can easily discard God as just another concept, a different way of thinking, an abstract idea, a theoretical model.  And that is to discard the reality of the spiritual underpinnings of our very lives and creation.  The Incarnation itself teaches us something essential about God:  part and parcel of our lives, inseparable from all that we are.  So it is with the mystical supper, and the work of the Holy Spirit in this mystery.  We may not be able to prove this reality under scientific conditions, we might not be able to make a study of what is truly a mystery, but that very mystery is part of our very lives.  As St. Paul said to the Athenians of their unknown god, quoting two Greek philosophers:  "'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" (Acts 17:28).  It is the reality behind the truth taught that we are concerned with here, and without participation in and awareness of that reality, we lose.  By mere abstraction, by subjecting everything to our own perspective of reasoning alone, we lose, because we lose our participation in that which we don't see and control, and which may be constantly seeking to get our attention, to help us to grow in understanding, and deepen our spiritual awareness of who we are and need to be -- and where we need to go.  Christ's mercy is never-ending.  It is always there.  He died on the Cross for all, for each, and for Judas as well.  But without our attention, we fail to realize what we do, where we really are.  Outward works can so easily become mere hypocrisy, good intentions devolving to harmful practice.  What we truly need is something deeper and bigger than we can reduce to our own abstracts.  Let us consider what we lose when we fail to take that seriously.  Mystery means there is more than meets the eye, more than we can quantify or reduce to an abstract -- and yet even that remains present and working within and among ourselves.  Let us never take it for granted or fail to acknowledge and respect it.