Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it

 

 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"  And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."  So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.  

 

In the evening He came with the twelve.  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.  The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.  Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

 

- Mark 14:12–26 

 

Yesterday we read that after two days (following Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple  and discourse on the end times), it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death.  But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people."  And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard.  Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.  But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted?  For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor."  And they criticized her sharply.  But Jesus said, "Let her alone.  Why do you trouble her?  She has done a good work for Me.  For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.  She has done what she could.  She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.  Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."  Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.  And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money.  So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.   

 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"   And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."  So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.   These two disciples are Peter and John (Luke 22:8).  My study Bible notes that the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) date the Crucifixion to the first day of Passover, while John puts it on this day, the Preparation Day (the day before Passover), on which they killed the Passover lamb (John 19:14).  Therefore in the synoptic tradition, the Last Supper is the Passover meal, while in John's Gospel, Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), dies at the exact time the Passover lambs are being slain in the temple.  It's impossible to determine which is historically accurate, but both are theologically accurate.  The Mystical Supper is the fulfillment of the Passover meal (in the synoptic Gospels), and Christ's death is the fulfillment of the Passover lambs being slain (John's Gospel).

In the evening He came with the twelve.  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish."  Jesus emphasizes both that His betrayer is one of the twelve and also that he is one who dips with Me in the dish.  My study Bible remarks that this is not so much to identify the person as an emphasis on the level of betrayal involved here -- that this was one of His closest friends (Psalm 55:13-15).

 

"The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."  My study Bible comments that divine foreknowledge of the betrayal doesn't take away Judas' moral freedom, nor does it take away his accountability.  For God, all things are a present reality:  God foresees all human actions, but does not cause them.  

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.  Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."  To give thanks has at its root the Greek word eucharist.  This word immediately came to refer to both the Liturgy and the sacrament of Holy Communion.  My study Bible reminds us that the Didache -- written before the end of the first century -- refers to the celebration of the Liturgy as "the Eucharist."  In 150 AD, St. Justin said 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 forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ commanded us."  Christ says, "This is My body," which the Orthodox Church has always accepted 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).

 

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.  My study Bible tells us that this hymn is a psalm from a group of psalms traditionally sung after the Passover meal (Psalms 113-118).

As Christ is surely on His way to His Crucifixion, He extends the final great gift to His flock, and to the Church.  He gives us the gift of the Eucharist.  Surely I am not going to be the most eloquent writer among all those, sainted and not, who have written and taught us about the significance of the Eucharist and all that it gives us -- nor among those to come.  But today it strikes me that this final parting gift (in addition, of course, to His Passion to come) is something we must never underestimate in its lasting impact and gifts to us.  We must understand the Eucharist as much more than simply a memorial or a way of remembering Christ and His Passion.  We must understand it as the first Christians understood it and as instituted right from the beginning in the Church.  It is inseparable from mystery in the fullest theological sense and in the context of the Church itself and its varied Mysteries.  A mystery in this sense is a kind of a door to the mystical Kingdom of Christ.  Here, His literal reference to His Body and Blood is also inseparable, it seems to me, from what it means to be part of the fullness of the Body of Christ, the entire mystical Church, and to be united within that communion, which is also the communion of saints.  To take the Eucharist is a way of affirming that we enter into participation in Christ's Body as fully as possible -- and the fullness of this is an ongoing mystery.  It is something into which we enter as a lifelong process of faith and its work within us.  And let us not forget that through Christ, we are also in the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit, for where One is, there is also the Trinity.  In short, in the Eucharist, Christ is offering us the gift of Himself, even as He goes to His Cross and His physical death as a human being.  In the Eucharist, He makes it explicitly clear this it is the very icon of His Incarnation, and as my study Bible indicates, His words, "This is My body" and "This is My blood" were from the beginning understood as solemnly true.  We may not understand at all how this happens, but it was from the beginning accepted as simply a mystery that could not be explained in worldly terms.  For the Orthodox Church, it has always remained so, and scholastic explanations were never a part of doctrine.   Whatever we understand about the Eucharist and its deep and enduring mystery, we understand that we are invited into Christ's Incarnational life, and that the Eucharist gives us Christ Himself, both fully human and fully God.  In our taking of the Eucharist, one way it is understood is as medicine.  Just as God became human in order to heal our brokenness, so the Eucharist is a kind of medicine for what ails us; we seek a deeper union with God in all ways possible:  through prayer, through worship, through the practices of the Church available to us, and through the Church's Mysteries.  In it, Christ offers His fullness for our own lives and we must consider, in my perspective, the fullness of the varieties of levels -- both known and unknown -- on which this might be at work within us.  What do we need help with?  Do we have a spiritual problem?  Do we have an emotional problem?  Do we have problems with relationships?  Do we need help finding God's way forward for us?  All of these and more questions are addressed and may be answered in the giving of this gift for which we give thanks, identically as we give thanks for the gift of His life, the Incarnation itself.  Let us not underestimate the extent of the gift with which He leaves us -- for the value of the gift is determined by the Giver, Whose sight is infinite and Whose horizon is so inexpressibly far from our own.  These immeasurable measurements also extend to the depths of who we are which only God knows, and to the full trajectory of our lives of which God only knows the fullness.  Let us be truly thankful for the gift whose value is so far beyond our capacity to calculate for ourselves.