00:05The Cup
00:06Today we continue our exploration of the extraordinary events of Maundy Thursday.
00:12Yesterday we remembered how it began with Jesus washing his disciples' feet.
00:17Today we are going to focus our prayers on the Passover meal,
00:21the last supper shared by Jesus with his disciples on the night that he was betrayed.
00:26It's the familiar Passover meal, commemorating Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
00:33The table is laden with all the traditional ingredients—piles of warm, unleavened bread,
00:39an entire roast lamb, the symbolic bowl of salty water, cherisheth paste,
00:44bitter herbs and the four communal cups of wine.
00:47But then Jesus begins saying strange, unfamiliar things.
00:52He tears a piece of bread, looks me in the eye and says,
00:55Take and eat, this is my body.
00:57He holds aloft one of the four wine cups and says,
01:01Drink, this is my blood.
01:03How do I feel about this invitation?
01:06Lord Jesus, these are dark days.
01:09There is so much brokenness all around.
01:11I think of those people I know whose health is broken,
01:15whose relationships are broken,
01:18whose faith in you is broken.
01:19Over these next few days, as we approach Easter,
01:24may the message of your brokenness somehow bring these people a little wholeness and hope.
01:29May your blood bring them the unexpected gift of new life.
01:33In the darkness of their despair,
01:35may the first rays of resurrection soon dawn.
01:38The hymn they sang was Psalm 136,
01:42an ancient song of thanks for God's love and faithfulness in delivering Israel.
01:46Its refrain, repeated twenty-six times, is,
01:50His love endures forever.
01:52As Jesus stepped out into the darkness,
01:55both literally and spiritually,
01:57these then were the words echoing in his mind.
02:01Jesus faced the darkest night of his life,
02:04remembering God's faithfulness in the past
02:06and staking his very life on the love that endures forever.
02:10Loving Lord Jesus,
02:12thank you that your love endures forever.
02:14Two thousand years after that last supper,
02:18I eat your broken body,
02:20and you make me whole.
02:21I drink your blood and find forgiveness.
02:24Your love endures forever.
02:27Help me not to distance myself today from the brokenness of the world.
02:31Break me end pour me out.
02:33Your love endures forever.
02:35I offer myself once again as a living sacrifice to you,
02:40the Lamb who sacrificed yourself not just for me,
02:43but for every single person I will meet today.
02:46Your love endures forever.
02:49Amen.
