Maundy Thursday- What Do You See?

The question is not what you look at, but what you see. -Henry David Thoreau



Thoreau wrote this line in his journal on an August night in 1851. He was criticizing those who looked at things but didn’t see what was really there. It was just a passing observation that he didn’t take to any other conclusions that I could find.

But when I saw it a couple months ago when preparing this series, it was one of the more powerful new insights. Many of Thoreau’s quotes have been around and used often. This one seemed perfect for the Thursday of Holy Week.

• What do you see on this holiest of nights, surpassing even the wonder of Christmas Eve?
• What is there to see that enlightens the soul and let’s us be participants in grace?

There is a table, set for Passover. Bitter herbs and a shank-bone; a roasted hard-boiled egg and a spiced mixture of nuts, honey, fruit, and wine. In the center three pieces of matzah covered on a plate and a cup of wine. It is like almost any other Passover meal then or in the 2000 years since. It is a ritual with depth and history and wonder. The participants recline and enjoy leisure, something their enslaved ancestors were not able to do. They laugh and enjoy the interactions.

But this table is set in a hidden place, an upper room in one of the city’s neighborhoods. At this point there are only thirteen people there, obviously a close knit group. They laugh and joke and ask deep questions. They no doubt have finished the ritual readings and glasses of wine. We can watch the obvious leader take one of the pieces of matzah and breaks it. One piece he dips into the spiced mixture and hands it to one of the others. Then he takes another piece and breaks it as well, says some words and looks at his friends. They seem to be confused. They apparently don’t understand. After they have eaten he takes a cup of wine and again seems to be saying more than the standard blessing. Again the group, now minus the one who shared the earlier matzah, looks at each other in disbelief.

If we did not know what we were looking at, we would not see what this all means. If we were not the heirs of two millennia of reenactments and remembrances of that one Passover meal, we would miss the wonder and hope of that event.

What will I see tonight? A ritual that I participate in because it’s what I do on this Thursday? Another uncertain theological event that we can argue about until, well, until the Kingdom of God is completely revealed?

• Will I see the bread and do as I always do? Will I see the cup and wonder why?

• Will I hear the words spoken at that other meal and experience in a renewed way what it means to have a body broken and blood shed for the proclamation of God’s grace?

• Will I finally know that in some mysterious way I am proclaiming the grace of God in Jesus’ broken body and the forgiveness of sin in blood shed?

Bread and cup- or more?

Ritual- or life renewed?

Words- or grace, the free gift of God?

It all depends on what I am open to see?