Holy Week

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- Hey, my name is Andy

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and welcome to the Last Supper experience.

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Now, I got a quick story for you.

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I wonder if I'm the only person that this has happened to.

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So a few months back, the family and I

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went to the movies to see Moana 2,

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and I had to get up mid musical number

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to go use the restroom.

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And afterwards I'm wandering through the hallways,

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making my way back through the theater,

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and I open the door and bam!

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For some reason, Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Chris Evans

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are trying to kidnap Santa Claus.

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Matangi is nowhere to be seen,

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and I had exactly zero idea what was going on.

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Now, turns out I had walked into the wrong theater

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and was in the exact middle of a different story.

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Have you ever done this?

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Or maybe for you it's streaming, right?

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Maybe an inconsiderate family member

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watched your favorite show on your account

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without you knowing, and they're wrapping up season two

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when you were expecting to be in the middle of season one.

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Either way, the experience is disorienting, right?

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Because you don't know where you are in the story

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so you're not only confused, you're robbed of,

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like, the weight and the power of the story.

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It's like starting a book in the middle.

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It's confusing and we miss out on what's really important.

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Honestly, I think this is what's happened with Easter,

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where we end up missing

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something beautiful and important.

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And I bet I'm not the only one here.

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I think our our lack of context for the larger story

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and jumping right into the middle of it

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has robbed us of the beauty and the brutality of it.

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It's like that and a few too many pastel shirts

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and plastic eggs with candy in them

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has just made us numb to

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the most important story in our lives.

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Now, I know I've been missing something here.

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And when I randomly pick up any book,

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or especially the Bible, and just jump into the middle of it

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and read a specific verse or passage or story

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without understanding how it connects

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to everything that happened before and after it,

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man, I miss out.

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I don't want to jump into the middle of the story.

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I want to understand how what I'm reading

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and how what I'm living and experiencing

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fits into the much larger and more important story

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of what God is doing.

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And really, that's what Holy Week is all about,

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trying to give us our bearings and context

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of how we're deeply connected to the story of God,

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where we stand in God's story and, man,

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that we can see it for what it is

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and see God for who He is.

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Recently, someone sent me this picture

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called The Hyperlinked Bible.

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And it's this visualization of how each verse

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and chapter in the Bible points ahead to other verses

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and refers back to others.

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Not only is it just kind of beautiful,

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it shows how the Bible isn't a series

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of random, disconnected stories,

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but how there's one deeply connected arc throughout.

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You see, the Bible isn't just the stories

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of what God has done,

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it's the story of what God is still doing,

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in ancient Israel and in my life and yours today.

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So this moment is for you.

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I might be prerecorded on a screen right now,

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and you might be watching this alone or with family

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or friends, but I hope that you hear me in this.

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This isn't really something to watch

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so much as something to experience.

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This is designed to help you and I remember.

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So before we go much further,

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grab something to drink, something to eat,

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maybe wine or juice or bread or crackers, whatever it is.

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And with that being said,

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we're just going to take a minute.

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This is our chance to pause, to clear our heads,

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to do our best to set aside the stress of our day

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or the stuff on your to do list,

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and focus our mind and our hearts on God.

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If it's helpful, maybe just pray something like this.

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God, help me regather my scattered senses.

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Help bring to my attention

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the beauty of what the Easter story means to me.

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Now take a deep breath.

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And then exhale slowly.

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Let even your breathing be a prayer.

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With each inhale, consider something that's on your mind.

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And with each exhale,

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let God take it off your mind for the next few minutes.

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When your head feels clear,

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just say something simple to God.

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God, would You speak to me

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and help me to remember Your story

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in a fresh way right now?

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That's nice, right?

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Since we know that walking into the middle of a story

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can be really confusing and just generally unhelpful,

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and to see how deep this story goes into us,

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we need to rewind.

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We need to go way back from the end

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all the way to near the beginning

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in the book of Genesis,

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where we are looking at the sacrifice.

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There's this guy named Abraham,

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and God does something that seems wild,

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but it is the pre-Passover, and it sets the stage

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for everything that we're going to be looking at

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and experiencing with the Last Supper.

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This is the sacrifice.

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God tells Abraham that he is to go up a mountain

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and to take his son, Isaac with him.

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Isaac was the son of his promise.

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It was not just his son, not just his firstborn,

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not just his beloved child,

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but it was also representative of his entire hope,

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his entire future, his downline, his legacy,

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and a sign that God was true to His Word.

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God asked him to take a knife to all of that literally,

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his hopes, his dreams, all the things

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that he prayed for and wanted for his life

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and for his children's lives.

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All of that was going to be gone in a flash.

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Take a second and consider what that would feel like.

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Put yourself into the story.

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It sounds insane, right?

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And on some level,

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it must have sounded that way to Abraham, too.

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But he obeyed, believing somehow that God would make a way.

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Abraham takes Isaac up on a mountain

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and lays him on an altar.

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And just as he raises the knife, God stops him.

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God sees Abraham's faithfulness.

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God saw a father willing to sacrifice his son

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and his future.

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And instead, God provides a ram caught in a thicket,

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a substitute sacrifice.

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God was testing Abraham's faithfulness,

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and Abraham got to see God's faithfulness, too.

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So no matter how we feel or how long we've been waiting,

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we have to remember that God always, always

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fulfills His promises.

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Now hold on to that idea, because this, in essence

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is the pre-Passover and it's foreshadowing something huge.

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But to get there we have to fast forward again

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about 500 years and a bunch of pages.

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To the Passover in the book of Exodus. Exodus 12.

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The people of God, they are stuck,

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not just in a bad season, not just having a rough year.

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They are stuck in slavery.

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For 400 years they've been beaten down.

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They've been trapped with no way out.

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And they cry out to God.

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They say, "God help us, get us out of here."

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And God, He hears them, He sees them, and He moves.

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There are plagues and all kinds of miraculous things going on.

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But God speaks and He tells them, "Tonight.

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Tonight I'm going to set you free.

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And here's what you need to do to get ready.

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Take a spotless and innocent lamb, kill it,

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take its blood and paint it over your door frame.

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Then eat the meal quickly because freedom is coming fast."

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And that night, death swept through Egypt.

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Every house without the blood of the lamb,

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the firstborn son died.

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But every house covered by that blood

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was spared, was saved, was redeemed.

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This was the first Passover where God's judgment

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literally passed over the homes

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of those who believed and trusted Him.

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Here's something to remember:

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that night every home experienced death.

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For the Egyptians, it was the death of their firstborn.

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But in the Israelite homes,

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it was the death of an innocent lamb.

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And after that Pharaoh, he couldn't take it.

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He couldn't hold them anymore.

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And they walked out of Egypt free

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for the first time in generations.

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Let that sink in.

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God saved and freed Israel.

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Where do you need God to free you?

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Where do you need freedom from past mistakes,

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from future fears, from addiction,

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from just feeling the need

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to make everyone happy all the time

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or trying to make yourself happy all the time?

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Remember, this wasn't just about that night.

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God was setting up a pattern.

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He was showing us that something bigger was coming.

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He was showing us exactly what our freedom costs

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and exactly what our freedom would cost Him.

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So one more time, we're going to fast forward

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again in the story, through 40 books, through 907 chapters,

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all the way till we get to Jesus and the Last Supper.

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Luke 22. This is what happened.

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It's nighttime, and we're in a room

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that might have looked something like this one.

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Jesus was sitting with His friends

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around a low table like this.

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Maybe their back hurt like mine does,

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but they're sitting there

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and they're celebrating that Passover that we just came from.

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Jesus is there too, maybe in the middle of the table

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where He could talk with everyone,

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with his closest friends.

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Celebrating Passover, they're remembering.

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Remembering back to that exodus,

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to that night of the Passover,

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that night that they made a rhythm

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of remembering every year.

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But this time Jesus does something wild.

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And I keep using that word because really,

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Jesus is flipping the script in huge ways.

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Instead of just talking about Egypt and lambs

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and plagues and doorposts,

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He talks about them right there in that moment.

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He takes the traditional Passover elements

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and He says, "This here, this is My body broken for you."

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He takes the wine.

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He says, "This is my blood poured out for you

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so that judgment would pass over you."

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Think about how wild these words would have sound.

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But again, within hours Jesus would be falsely accused,

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would be arrested, would be convicted,

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and would be murdered.

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He was that perfect lamb, slain, whose blood was spilled.

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Why? Because we are still stuck.

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We still need freedom, not from Egypt,

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but from our own brokenness and sin.

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And this freedom is not coming in Egypt.

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It's coming right here in our lives.

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And our sin and our fear and our shame

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and our anxiety and our addictions,

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in the weight of our own lives, Jesus brings freedom.

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And just like in Egypt, God says to us, "I see you,

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I hear you, and I am here to set you free."

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Jesus's blood, it covers us.

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It brings us new life.

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Those chains are broken.

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Death passes over.

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Freedom is here and Jesus has paid the price for it.

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And if you remember all the way back

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to those thousands of years ago

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and hundreds and hundreds of pages

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that started with Abraham

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and God saw a father willing to sacrifice his son

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and his future.

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Way back here at the end of the story,

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we're looking at the same thing.

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Except God is the Father

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who is willing to sacrifice His son

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for our hope and for our future.

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Isn't that amazing?

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This is the story that you and I get to live into.

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I want to fast forward one more time.

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Past the last pages, past the end,

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in fact, past the back cover to today,

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to right here, right now.

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Now, I'm doing this on a set that looks

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a little bit like what a 40 year old Midwestern guy

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thinks a cool first century tent would look like.

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But this is basically a dining or living room, right?

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It's where people gathered, where meals were shared,

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where conversation was shared.

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And this is really important.

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For most of us, we think of communion

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as something that only happens in a church service, right?

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And it only happens when the pastor offers us the thing

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and maybe we walk forward,

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or maybe it's just like a little tin foil shot glass

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with a wafer and a tiny little bit of juice.

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There's something beautiful that happens

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when we lean into the way that Jesus did it.

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When Jesus set up this whole thing,

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this whole set of tools to help us remember

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He did it around a table.

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Not just as a taste, but as part of a meal,

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something that would fill us,

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something that would sustain us.

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That's what I want for you.

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So, if you want to pause and do this with me right now,

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you can do that.

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If you want to pause and do this

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as a part of your Easter celebration,

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your Easter meal with your family, or both, that's great.

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It's good to have the extra rep

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and the extra chance to obey Jesus's words

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and remember that we are a part of this story.

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And today we get to do what Jesus told us to do,

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not just with our heads, not just with our hearts,

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but with our stomach, and even with our taste buds.

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We get to remember that God loves you so much.

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So, first we're just going to say thank you.

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Maybe something like this.

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God, we thank You for the gift of this bread and this wine

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and all that they represent, all that they represent

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from the beginning of your story to the end of it to today.

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That Your judgment passes over us

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because of the innocent shedding of blood.

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God, that You have created a way to make us right with You,

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to restore us to You, to remove our brokenness and our sin.

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We are grateful.

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Help us to remember with every part of us

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how loved we are by You. In Your name, Amen.

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So if you're ready and you have your elements,

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we take the bread as Jesus did.

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And He said, "This is My body broken for you."

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He said, "This is My blood poured out for you."

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Take and eat and drink.

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Jesus always, always flipped the script.

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And in unexpected ways He showed up

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to bring us healing and bring us hope.

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This is your rescue. This is your exodus.

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This is your new life.

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Remember, you are not stuck.

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Remember, you are not a slave.

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Remember, you have been set free.

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Live in it, walk in it,

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and never forget what Jesus has done for you

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or the story that you are a part of.

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