It’s cold today. Icy rain drops slide down the window pane and grey clouds hover in the atmosphere. The skeletons of trees bend and sway in crisp wind. Unlike other days I meet amidst Michigan spring, this one seems gloomier, perhaps even grumpier, like the earth woke up on the wrong side of the moon.
It’s Maundy Thursday. The day that set a series of events in place some two thousand years ago that would change the world and those who live in it. Whether a believer or not, most know this is the day that Jesus Christ began His journey to a Roman cross, crafted by the scorns of sinners. I won’t dive in to a full description of the history that took place on this day but I encourage you to discover it on your own in Luke chapter 22. Instead, I want to share something I felt compelled to write about. Something I discovered in my own reading of Luke chapter 22. Creativity eludes me this morning in how to transition to this discovery in some poetic and artistic way so I’ll just spit it out.
Jesus was eager. Jesus was eager for the last supper. Something about that descriptive word made me pause and search out the definition of what it means to be eager.
Eager; Wanting to do or have something very much.
Jesus was eager for the events that He knew were about to take place. Maybe your translation read differently than mine but something about the word caught my eye and my heart. He was eager. He wanted very much to share this meal with His disciples, friends and children. He wanted very much to set in motion a divine plan to save the entire human race. He wanted very much to reach the moment He could break bread and pour wine. Can you imagine? A God who was once timeless and free to exist without a clock as master suddenly dictated by the rise of the sun and the crescent of the moon. At His birth, Jesus became susceptible and available to feel eager as He engages the waiting and ‘tick-ticking’ of time up until this very moment; the moment He was made for.
I thought about the empty room prepared for the last supper this morning. I imagined the table sitting in the center, empty and low to the ground, with plush cushions collected around it. I imagined the dusty desert air floating in the light that streamed through wooden shutters. It’s quite. Waiting and suspenseful. The room would soon be filled with twelve men, hungry and eager to share a meal and the mission with the Lamb God. Do I find myself just as eager?
“When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the Kingdom of God.” Luke 22: 14-16
ToBeKT 