Matthew tells us that on an evening during Passover Jesus and his closest 12 friends joined around a dinner table to share a very special meal – although at that moment only Jesus knew how special it was. With sorrow but certainty Jesus looked from one of these friends to another. He caught their eyes and perhaps smiled, perhaps just looked into their souls as he could do so well. They waited in the silence. What was Jesus’ thinking? What would he say? Jesus broke the silence by telling them that in just a few hours one of them would betray him. Can you imagine the shock? “It’s not me, is it?” they asked, one after another. Finally, Judas looked at Jesus and asked, “Is it me?” “You have said so,” was all that Jesus replied. With that pointed encounter, Matthew shifts the scene.

Jesus took a loaf of bread from the table, held it for them to see, broke it in two, and said: “Take and eat. This is my body.” After all had eaten, He lifted the chalice that was in front of him, held it for all to see, and said, "Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many so that their sins may be forgiven. I tell you, I won't drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way with you in my Father's kingdom." As supper ended, Jesus led them into the night to the Mount of Olives to pray, to await Judas’ betrayal, and to begin the next act in this drama of salvation.

Today is Holy Thursday, a day when we remember Jesus great and deep love, share in the bread and cup as they did on that night so long ago, and show gratitude that we are one with each other and God through Christ. Many years after Jesus shared that very special meal with his closest friends, Paul wrote this by way of invitation for us to share and celebrate the broken bread and shed blood:

“Isn't the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Isn't the loaf of bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf of bread, we who are many are one body, because we all share the one loaf of bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17, CEB)

Holy Thursday combines joy, sorrow, thanksgiving, and wonder. One more thing needs to be added that sacred mix: unity. In this simple sharing of bread and cup Jesus told those disciples then and us today that his love is so amazing that he went to the depths of the ultimate sacrifice to save us and make us whole. Paul then took up that theme by reminding us that this divine mercy and grace unites us: making us one in Christ, one in faith, one with all of God’s children, one with each other.

John Foley had it right when he meditated on our unity in the body of Christ, a unity whose reminder is experienced every time we share the Lord’s Supper:

One bread, one body,
one Lord of all,
one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many,
throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
(Hymn # 530, Glory to God)

The next time you share in the bread and cup, remember that night so long ago when Jesus gave this gift to us to remind us of his love; remember that we are one with each other, with Christ, and with all of God’s children; and give thanks that because of God’s mercy and grace shown in Jesus Christ “we, though many…are one body in this one Lord.”