Last Meal

Maundy Thursday

April 17, 2014

There is a tradition going back

to ancient Greece, China and Rome

to let a condemned person choose their last meal.

Sharing meals has often had symbolic meaning,

accepting food symbolized that the person accepting

the food had made peace with the host who was offering it.

In accepting the food, the guest makes a truce,

giving up vengeance against the host.

And the condemned person’s choosing and accepting

their last meal symbolized their forgiveness of the executioner,

the judge, and the witnesses.

It’s still done in most places that have the death penalty

it adds a bit of humanity to the inhuman process of capital punishment,

Unfortunately in 2011, Texas -- the leader in the number of

death penalties carried out in the US --

stopped the final meal requests because one

offender requested an obscene amount of food

and then refused to eat it.

But until that time, there was a list that you could look at

on the internet of each person and the meal they chose as their last meal.

Some of the meals were expensive meals like lobster or filet mingon

but most of them were typical food:

fried chicken, grilled cheese, strawberry cake.
Things that evoked memories.

Things that their mothers made for them.

Things that reminded them of times

when their world was simpler and less violent

when they were just people instead of convicted murderers.

So what is your favorite meal?
Or better yet, what meal would you want to eat

if you knew you couldn’t eat any more meals?

My guess is for most people it would be something that

your mother or grandmother or father or uncle made for you.

Something that evoked a time or a place

more than a taste, it would be an emotion.

It’s probably more about recalling the person who made it for you

than the actual food. Because lots of times, food means love.

We don’t know what Jesus ate for his last meal.

We know what Passover meals consist of now,

but the menu has changed over the last two thousand years.

Maybe some olives, maybe some meat, maybe some lentils, or grain.

All we know is that they had bread and wine

And we know that Jesus took that last bread and that wine

and he told us to eat it in remembrance of him,

not because it tasted good or it was fine food,

but because it was Jesus -- broken and given to us.

Jesus gave himself to us in that meal,

just like mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandmothers

give some of their love in the food they make,

Jesus gave us his whole self. Given for us.

And in this last meal before he was killed

he sat with his betrayer, his denier,

those who pledged their loyalty and then fled his side later

and he ate his last meal with them.

And in John’s gospel, he washed their feet.

symbolizing his peace with them

a meal of forgiveness before they do what they are about to do.

And Jesus shares this meal with us,

a meal of forgiveness, sometimes even before we need to be forgiven.

Before we do what he knows we’re about to do.

Every time we eat this bread and drink this cup,

Jesus shares his last meal of forgiveness with us.

In showing us how he dies, Jesus shows us how to live.

As a gift, in service to other people, in forgiveness and love.

Our whole selves, broken, blessed, and given for each other.