Text: Luke 22:14-30
I’d like you to really read that text. Anything strike you as odd? See anything strange? Read it again.
Christmas is coming up. That is a time full of tradition. Families gather around tables and fireplaces and tell stories. Grandpa tells the kids about what mom did when she was your age. Mom tells the kids that grandpa is going senile and doesn’t remember it right. Dad tiptoes out of the room because the pie smells good and he doesn’t have a dog in this one. Which version is right? The likelihood is that both are correct, but we remember what was most important to us at that time.
Did you read that account of the Last Supper? Did you catch the 2nd cup or should I say first cup? What is that doing there? Why don’t we have two cup? Does this make the entire tradition wrong?
I obviously don’t think it makes the tradition wrong, but it is an example where knowing a little about Tradition helps. The Passover meal (which this was) has 3 or 4 cups in it. The one that is important to Christians is the one that contains the New Covenant. That cup is the one Jesus blesses for all of us. That first cup that Luke records is something different. Jesus gave thanks for that particular meal and shared something just with those disciples in that upper room. Take this and divide it among yourselves. I won’t drink anymore until the Kingdom of God comes. This is a private cup, a private thankgiving with his companions for the last three years. Think that might have been important to those disciples? Think a good historian interviewing those disciples years later might have picked up on that?
Just a thought. It is speculation. But Luke is a good historian and obviously a good listener. He cared about his audience, but he also wanted to get the story right. So we get a 2nd cup, a fondly remembered private blessing. Be sure in your family traditions to share those private blessings.
