Holy Week: Intercession
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| In Remembrance of Me, Walter Rane |
In trying to make sense of how the events of the Last Supper align with the observance of Passover, I've spent a good amount of time studying Matthew 26, John 13-17, and various study references and resources. Based on my study, I feel like I have a much better grasp on the strengths of each gospel in relation to the Last Supper, much of the subtext I was missing before, and where the break between Passover and the Last Supper occurred.
Passover and the Last Supper
Taken together, these two gospels deepened my appreciation of everything that took place leading up to Gethsemane, the betrayal, and the trial by night.
It got much easier to envision the events in my mind once I found this diagram of the table layout, referenced in these notes for Matthew 26:23. Not a great image, admittedly, but it demonstrates where people were sitting in such a way to explain their movements and conversations.
The order in which everyone sat at this table was deeply significant because seating during Passover took one of two forms: by age or by importance to the host. Because Jesus was the host of the Passover meal, seating arrangements began heated debates about seniority and who should sit where.
The washing of the feet was a custom, rather than a formal part of Passover. The assignment for washing feet fell to the person where Peter was sitting. This explains the confusion about why Jesus starts washing Peter's feet, when that would've been Peter's job to do at the table. All of these customs are what Jesus is responding to and rejecting, communicating instead that the responsibility falls to all of his disciples to serve, rather than to be served. They each should be eager to wash each other's feet, not vying for the place of highest honor at the table.
This entire conversation would've taken place before the Passover began. And it's after the Passover begins that the conversation about the betrayal takes place.
When Jesus said that one of his disciples would betray him, he was talking to John to his right. He was also talking about the person to his left, explaining that this was a secret communication passing between Jesus, John, and Peter who was sitting across from them. This was all taking place during the portion of the Passover with the second cup of ritual wine. That was when the bread would've been broken and dipped in the charoseth, a mixture of bitter herbs, vinegar, and spices intended to look like the clay the Hebrew slaves worked in Egypt. It was during this dipping, done twice on Passover, that Jesus communicated his intent to reveal Judas Iscariot as a traitor. As Jesus dipped the second piece of bread and handed it to Judas Iscariot, he indicated to John and Peter who the traitor was.
The conversation amongst the apostles goes around the table, spread by Peter. He's the only one who could've done so. John was sitting at the end of the table and couldn't have discreetly told anyone else from where he was sitting. This is reinforced by the fact that Peter had to gesture at John to come tell him what was being said.
That Judas is in the chief seat, the place of honor with the host at his right, is no doubt the position Judas chose for himself. In a prime example of situational irony, the person in the seat of highest honor is a traitor with no honor. The dismissal of Judas was considered unremarkable by those who were there. We also have a healthy sense that Judas wasn't the type of person to leave the Passover meal before it was finished. Judas was unprepared to function in a world where his status as a Jewish man didn't automatically make him the most important, the most chosen person above all others. Judas couldn't have handled the demands of a faith that goes into all the world, including the Gentiles. Because of this, he would have no part of what Jesus would implement for his followers after the Passover ended. And through the gospel of John, we see everything Judas would've missed.
A New Covenant
Jesus Christ implements a new covenant, with new commandments and ordinances. As I've mentioned before, this is the breaking point between Judaism and Christianity. This is the moment where a "new" testament is born, distinguishing between it a the "old" testament. And within the underpinnings of what is new here is the Intercession of Jesus Christ. Jesus will end sacrifices through the shedding of blood, making himself the great and final sacrifice, under the Law of Moses. (See Alma 34:14) He will not replace the Law of Moses. He will fulfill all of the demands and requirements so that no more animal sacrifices will be necessary. Jesus Christ, in his role as Messiah, is about to change the covenant relationship between God the Father and humanity forever. And he will do it through the introduction of Intercession.
Let's talk about what that means and what it requires.
For Jesus to intercede on behalf of humanity before God, there needs to be a collapsing of the separation between God the Father and Jesus Christ. The relationship between them must be elevated to a degree that the Son takes on the divinity of the Father. The removal of this separation between Father and Son exists in function as it relates to covenant relationships, not in form as it relates to trinitarian notions of shared personhood. Jesus will become one with the Father, and their relationship will be glorified and perfected. The Son can then participate in the work of salvation and exaltation with the Father. And with that divine relationship, Jesus invites us to participate in that partnership, to be glorified and perfected through it. All the power Jesus has, he intends to share with us, to allow us to experience with him.
The entire purpose of Jesus Christ coming to earth was to expand the relationship between God and humankind. It was a fulfillment of a plan that took place in the preexistence, a return to "the glory I had with [the Father] before the world was." To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man has been the mission of Jesus Christ since the very beginning. And through perfecting his relationship with God the Father, he would lay the groundwork for glorifying and perfecting those who follow him.
In this relationship, Jesus Christ doesn't become a substitute or replacement for God. Instead, Jesus Christ empowers us to have a closer relationship with God than we could ever have on our own. Because of the covenant Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have with each other, in which Jesus Christ agrees to make intercession for us, we can grow beyond our human capacities for holiness. This is the framework by which the Atonement works for us.Otherwise, the benefits and merits of Christ wouldn't extend to us in any way. They would've only applied to and glorified Christ himself. We can access them because Jesus Christ decided to share them with us through covenant. That covenant between the Father and the Son is what gives intercession its power.
Jesus Christ knew he would for a church, that his church would be the instrument through which he would operate intercession with us. He preserved the lives of his apostles (with the exception of Judas Iscariot) to form this Church. And the Church is an instrument of intercession also through covenants. The covenants we make with Jesus Christ through the Church grant us access to the Father.
John 17 is where we see the promised blessings of intercession for the first time in scripture:
- Eternal life: knowing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ (verse 3)
- Manifestations of the Father's name (verse 6)
- Prayers of Jesus Christ on our behalf (verse 9)
- Unity and wholeness with the Father and the Son (verse 11)
- Joy fulfilled in ourselves, meaning unconditional joy that comes from within (verse 13)
- To be kept from evil (verse 15)
- Sanctification and Truth (verse 17)
- Unity with each other (verses 20-21)
- Glory (verse 22)
- Perfection and Love (verse 23)
- The Father's name (verse 26)
I mentioned in my last post that there was only one aspect of Passover that feels deeply significant to me as a Christian, but not in a way that makes me want to celebrate Passover. It's seeing how Exodus 6:6-7 is read and understood by Jewish people. It makes me appreciate the difference that exists between me and them, one I've never fully seen or appreciated before because I couldn't see it without the comparison between us.
As a Gentile, I would have no relationship to claim upon the God of Abraham without Jesus Christ. For those who aren't Jewish, we have no existing relationship with God to be born into. This intercessory relationship is how we become God's people. We needed someone to reconcile us to the Father, someone to show us how to enter kinship with God. We needed someone to provide the way.
The Jews have had that covenant relationship for thousands of years and have found redemption and deliverance through it and their worship. I believe that. I also believe that because of the intercession of Jesus Christ, I have a redeemer and deliverer too.
In its simplest form, that's what Easter means to me. And I've always struggled to articulate intercession and its significance to my faith until now. Something about examining Passover helped me to articulate it better than I ever have before. This, I feel, is the value of interfaith relationships--not in what we have to take from each other, but the clarity we have to give from the light we each have to offer from a different direction, making more visible than it would be if we were alone.
