Look both ways

In the classic 1985 film Back to the Future, the only way that young Marty – the main character in the story, who has accidentally been spirited back in time by a thoroughly eccentric scientist – can return to the present, and thus guarantee his future, is by ensuring that his high-school-aged parents fall in love again. Maundy Thursday calls us to return to the past in order to glimpse the possibilities of the future in an altogether different sense. It’s a day on which we recall the Last Supper and the time subsequently spent by Jesus with his disciples in Gethsemane, his betrayal there by Judas, arrest by the soldiers, and interrogation by the chief priests. Through bread and wine, year after year across the centuries – though sadly, for most, due to the coronavirus crisis, not this year – Christians have responded to his invitation ‘Do this in memory of me.’ We remember, but at the same time we look forward in eager anticipation to the continuing fullness of life he has made possible for us through his cross, and to the eternal kingdom he extends to us through his suffering and death. Look both ways: to what he has done; what he will yet do. That is the theme of the following session from my book Daily Prayer, Book 1.

To listen to me reading this whole session, please click the following link:

Read
During supper, he took bread, and having given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘Take this; it is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and, giving thanks to God, he handed it to them; and they all drank from it. Then he said, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, shed for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God.’ Mark 14:22-25

Ponder
There’s a piece of advice we will all have received many times as children: ‘Look both ways.’ I refer, of course, to learning to cross the road, and to the advice of the Green Cross Code: ‘Look right, look left, look right again.’

There is a sense in which Maundy Thursday invites us to do something very similar, only this time we are talking not about left and right but about the past and the future, and the difference those make to the present. ‘Take this; it is my body,’ said Jesus, and, as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians, these words are to serve as a constant reminder to Christians, calling to mind his suffering and death. Yet it was not all solemnity, for there was also a message of hope; a hint of joy to come in his words, ‘I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God.’ Here, then, is a call to look backwards and forwards, to remember and to anticipate. It is a message not just for Maundy Thursday, nor simply for each time we break bread and share wine, but for each day and every moment. We are called to live here and now in the light of what God has done and what he promises to do.

Ask yourself
Are you unsure of your ability to face the present or uncertain of what the future might bring? Is it time you reminded yourself of what God has done in Christ, and what he promises still to do?

Pray
Lord Jesus Christ, I remember today everything you did to bring me life: the heartbreak you experienced, the fear you faced, the questions you wrestled with and the agony you endured. Save me from ever forgetting. I look forward to what you have promised: a day when I will share with you in your Father’s kingdom where there will be an end to sorrow and suffering, sin and death. Save me from ever losing sight of that destiny. I look back, I look forward, and thus I commit myself in confidence to your service here and now, knowing that you are the same Lord, yesterday, today and tomorrow – the one in whom I can safely put my trust. Amen.

Remember
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and having given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, broken for you. Do this in memory of me.’ Similarly, he took a cup afterwards, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink, do this in memory of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death, until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Close
Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to remember, teach me to look forward in faith, and so teach me to live each moment in the light of your love. Amen.