It’s Time
Maundy Thursday – Narrative Lectionary 1
April 18, 2019
Grace, Mankato, MN
Matthew 26.17-30
Her water has broken and the contractions are getting closer together. The mother’s body is ready; it’s time to push. It’s not time because of some arbitrary due date declared by the OB/GYN approximately nine months earlier. It’s time because the baby says so. In another scene, the convict is led away in chains, trudging down a dark hall. The final meal has been eaten and prayers have been said. It’s time for death to come, not because of an arbitrary time set by the warden or governor, but because the trials are over and the appeals have been exhausted. These are but two examples of many that describe most times in our lives. We are not as regulated by clock time as much as we think, but rather the fullness of time.
“My time is at hand,” Jesus says to his closest friends/followers in our reading for tonight. Soon the final meal will be eaten, prayers said, trials over and the appeals exhausted. It will be time for death to come, but only at Jesus’ say so. The religious leaders think this will happen on their time and in their way, but they are deluded. God is not only in control of time but also works in, with, and through all time for his purposes. If Jesus’ time is at hand it is because it is the right time—God time—not because they or we say it is.
During his last meal, Jesus makes the most of the time he has left to spend time with the disciples, his closest friends. In the Passover meal they share, it’s time to let them know that they are about to be liberated from sin and death, just as their ancestors were freed from the oppression of the Egyptians 1,300 years before. It’s time for them to understand more fully that they will be sharing in Jesus’ cup of suffering in the years ahead. It’s time for them to get a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and a taste of forgiveness they’ll need because of what will happen in the days ahead.
Tonight, it’s time for some of our young people to join in that same experience as the disciples. It’s not time because we’ve set an arbitrary clock or the calendar fell a certain way; Jesus certainly didn’t set one. It’s not time because they’ve gone through some classes and studied some Bible passages. These are all fine, good, and important, but it is time not because they are ready to receive him. It is time because Jesus is ready to give himself away for these young people, and has been for some time.
In Jesus’ timeless self-giving act we are reminded that the time is near for death to be defeated. Water will pour from his side and the pains of crucifixion will intensify. Three days later it will be time for the earth to push forth new life from death, not because we say so but because God says so. Meanwhile, it’s time for us to pause and remember, to taste the forgiveness that keeps on coming no matter what we do, to gather with saints past, present, and future, and to continue our walk with Jesus to the cross and tomb. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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