A Feast For Men, A Feast For All
April 21, 2011
AT THE Last Supper, Christ bade a tender farewell to his dearest followers. “He loved them unto the end,” John tells us. His words and actions – the washing of the feet and the offering of his body and blood – are those of a man who has reserved his greatest expressions of love for the end. Those present hung on his every word.
This was a feast for men. It was no accident that only men were there that night. “I appoint unto you a kingdom,” he tells the gathered disciples. Christ wanted men – and men only – to lead his following when he was gone.
However, the idea that in selecting men over women, Christ was conferring privilege is a gross simplification. It was not privilege first but responsibility he gave them. At the meal, the apostles question the meaning of authority. As Luke tells us, “there was also strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.” And Christ explains what authority, or greatness, means.
And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief , as he that doth serve.
For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.
Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke: 22:25-30)
To lead is to serve and love.
There were no women in the room, but everything done in that room was meant for those outside it. The angel Gabriel did not appear to a woman because women were better than men or more loved by God. Only a woman could bring Christ into this world. Similarly, only men could be there that night for his final instructions and serve as leaders of his kingdom. In our innermost hearts, we all possess a secret and mysterious memory of that night.
