Have you ever dreamt of something you wanted very much?
Something you would give anything to see happen…
Something that would fill you with deep joy, with utter contentment.
If it did happen, it was, literally a DREAM COME TRUE!
Well, we could say that what happened on the first Holy Thursday, during what is known as The Last Supper¸ is ‘a dream come true’.
Jesus had anticipated this moment for a long time… It was HIS dream…
At one moment, during the Passover meal, he left aside the usual Jewish ritual for that festive occasion.
He took some bread and said: “Take and eat, this is my body…”
Then, he took the cup of wine and said: “Drink all of you… for this is my blood…” (Mt.26:26-27)
This was the realisation of what he had said following the multiplication of the loaves.
At that time, he had spoken these words:
“My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (Jn.6:55).
At that moment, many people had stopped following him – they simply could not accept what they called such “intolerable language” (Jn.6:59).
His twelve friends had not understood either what he meant but they had remained with him… until tonight.
Hearing him speak now, they may have recalled that, when he had first spoken about this, he had added the words: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person” (Jn.6:56).
Some of them may have remembered… or perhaps they had not, overcome as they were by the solemn and sad atmosphere they could feel at that moment in the Upper Room.
They had noticed how Jesus seemed downcast and anxious… he was “troubled in spirit…” (Jn.13:21).
The Passover celebration was to be the most joyful occasion in the Jewish calendar – but for them, tonight, it was not so.
Later, much later, one of them wrote about that night and said: “He had always loved those who were his own in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was…” (Jn.13:1).
They had – finally – understood what that night was all about……….