The Open Chair: Waiting for the Messiah

As we all know, this morning’s Maundy Thursday Divine Liturgy is dedicated to the commemoration of the Last Supper. As I mentioned this previous Sunday, every single Divine Liturgy that we celebrate is, in fact, a commemoration of the Last Supper. But, as I was trying to explain to my kids this morning, this particular Thursday is a “specialer” commemoration of the Last Supper because it happened on the Thursday before Easter.

My kids had many questions: “Well, why did it have to happen then? Why didn’t they just do it another day?” So many wonderful questions that kids have, which you can barely answer after twenty years in ministry and which make you feel like an idiot! Nevertheless, I eventually imparted to them the importance of the event of the Last Supper, because it was a very necessary step before Christ continued in the story of our redemption through him. The next step, of course, involves the events of Good Friday and his suffering, Passion, and Crucifixion.

However, zeroing in on that very crucial event known as the Last Supper, we are reminded once again today that they were not gathered there on just any particular day. As I explained to my kids, they had to have the Last Supper on that day because it was the Jewish feast of Passover. They were following the laws and traditions, so they had to have the Jewish Passover meal when it was appropriate to do so—in this case, on the evening of Maundy Thursday, the night before Good Friday.

Of course, they maintained the proper customs and traditions associated with the feast of Passover, especially at that time. One of those customs was to leave an empty seat at the table, and that empty seat would be for Elijah. Elijah was known as the one who would come before the Messiah. Thus, generation after generation, the Passover meal anticipated the coming of the Messiah. The people maintained a tradition of looking forward, anticipating, and expecting that the Messiah would soon be in their midst. As a symbol of that expectation, they left a chair at the table for Elijah.

Elijah, of course, was a famous prophet from the Old Testament and one who ascended to heaven. The Bible tells us that he would come first, as the forerunner of Christ’s coming. Eventually, we would understand that the forerunner of Jesus Christ was, in fact, St. John the Baptist, his cousin, who had already come at that time and had been martyred for his role as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, a chair was kept for Elijah.

This aspect of Passover is important for that time, and it is important for us today. As we participate in the Divine Liturgy—the new Passover meal and the perfection of that blessed custom—we do so with anticipation and expectation of what is to come. This is a necessary element of the Divine Liturgy and of our own spiritual journey.

There is an open chair, both literally in the sanctuary today and, spiritually speaking, in our hearts, because we are waiting for the Messiah to return. For all of us, this should be a joyful anticipation. It is as though we are waiting for someone invited to join us for a meal. Perhaps that person is not there as soon as we wish, but we know that they will eventually come and that the celebration can truly begin when they arrive.

This is at the heart of the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, at the heart of the mystery of this sacrament, and an important aspect of what we commemorate here today. We know that Christ is going to return.

In the early tradition of the Christian Church, the Didache tells us that Christians would proclaim in Aramaic, “Maranatha! Maranatha!”—meaning, “Come! Come soon! We are waiting for you!” They called to God: “Come to us. Jesus Christ, return to us,” because they hoped that he would be in their midst as soon as possible.

So, too, we are gathered here today with this hope and expectation for a better future through the redemption that will be fulfilled in its greatness with the coming—the return—of the Messiah.

As we conclude our Divine Liturgy today, I want to say that, for me as a celebrant, whenever I see a parishioner enter the sanctuary, I have that same feeling. There is a seat open and waiting for you here today. The fact that you have come and joined us fulfills the promise that we were all meant to be gathered together in Christ’s name, so that we could proclaim with one voice: “Come! We are waiting for you!”