interpretation

notice the exaggerated leaning in
of the men who
chose to follow Him

as judas
his cloak tinged
in green greed
and envy
his feet clean from the washing
slips out
to put in play
his promise

splotches of red
in the background
like His blood
matted on the ground
and spattered on the clothes
of those
who would ream the cat of
nine tails

black at his feet
for night ahead
awake and alone
in the garden

purple:
magestic royalty
of which He was
and that given up
for these very men
and us,
to follow

everything is bathed
in blue
the cool hue
of sadness

there is no ray of light
shining on His face
no trace of His kingship
or favor

human, as we
in the dread of bitter
suffering

but note the table
bathed
in light

the bread
the plates
and cups of wine
He called
symbols of Himself

take, eat
drink
and remember

the body of Christ
given for
you





*A few thoughts from Frederick Buechner concerning the last supper:

On his last evening, they eat supper together for the last time, the rider and his friends, in some large room, upstairs somewhere in that city, a real room with things in it carpentered out of wood, coarse cloth, ragged moth at the candle flame, clink of pottery.

Hands of bone and muscle move through the air, the sounds that men make eating. One of them wipes the back of his hand across his bearded mouth. another eats like a drunk, never once taking his eyes off the one face of all their faces that is still, in the way the air just before a storm is still………

Ever since, the bread has been broken, the wine poured out….some come, not so many any more but always some, and the Lord knows why they do, why we do….probably because though there is much we cannot understand ……the inexorable life in him draws us to him the way a glimmer of light draws a man who has lost his way in the dark. Because we are hungry for more than bread. Because we are thirsty for more than wine.