Sermon manuscript:
Calendars go together with culture. They help to reinforce
the culture. For example, on July 4th, we could ask our neighbor,
“Don’t you know what day it is?” And they could probably tell you. It’s
Independence Day. What happened on this day? The Declaration of Independence
from Great Britain was signed in 1776. It was the birth of our nation as an
independent entity.
Besides national events and national culture, there are also
more personal calendars. We remember the days of births. We remember anniversaries.
Remembering marks the person and event as something special.
In our Old Testament reading today we learned about a
festival that the Lord himself instituted for his people, the Israelites. The
Lord told Moses and Aaron that they were getting a whole new calendar. That
month was going to be the beginning of the year. On the tenth day they were to
choose a yearling lamb. They were to keep it with them until the fourteenth
day. Then they were all to slaughter the lambs at sunset. The blood of the lamb
they were to put on the sides and tops of the doors. They were to eat the lamb
roasted, whole, over a fire. They were to eat it in haste. That is because they
were on their way out. That night the final and worst of the ten plagues
against Egypt would come down upon their heads. The Angel of the Lord would
strike down the first born in all the houses that were not protected by the
blood of the Lamb.
So, in a way, this was the Israelite’s Independence Day,
although that is entirely the wrong word for it. If anything it’s their
“dependence day.” From that day forward they would be dependent upon the Lord
their God. But it was the beginning of their nation as a separate entity. They
were liberated from their slavery in Egypt. They became God’s own nation, royal
priests, the only nation whom God chose out of all the rest.
As you heard, at the end of the reading, God tells the
Israelites to make use of this day on their calendar. They were to celebrate it
every year as a memorial of what happened.
And so it came to pass that the Lord Jesus and his disciples
were observing the festival of Passover on Thursday of Holy Week so many years
ago. They were gathered together in an upper room that had wonderfully been
prepared for them in advance. It is in the midst of this meal that Jesus
instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed,
took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the
disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you. This
do in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup after supper,
and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of
you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness
of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Perhaps you can see the similarities to the Old Testament
festival of Passover. Passover was a memorial of what God did for the
Israelites in Egypt. Jesus speaks of the Lord’s Supper as a memorial. Of his
body he says, “This do in remembrance of me.” Of his blood he says, “This do,
as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Thus this supper is a memorial
of Jesus, and what God would do to him and through him such a short time after
this. Less than 24 hours after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he would be
lying in a tomb, dead—the Lamb of God that had been sacrificed for the sins of
the world.
But the Lord’s Supper is also different than a memorial.
With a memorial everybody understands that the thing that had been done is not
really there when it gets remembered. The lambs that the Israelites sacrificed on
the Passovers following that original Passover were not the same lambs whose
blood was painted on the doors of their houses. On July 4th there
isn’t a new declaration of independence that is written up and signed. On
birthdays the person is not born again. On anniversaries the couple is not
married again. The event lies in the past, perhaps even somewhat covered in
dust. Then, every year, it is taken out again and the dust is blown off by the
remembering of it.
Jesus’s words are quite different. He says, “This bread is
my body. It is given for you.” These verbs are in the present tense.
Furthermore, he says, “for you.” For whom? Just for the disciples who were
there on that night? No, because Jesus tells them that they are going to repeat
this supper, and we know that it was repeated with larger numbers than just the
12. So the “you” that Jesus is speaking of is Christians, his disciples—you—however
many there might be, or wherever they might be. Whenever this is done, that
bread is his body.
The same thing is true also of the cup. The verbs are in the
present tense. It is his blood that is shed for you. Furthermore, this blood
forgives your sins. This is quite different from a mere commemoration. There is
something that actually takes place in the Lord’s Supper. Namely, Jesus’s body
is eaten. Jesus’s blood is drunk. All our sins are forgiven according to the
new testament that God has established with us in Jesus’s blood.
The Lord’s Supper is also different from merely a
commemoration in the way that it is supposed to be used. If this were only a
commemoration of Jesus’s death, then it would make sense that it should only be
done once a year. Passover is celebrated once a year. Birthdays are celebrated
once a year. Jesus instituted this supper on a specific day. He died on a
specific day. But Jesus does not tell the disciples to have the Lord’s Supper
only once a year. He tells them that however often they do it, they should do
it in remembrance of him. It is quite probable that in the apostolic church the
Lord’s Supper was offered every Lord’s day, that is, every Sunday, and perhaps
other days besides. There is no regulation that we have to do it on Thursday or
Friday or Sunday. However often we might do it, we are to do it in remembrance
of Jesus.
In our Epistle reading, the apostle Paul is speaking about
the Lord’s Supper. He says that as often as we eat this bread and drink this
cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. This gives us some insight as
to why the Lord’s Supper is different from a mere memorial, and why it isn’t
observed only once a year or on certain days. The Lord coming again is the
purpose of the sacrament. How can we be prepared for the Lord’s coming? Only by
the Lord’s sacrificial death—the body of which and the blood of which we eat
and drink in the sacrament.
And when is the Lord coming again? No one knows the day nor
the hour. So how can we assume that there will be another Maundy Thursday, another
year, that we can observe? Even if the Lord might not come in his glory for all
people, it might very well be the end of the world for you. Jesus might come
for you. This could be the last Maundy Thursday for any one of us. How can we
be found worthy and well prepared for whenever that might happen? There is only
one way. It is by the death of Christ, by his holy body and blood that was
offered on the cross.
Thus, for Christ’s coming, there is no better way to be
prepared than by receiving and believing the promises that Jesus makes in the
sacrament: This is his body, given for you. This is his blood, shed for you,
for the forgiveness of all your sins. Believe this and you have exactly what
the words say. In this way—by faith in Jesus’s words—you are worthy and well
prepared to receive the Sacrament.
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