1 April 2021 Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church
Holy Maundy Thursday Vienna, VA
“Handed Over, For You”
Text:
1 Corinthians 11:23-32; John 13:1-17, 31b-35; Exodus 12:1-14
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God
our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
For some Christians,
tonight is really no big deal. It is simply the night of our Lord’s final meal,
His Last Supper, with His disciples. Something to remember, for sure. Maybe
also to imitate. But nothing more than that.
For Rome, tonight is a
big deal for them partly because it is the institution of the priesthood -
Jesus ordering, or ordaining, His disciples-soon-to-be-apostles to continue
offering the sacrifice of the mass.
But for us, it is neither
of those things. Tonight is the night of for you. Jesus’ Body given for
you to eat. Jesus’ Blood given for you to drink. Your Passover Lamb, but
even more. For while the flesh of the old passover lamb was roasted and
eaten, and Jesus’ Body would be roasted on the cross and now eaten by us, you
could not drink the blood of the lamb. That was forbidden. Until now.
Until the Lamb of God came to pour out His Blood for you. And now by
eating His Body and drinking His Blood in faith, you receive the forgiveness
and life of His Passover. His Passover where He does not cause death to pass
over you, but defeats death for you. That though you die, yet will you live.
That though you die, you will rise to life with Him. A life that will
not, can not, end.
That is the gift, the
testament, the inheritance, Jesus leaves behind for you this night. His
public ministry began with His Baptism and ends with this sacred meal. This
night began with Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, and ends as the Lamb is
bound and led away to be slaughtered and roasted on the cross. Our Christian
life begins with the water, too, and is sustained by this Meal until our end.
Our manna in the wilderness until we reach the Promised Land of heaven, and the
milk and honey of the marriage feast of the Lamb.
So tonight is a most
special night, indeed. The night of handing over, we could say. Our
English translations don’t quite capture it, but this is how we could put Paul’s
words that we heard tonight: For I received from the Lord what I also handed
over
to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was handed
over
took bread, His Body, . . . and the cup, His Blood, . . . and handed
over them to you. The night Jesus was handed
over to die, He handed over to you His gift, to live.
Are you worthy of such a
gift? How could you be? But that is what makes it such an extraordinary gift.
It is a great gift for those who deserve no gift. A gift for sinners, for the
forgiveness of your sins.
But Paul does speak of
eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. This is eating and
drinking in unbelief. Not believing that this is a gift, but rather something
that you are doing for God. Not believing that you are a sinner in need of
forgiveness. Not believing that when Jesus said This is My Body and This
is My Blood, it really is. This is not gift received, but gift refused.
But to come in faith . .
. That yes, Father, Your Word is true. I am a poor, miserable sinner in need of
forgiveness. That yes, Jesus, Your Word is true. Here is Your Body and Blood,
the very same that hung on the cross, only now risen and glorified, given to
me. That yes, Lord, Your Word is true, this is a gift for me and my salvation.
To come in such faith, then, is to receive the judgment of God for you in
Christ, His judgment of not guilty. For your sins have been
swallowed up in the death and resurrection of the One once given for
you, now given to you. You receive the forgiveness that you need
and that God wants so to give.
So, as Paul says, we
examine ourselves and judge ourselves truly and repent, so that we will not be
condemned. For as David once wrote and prayed, For you will not delight
in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be
pleased with a burnt offering. That is, it is not what
we do that delights and pleases God . . . The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit; a broken and contrite
heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm
51:16-17).
A broken and contrite heart, a repentant heart that clings to God’s Word in
faith, God will never despise; He will never turn away. For God does not help
those who help themselves. He helps those who cannot help themselves. Israel in
Egypt. Outcasts, prostitutes, tax collectors, and other great sinners. You and
I in our bondage to sin.
But there is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans
8:1).
Those who are in Christ Jesus, and those who Christ Jesus is in, through His
gifts. For your condemnation was taken by Jesus on the cross, and He hands
over His righteousness to you. That He live in you as you live in Him. And
so His love and forgiveness be both handed over to you,
and handed over by you to others.
That’s part of the
new commandment Jesus gave this night. He commanded that this meal
continue - as often as you do this. That is, do it often! And He
also commanded that we love one another as He loved us. Make
sure you keep those two commands together! For apart they fail. If we try
to love as Jesus loved without first receiving Jesus’ love, we will fail. We
are not able. But also if we receive His love, His gift, and do not love
others, it dies within us. It is then the seed of the parable (Matthew
13) that falls on the hard path, the rocky soil, or
becomes the thorn-choked plant. Jesus sows His seed that it produce an abundant
harvest. And that seed is His Word, yes. But as we especially remember tonight
and tomorrow, it is He, the Word made flesh, Himself. For as Jesus said of
Himself: unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it
dies, it bears much fruit (John
12:24).
Tomorrow, Good Friday, that seed dies and is planted in the earth. But
sprouting forth in His resurrection, He produces an abundant harvest.
Tonight, not only His
Word but Jesus Himself, His very Body and Blood, are planted in you. To produce
a harvest in you and through you. And He will. He is. His Word is
living and active (Hebrews 4:12). It is not one and done,
though. We can never have enough, as our sin still clings to us. That is why we
always need more. More Jesus. More forgiveness. More Word. More Body and Blood.
And He is always here to hand over that to you.
So tonight is the night
of for you. And the night of handing over. To hand over
this gift for you, that you need. To hand over this gift first
given this night, to never stop being given, until that day when it is no
longer needed, when we enter the eternal day and the wedding feast of heaven.
So come, bending the knee
of your heart. Come, broken and contrite, repenting of your sin. Come,
hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Tonight is for you. Jesus for
you.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.