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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated.
Today’s the day. Now’s the time. Then came the day. Isn’t it interesting how Luke begins the Gospel reading? When he says, and it’s translated with these words, then came the day, you can also translate it, now’s the time, today’s the day. Because it really is the day. The day that the Passover lamb, Christ Jesus, would be sacrificed for all of the people. Where today his blood would mark all of our doors. And by believing, the angel of death passes over always and forever. This Passover lamb indeed had to be sacrificed. That’s exactly what the text said, though Luke knew what it meant after the fact. For someone who was reading it for the first time, they would see this nuance. That where he says the Passover lamb needs to be or has to be sacrificed, you and I who read this after the fact know that, yes, indeed, the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
And it begins kind of a spy thriller type way. Where will we celebrate the Passover? Rabbi? Teacher? Lord? And he says, well, go into the city, and you’ll see a man carrying a jar of water, and ask him and follow him to his master’s house. Upon entering that master’s house, say to the master, the teacher has need of a room. And all of it came to be just as he had told them, the text said. They had enough faith to go into town to look for a guy carrying a water jar and go to that house and ask the man of that house. They had enough faith to do that because after the fact, that faith was assured that this indeed was exactly what Jesus had said would happen.
But their minds must have been blown when Jesus celebrated the Passover that night because he takes control over this Passover meal and does everything the way that it should go. And then at the end of it, he does something completely mind-blowing for these 11. He takes bread, and he begins to speak words that aren’t in the liturgy of the Passover. Now there are Lutherans who get bent out of shape when we omit parts of the liturgy. You can imagine these longtime Jews thinking, whoa, he’s adding to the liturgy of the Passover when he says, Take, eat, this is my body. Just that thought right there should have blown their mind. What is he talking about? Why would he speak in such unusual fashion?
And he no more says that, and then he really goes beyond the pale of comparison. In a typical Jewish Passover, each individual has their little cup of wine from which they drink. Jesus takes his cup and says, take drink, this is my blood. And then he gives them his own cup from which to drink. Never done in a typical Passover. Never done. How profound. Because he says, not only is this my body and this is my blood, but this is given for you.
Surely, surely we think that in the apostles’ minds, having just celebrated the Passover meal, that their eyes would have been open to see that he whom John called, the Baptist that is, called from a distance, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That these eleven would put all of this together and say, of course, he is saying he is the Passover Lamb. But what was the struggle that they had? What has to be done to the Passover Lamb? Sacrifice, blood, and death. The eating of the lamb following the sacrifice.
Having taken control of this now Paschal feast, the true Paschal feast, he makes it very clear that he is the sacrificial Passover lamb. The one who will be sacrificed once for all. Because he also adds, this is for your forgiveness.
Dear brothers and sisters, dear sisters, this is a priceless teaching that we cannot let go of, for to let go of would be to let go of confidence that the writer to the Hebrews says we should have because of the blood of Christ and the flesh his curtain torn in two. And we ought not to let go of confidence when it comes to stand before God. And the confidence is that this is what Jesus said it is. Here is his final farewell speech before his death takes him. And here he says, not only is this my flesh and this my blood, but if it’s my flesh and blood, then there is forgiveness, and there it is where I distribute me. There it is where I distribute me.
The church has always struggled with this, but the church has always also tenaciously clung to those words because they are just as he had told them. Did he not for days and weeks and months and even years before talk of having to be rejected, having to be scourged, having to be killed, having to be raised from the dead? And yes, that’s what he talked about. And that is not some abstract event that happens, but one that he wishes to involve and make intimate with his children in this feast.
In the last chapter of Matthew, you know, go and make disciples of all nations, yes. But then he adds, And lo, I will be with you always to the very end of the age. In some metaphor? In some symbolic memorial? No. In a very literal feast where He is present with Himself. All of His gifts given for you for your forgiveness.
But it’s not just for the here and now that Jesus gave them this Lord’s Supper. He never meant it to be something that becomes so self-serving that it focuses us all on the here and now only. For it is always meant to be a foretaste of something yet to come. Remember these words in our communion services? You have given us a foretaste of the feast to come in the holy supper of your Son’s body and blood, that on the day of his coming, we may together with all your saints celebrate the marriage feast of the Lamb and His kingdom which has no end. This keeps us focused on the here, but more importantly, on what is to come.
The Easter epistle always adds, if for this life we have faith in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. If this is all that we have faith in Christ for, to get through this world, to get through this life, to get through this job change, or to get through this shake-up at this company, to get through this parental issue, or this marriage problem, if that’s all that this faith is for, if that’s all that that supper is for, we will be woefully disappointed. Because we will continue to live in the pain of our own choosing, in the sins that we have committed, with the consequences that go along with them.
But… we will live with that in confidence that we are forgiven and that we have something awaiting us yet to be, which is why Jesus took his disciples in that upper room, told them these very important things, and then told them what is yet to come. You know, as they led their lives and as they reflected upon all of their mistakes… Because Satan never leaves a saint’s mind alone. They would be reminded of their foibles. And they would have to come to terms with their shortcomings. And how else could they live with those things unless they had confidence because of that flesh that was torn in two from top to bottom. The curtain that opened the way into eternal life.
And how would they have such ability to stand upright without bended head or bended waist before the holy throne of God if the blood of Christ did not cover them, which they have drank from deeply? It’s interesting because it’s just as he has told us. This supper is just as he has told us.
Interesting also is this. After they had celebrated the supper for the very first time in that upper room, they go back to that upper room on the first day of the week, the first Easter, and they lock the door for fear of the Jews. Why back there? Of all places, why there? And not only do they do it then, but then the following Sunday, when Thomas has Jesus reveal himself to him eight days later, where do they find themselves again but that same upper room? Trying to capture something. Trying to cling to something. And the something was the very substance of what happened in that room. And it had nothing to do with that room other than that was the location.
This becomes kind of an upper room for us. But whether it’s here or elsewhere, that supper is what makes us and joins us as one body. God gives. We receive his gifts and remember his words. This is just as he has told us, and this is the day that the Passover lamb is slaughtered.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
