7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to
be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go
and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 “Where do you want
us to prepare for it?” they asked. 10 He replied, “As
you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him
to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the
owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may
eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will
show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared
the Passover. 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the
table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired
to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For
I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom
of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take
this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you
I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance
of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured
out for you.
- Luke 22:7-20, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
For centuries Christians have called this day Maundy Thursday. Not "Monday Thursday" like I thought when I was little, but "Maundy" Thursday. The name comes from the Latin word, "mandatum," which means "command." In the upper room, Jesus actually gave his disciples two commands: "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12), and "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). Jesus was serious when he gave these mandates to his followers. Because both commands still apply to followers of Jesus today, we take them, as well as this day, very seriously.
In the words of a hymn that we will sing later this evening, Isaac Watts describes Maundy Thursday as "that dark, that doleful night." Was that night really dark? Was that night really doleful? In other words, was it mournful and dismal? Maybe poetry like this hymn title has colored our thinking a little too much. This kind of language almost gives us the impression that Maundy Thursday had a certain eeriness and dreariness about it.
In I Corinthians, Paul calls Maundy Thursday "the night on which [the Lord Jesus] was betrayed" (11:23). We still feel the weight of those words even when we hear them two thousand years later. No matter what else happened on Maundy Thursday, that night was the night when the sinless Son of God was betrayed. That night was the night when one of the Twelve sold his Savior for a few pieces of silver. That night was the night when the rest of the disciples ran away in fear. Because of these things, it is entirely appropriate for us to remember Maundy Thursday as a very sad day.
Serious...Doleful...Sad. All legitimate ways to describe the event that took place on Maundy Thursday. But these words do not tell the whole story. The night before his execution, Jesus also took the time to arrange for a special meal with his disciples, a meal that we will eat again this evening.
As we follow Jesus to the upper room in Jerusalem, we are reminded that Maundy Thursday was not a day of doom and gloom and despair. It was a day of longing and anticipation, a day of repentance and forgiveness. Yes, we can even say that Maundy Thursday was a day of celebration. With that kind of mindset, tonight we resume our Lenten journey and...
FOLLOW JESUS...IN A CELEBRATION
I. The celebration of an historical moment
II. The celebration of a real presence
Jesus and his disciples were by no means the only ones who sat down together on this solemn evening. In gatherings all over the city, God-fearing Jews were doing the same thing in obedience to the law of Moses. So what was the special occasion? Luke tells us: "Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover'" (7,8).
Passover was a day of great historical significance for God's chosen people. It was arguably the most important date on the Hebrew calendar. Why? The Passover was an annual celebration, a celebration that caused the Jews to remember God's mighty act of deliverance. That deliverance took place fifteen hundred years before Jesus sat down with his disciples, back at a time when the children of Israel were living in Egypt.
The events of the first Passover are recorded in Exodus 12. Pastor Leyrer read some of those verses from the lectern this evening. But because of the importance of this meal, and because of the symbolism involved, lets briefly review the details.
Remember that Israel had spent 430 years in Egypt after Joseph brought his family to live there. By moving to Egypt, Jacob's family escaped the famine in Canaan. In Egypt, Jacob's family prospered and grew. But not all of those years were pleasant. During that time period, the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves.
The Hebrews longed to return to Canaan, the Promised Land, the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But under the heavy yoke of their Egyptian taskmasters, freedom seemed like an impossible dream. And the more they voiced their opposition to this mistreatment, the more oppressive it became.
Finally, when the time was right and to serve his purpose, God intervened. In a burning bush, he called Moses to be the instrument of his deliverance. Through Moses, God challenged Pharaoh to set his people free. Pharaoh stubbornly refused, and God responded with a series of terrible plagues.
Those plagues came to a climax on the 14th day of Nisan, the day that God had set to send the tenth and worst and final plague down on Egypt. On that night God instructed his people to prepare a lamb for a meal. But this was to be no ordinary lamb. It had to be a year old male without blemish or defect. It was to be roasted over the fire and eaten completely. And God even had a special purpose in mind for the lamb's blood. The Jews were to take the blood of the slaughtered animal and paint it on the tops and sides of the doorframes of their homes.
God not only gave his people instructions about how they were to prepare the meal. He even told them how to eat it. They were to eat the meal in haste: with their cloaks tucked into their belts, with their sandals on their feet, and with their staffs in their hands. That told the Israelites that this was not a trial run. This was not just practice. God was serious. They needed to be ready to move quickly because they would leave Egypt that very night.
During the night the angel of the Lord brought destruction to Egypt and deliverance to Israel. He killed the firstborn of the Egyptians, from the greatest to the least, but he passed over the homes where the lamb's blood was painted on the doors. And that same night Pharaoh told Moses to take his people and leave.
So on the first Passover, God set his people free. In all of the hundreds of Passover meals that followed, God gave his people the opportunity to celebrate this mighty act of deliverance.
Jesus and his disciples had come together to eat this meal and remember these events. But only Jesus knew that what the Passover had foreshadowed for fifteen centuries was about to become reality. Jesus said: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (20). "Do this in remembrance of me" (19).
The Passover was a celebration of a moment in history. So is the Lord's Supper. Look at some of the parallels. Israel was oppressed by Egypt. We are oppressed by Satan. The Israelites were slaves in bondage. We are enslaved by our sins. Israel's situation looked hopeless. The wages of our sin is death.
In both cases, God intervened. In both cases, God used the blood of a lamb to rescue his people. Paul had this in mind when he wrote: "Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed" (I Corinthians 5:7). Jesus' blood causes the angel of death to pass over us. Jesus' blood sets us free from the shackles of sin. Jesus' blood sets us on a course for the Promised Land. That is why this night is a time for celebration. The deliverance that Israel commemorated for hundreds of years in the Passover meal, we now celebrate every time we take the Lord's Supper.
But Maundy Thursday is not merely a holiday like the 4th of July, a day that we have set aside to remember an important event in history. Equally important, even more important, is the fact that in this Holy Supper we come together to celebrate a real presence, the Lord's presence with us in a unique and mysterious way.
We have reviewed the events of the first Passover. Now lets take a closer look at the Lord's Supper. This is Luke's account: "[Jesus] took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you'...In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you' (19,20).
When the pastor speaks the words of institution before communion, what do you think about those words? Are the words recorded to help us review what happened on Maundy Thursday? Do they remind us about the important information Jesus had to pass on to his disciples before he died?
When Jesus says, "This is my body given for you," when the pastor repeats the words of Jesus, "This cup...is poured out for you," these words reach far beyond the disciples in the Upper Room. Those words are spoken directly to you. Christ gave up his life for you. Jesus shed his blood on the cross for you. In those two little words, "for you," Jesus extends an invitation to us.
An invitation to a meal with family and friends is something special. It means that there is a special bond. A special relationship exists. But when Jesus invites us to his Supper, it is even more special. How? Think of it this way. When my wife Shannon and I started dating, she was a college student in Michigan and I was a seminary student in Wisconsin. It was your classic long-distance relationship. We wrote letters. We talked on the phone several nights a week. But there were some times, mostly on weekends and holidays, when were able to be with each other.
Which do you think we preferred? We were able to communicate through letters. Hearing the other person's voice on the phone was nice. But nothing could compare with the time we were actually able to see each other face to face. So it is with our Savior. Jesus speaks to us through his Word, and he touches us with the Sacrament. He is really present with us in a unique way in the supper to which he invites us.
As human beings, we need physical contact. As children of God, our Father understands our needs. He sent his Son, and not just once and for all two thousand years ago. Jesus is with us again tonight. He is really present. He not only speaks to us. He touches us in a way that brings us close to him, as close as his disciples were with him in the upper room on Maundy Thursday. When we wish to communicate with God, he doesn't say: "I'll get back to you," or "I'll e-mail you." Instead, he says: "I'll commune with you."
And this is how it happens. Jesus directs us to take two very ordinary elements, a piece of bread and a sip of wine. We combine them with his powerful Word, and God does the rest. The bread is Christ's body, the same body he sacrificed for our sins. The wine is Christ's blood, the same blood that he shed on the cross. And as we eat and drink, we trust in God's promises. Our sins are forgiven. Our sins no longer separate us from God. This is why Maundy Thursday is a time for Christians to celebrate.
As you approach the altar tonight, do not forget to thank the host of this meal. Jesus is more than a man who lived and died a long time ago. He is more than a historical figure whose name lives on only in books. Jesus is God's Son, your Savior, your brother, your friend, and your ticket to the eternal feast that awaits all believers in heaven.
So when you come forward to receive Christ's body and blood, it is proper to come with a serious face because this is a serious occasion. And it is fitting to bow your head and kneel at the rail as an outward expression of inner repentance. But we are in no way desecrating Maundy Thursday when we say that is also a time for celebration. It has always been and always will be, whether 1,500 years before Christ or 2,000 years after him.
And when you get up and return to your pew, do not be afraid to do so with your head raised along with your spirits. You can lift up your heads because you know that Jesus is here with us tonight, really present to touch you once again with his forgiveness, his grace and his love. Amen.