Maundy Thursday

April 6, 2023April 11, 2023

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14 | 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 | John 13:1-15, 34-35

Text: Exodus 12:1-14; John 13:1-15 (34-35)

“The Nearness of God’s Redemption”

In the Passover, God provided salvation from death by the substitute of another. But this couldn’t be the fullness. No lamb could take the place of a person, for how had a lamb sinned and deserved a bloody death? The crude whole-roasted lamb, whose blood set the people free, ultimately could not our place.

At that time, the Lord was present among His people in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And even though He mighty acted on behalf of His people, He was still far removed from them, “For man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:20).

What mercy God showed in that he didn’t remain as far removed as a lamb is from a person!

The great love of God could not stay distant—God remembered His mercy, He saw our affliction, and God knew [Gen. 8:1; Ex. 2:25]. It moved Him to come near, even more so than seeing the cruelty of the Egyptians.

The Lord, who once delivered His people with a metaphorical “mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deut. 5:15) then did so concretely. To His people—suffering in the flesh and harassed by the devil, sin, and death—He came as Immanuel, God with us.

Behold this Lamb of God, by whom He saves not just the sons of Israel, but takes away the sins of the world. He came in our flesh to be condemned for our sin, to suffer our death. For He was not as far removed as a Lamb, but He became our brother, yet without sin. He was like us in every way, except sin (Heb. 2:17). Therefore allegorically, He is the true spotless Lamb whose blood shields us from destruction.

Unlike those bloody sacrificial lambs whose ashes were discarded outside the camp, Christ the Lamb of God has risen over death as its master. This is the Lord God who has joined Himself to us. He says, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), and indeed that is truer than it was for His ancient people, Israel. His living Word is spoken in our congregation, His benediction is upon us and our children, His Baptism unites us with His death and resurrection, and—especially on this night—are we comforted and strengthened by His Body and Blood, broken and shed for us.

Here’s how Martin Chemnitz explained this heavenly and saving union:

“Our body is the body of death, but in that same body of ours which the Son of God assumed from us, death was again destroyed. Although our sins have separated us very far from God (Is. 59:2), so that we have been alienated from the grace, righteousness, and life of God (Eph. 2:12), yet the Son of God has brought very close to us those heavenly blessings which had been removed far from us (Eph. 2:13-19)…

Moreover, in His Holy Supper He joins Himself to us in that flesh, so that we may be strengthened by this most certain pledge of the salvation and glorification of our nature; for He does not blush to call us brothers. Therefore, because we are such, He also joins Himself to us in that flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14). Flesh brought death into this world and, again, the flesh of the Son of Man was given for the life of the world in order that he who eats the flesh of Christ may have eternal life. (John 6:54)” (Martin Chemnitz, Two Natures in Christ, pp. 55-56)

And that’s the whole picture of God’s deliverance. It’s not just about Him delivering us from adversity, but that He also dwells with us, giving us His peace, His strength, and His keeping with His mighty saving arm, and His hand once outstretched upon the cross for you and me. Take comfort in this meal because it is not just a symbol of a lamb, but the very Lamb of God who once was slain and now lives and reigns that we might live with Him.

At last this is how He gives us the command: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) For Israel it was the commandments and the statutes which set them apart, and the Lord who dwelt in the midst of the congregation. But in Christ we have more: We have the Living God, who has made us people for His own possession, living in us and doing His work in the world. He has washed us in the Red Sea of Baptism, making us die to sin and live before Him. To love one another as He has loved us is the result of His dwelling in our midst. Whenever we see a coldness or hard heart in ourselves or our brothers, it must be drowned and die in our Baptism. And living in God’s abundant mercy, people will know that we belong to Him, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

April 14, 2022June 13, 2022

Maundy Thursday

Readings: Exodus 12:1–14 | 1 Corinthians 11:23–32 | John 13:1–15

Text: John 13:1-17, 34-35

This Maundy Thursday, I want to address two things: The connection between the Lord’s Supper and the Passover, and why this night we read about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and commanding them to love one another.

In delivering His people from slavery in Egypt, the Lord could have done it any number of ways. He had chosen nine plagues to display His judgment on Egypt and the false gods. But on this tenth, He did something unique. He didn’t just kill off the firstborn sons of Egypt and preserve the Israelite sons. He gave them something to do: Take a lamb, slaughter it and paint your doorposts with its blood. Then roast it whole with fire and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is the Lord’s Passover for Israel as they came out of Egypt.

But if we were to ask what the main thing in the Passover was—not that the parts of it are meant to be set against each other—it would be the blood of the lamb. “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.” The blood of the lamb in God’s Passover, marked His people.

And this is the foundation upon which the upper room with the disciples is built. Even though we don’t read the account from the holy evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, or St. Paul, the Lord’s first Passover sets the stage for what the Lord-in-the-Flesh institutes that night. God has provided a lamb, as He promised Abraham (Gen. 22:1-14), one lamb for all the people. A lamb without blemish, conceived and born by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary—free from sin so that He might free His people from their sin. He shall be killed before the oncoming darkness—“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.” (Matt. 27:45) And it shall be His blood that shall be a mark over the heads of His people to save them from plague and destruction.

As for you, you shall eat the flesh of God’s Lamb who has been roasted as a sin offering. At some later point, not recorded in Scripture, it became the custom to drink wine commemorating God’s four promises in Exodus 6: “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” (Exodus 6:6-7) The cup of wine was often a sign of judgment (Ps. 11:6, Isa. 51:17, Ezek. 23:31-33), but it was also one of salvation, as the faithful sing, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:13)

But the Lord on earth embraced this practice and endowed it with significance when He took the 3^rd cup, the “I will redeem you” cup, and said, “Drink of it, all of you, this cup is the New Testament in My blood.” Lamb’s flesh, roasted and eaten, Lamb’s blood, painted on doorposts, now given to you—“Take, eat; Take, drink.” This is the meal which our God-in-the-flesh instituted for us to remember His mighty act of deliverance at Calvary.

“Do this in remembrance of me.” These words adorn many an altar-table dedicated to this holy Meal. The Lord commanded Israel to do the Passover feast in memory of that first Passover and Exodus. However, this is not the memory of our fleeting and fickle minds. It’s akin to when it says in the hymnal at the Invocation, “The sign of the cross T may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism.” (LSB 151). I have no cognitive memory of my baptism when I was three weeks old, nor would anyone else who was baptized as an infant. The biblical way of remembrance is for faith to lay hold of what God as done, and for that mighty act to be applied to the present.

The Israelites were told, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place.” (Ex. 13:3) Well, by the third generation, none of them would be able to recount that day. Yet, the Lord said, “This day shall be for you a remembrance day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations” (Ex. 12:14).

Remembrance began with God. God remembered Noah in the ark; He remembered the sons of Israel in Egypt. And when He remembered, it meant that He saw His people through the unilateral covenant He made with them—I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you, I will take you to be my people. And when He calls on His people to remember, He is bidding them to see Him through His covenant promise. This remembrance is even It even applies to “Remember the Day of Sabbath, in order that it may be holy.”[1] That’s also how, even Israel or individuals had sinned, when they repented, they would beseech God to remember His steadfast love—His faithfulness to His covenant [Ps. 25:6-7].

In the same way, all who are in Christ, beneficiaries of the New Covenant, eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ often, in remembrance of what that covenant is: His Body sacrificed on the cross, His blood poured out for the sins of the world (including all of ours, too!). This is the meal of our perfect and true Passover Lamb, which take His eternal covenant—“I will be their God, and they shall be my people…I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:33-34)

On that night in which He was betrayed, He taught His disciples many things to bring them from the covenant under Moses to the New covenant in His blood. One of those lessons came as an expression of His divine remembrance: “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²During supper…³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴rose from supper.” He got down on His holy hands and knees and did the menial labor of a servant. Then, He said about it, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

This is how the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ultimately remembered His covenant to bless all the families of the earth: He put Himself in the lowest place, the Lord who serves His rebellious enemies, the righteous saving the unrighteous.

At this point, the objection is raised that Jesus commanded foot-washing, so if we take the Lord’s Supper seriously and give it literal interpretation, why do we not literally wash one another’s feet? Good question, but foot-washing and the Eucharist are two different topics. Foot-washing has no Old Testament anti-type, or precedent, and no covenant promise attached to it. If Christians choose to reenact this, well and good because He said, “I have given you an example.” But, the bigger message isn’t the literal scrubbing of toes, but what is said in verses 34-35:

³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Rather than get hung up on whether we are doing our most exact obedience, the Lord is here commanding something that none of us can do apart from Him. None of us can love as He has loved, unless we are those who know how the Lord has remembered His gracious promises toward sinners. None but the Lord’s people, redeemed and marked by the sign of the blood of the Lamb of God, and having a living faith in those things, can remember God and see Him through His covenant. And remembering our God through His gracious covenant—that God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, who tasted death to save man from it [2 Cor. 5:19; Heb. 2:14]—we also look at the rest of the human family without disdain or distaste. If God, according to His own promise, came to serve even the lowest (even us!), how fitting it is that we should love even the lowest and meanest. That’s not just a dirty, mentally unstable homeless person—that is a human being created and redeemed by God. That’s not just a bristly, proud atheist professor—that is a person whom the Lord had in mind as He gave up His final breath.

This do in remembrance of Me—the eating and drinking for your grace and strength, the loving of all mankind. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

[1][1] My own translation from the Hebrew, reflecting the construction of what is normally translated “Sabbath day,” as if Sabbath inextricably happened only on the 7^th day. Also, the preposition-verb for “to make holy” is in the passive voice, indicating that the Remembering is to be done for the purpose of letting the Day of Sabbath be holy for them.

April 1, 2021April 26, 2021

Maundy Thursday

Text: Mark 14:12-26

Additional Reading: Exodus 24:3–11 | 1 Corinthians 10:16–17

Adapted from “The Mystery of the Lord’s Supper” by Johann Gerhard

In the Holy Supper of our Lord, we have a mystery placed before us. Even though it cannot be explained with specific directions, counted in points for your diet, or given nutrition facts as other meals, the Holy Supper fills us with awe and adoration!

We know that the tree of life was planted by God in Eden, so that its fruit might preserve Adam and Eve and their children in the blessedness of their original immortality that He had gifted to them. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also in that place. God had given them their eternal life, but this other tree was there to test their obedience and devotion to Him. But eating became the occasion for their death and eternal condemnation, when they yielded to Satan’s enticement and followed their own wicked desires.

So, in the Holy Supper of our Lord, we have the true tree of life set before us again, whose “leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month…Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ezek. 47:12) The fruit of the tree of the cross is here given, and its sweetness destroys the bitterness of all afflictions, even death itself!

In the wilderness, the Israelites were fed with manna, called bread from heaven (Ex. 16:4); in the Lord’s Supper, we have the true Bread which came down from heaven to give life to the world (John 6:33, 51). Here, this heavenly Food is such that, “whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) The sons of Israel also had the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat, where they could hear the Lord speaking with them (Ex. 25:21-22); but here in the Supper, we have the true ark of the covenant, the most holy Body of Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:3) Here we have the true mercy seat in the precious blood of Christ, through which God has made us accepted in the Beloved (Rom. 3:25; Eph. 1:6).

Christ does not simply speak a word from a distance to comfort us; He takes up residence with us (John 1:14). He doesn’t only feed with manna which appears and is collected; but He feeds us with Himself. Because He is present, we can say with Jacob, “Surely the Lord is in this place… This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Gen. 28:16-17) and He is the true Ladder upon whom the angels of God ascend and descend (John 1:51).

In giving us His Body and Blood to eat and drink, He gives us an infallible pledge of our salvation. What can be more intimately united to the Lord than His own human nature? Through His incarnation, He has assumed humanity into the Godhead. His own Body and Blood are inseparable from Him, and yet He deigns to give these to us, unworthy creatures who are nothing but dry bones unless He revives us! (Ezek. 37:1-14) Since He has so united Himself to us, how could He ever forget those to whom He gives His own Body? How can Satan gain the victory over us when we are strengthened and made ready for our spiritual conflicts with this bread of heaven?

Christ holds us dear, as we can see because He bought us at so dear a price; He holds us dear since He feeds our souls with so dear and precious a food. He holds us dear because we are members of His body, of His flesh. “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church” (Eph. 5:29-30) This is the sovereign remedy for all the diseases of our souls; here is the only effective cure for mortality. Men will pay physicians fortunes to extend their mortal lives, but here the true balm for every disease and antidote to death is freely given.

Consider this: What sin is so heinous? The sacred flesh of God makes atonement for it. What sin is so great, that it cannot be healed by the life-giving flesh of Christ? The fiery darts of the Devil are quenched in this fountain of divine grace. What conscience is so stained with sin, but it may be cleansed by the blood of Jesus?

Our first parents were placed in Paradise, a peaceful and delightful garden, a type of the eternal blessedness of heaven, that being mindful of God’s goodness to them, they would render due obedience to their Creator. But, in this Holy Supper, there is more than a paradise, because here the souls of God’s creatures are spiritually fed with the flesh of the Almighty Creator.

The conscience is cleansed from all its guilty stains in the blood of the Son of God. The members of Christ, their spiritual head, are nourished with His own Body; the believing soul feasts itself at a divine and heavenly banquet. The holy flesh of the Son of God, so united with the divine nature, which the angelic hosts adore, before which archangels bow in lowly reverence, and before which the principalities and powers of heaven tremble and stand in awe, has become the spiritual nourishment of our souls. “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,” (Ps. 96:11) but still more let the believing soul exult and sing for joy, to whom God gives such an unspeakable gift! Amen.

April 9, 2020May 11, 2020

Maundy Thursday (Matthew 26:17-30)

Normally, Maundy Thursday is a night I look forward to as a pastor—imagine that, a holiday in the Church year dedicated to the Lord’s Supper! I love the hymn, “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness.” It brings me to tears as we sing, “Jesus, bread of life, I pray You, Let me gladly here obey You. By Your love I am invited, Be Your love with love requited; By this Supper let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep love’s treasure. Through the gift of grace You give me As Your guest in heav’n receive me.” (LSB 636:8)

But this year, that joy is covered over by the health restrictions, and threats to all those who disregard the directives—both legal and to our health. This year, we will not be observing the Supper Jesus founded “On the night in which He was betrayed.” And that hurts—both as a Christian, and as your pastor.

Everything about the Gospel text reminds us that Jesus was with His disciples, and that they were taking part in an ancient tradition—the Passover—which had been celebrated year in and year out since when Moses led the sons of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.

It’s that way for us too, because this Eucharist (the ancient name for this meal from Jesus giving thanks) has been revered as the Passover fulfilled by Jesus’ disciples for centuries! In house churches, catacombs, through times of war and peace, this meal has been a constant source of grace, strength, and hope. But always together. This is a strange year indeed.

But do our present circumstances overturn what we commemorate on this night?

26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Our Lord explained what He was doing that night, with this meal: He breaks bread and says it is His Body. He takes a cup of wine, and says “This is my Blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” So we will look at these two things: the Body of Christ, and the New Covenant in His Blood.

What is the Body of Christ? “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” (1 Cor. 12:12-13) The one Body of Christ is what we confess when we say, “I believe in…the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.” (Apostles’ Creed) It is the assembly of believers which spans space and time—from every century and from all tribes, nations, and languages. This is the mystical Body of Christ, the Church.

There is also the Body of Christ in, with, and under the bread of the Lord’s Supper. Through what we call for short the sacramental union, Jesus feeds the members of His Body, the Church. For some, it’s easier to conceive of the Body of Christ, the Church, more than the Body of Christ in the bread of the Eucharist.

But is either one affected by this new virus and restrictions? We learned from Jesus raising Lazarus that even death cannot separate a member from the mystical Body of Christ—“Whoever believes in me, though He die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26). Neither will circumstance change the bread which we break, which is the Body of Christ. Though we are made to fast from it for a time, Christ remains our life as He promises, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven, if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” (John 6:51)

Our Lord also says, “This is My Blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” He says this in connection with the sacrifices offered under the previous covenant with Moses, and in connection with the covenants He made before with Abraham. Covenants which God makes are sure.

With Abraham in Genesis 15, He made a covenant promise that Abraham would be the father of a multitude. In the custom of “cutting” covenants, Abraham cut the animals in two, and normally the two parties passed through together, solemnly promising that if either broke the covenant they would be rendered as the slain animal. In this case, God is the only one who passed through, in a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch (Gen. 15:17). God made a unilateral covenant, that not even death, famine, oppression, war, unfaithfulness, or any other upheaval could overturn. Over 2,500 years, God kept His covenant so that Abraham’s Offspring was born, was sacrificed instead of Isaac, and made a blessing for all the families of the earth.

So, when Jesus says that in this Supper is the blood of the covenant, poured out for many, this is God’s unilateral covenant—full of God’s faithfulness and rich with the forgiveness of sins. Whether the outbreak continues for a few weeks more or extends much further, this covenant in Jesus Blood will not be moved. We still have its benefits by virtue of the blood which Jesus shed upon the cross, the Word of the Cross which has been preached and received by us in faith, and our being crucified and risen with Him in Baptism.

This doesn’t change our longing for what Jesus has given for our good. We feel the weight of our sins as we are pressed hard with isolation, altered schedules, scarcity of certain needs, and close quarters. The threat of death is very present, and we do nobody any favors by disregarding the restriction guidelines.

But in our hungering for the Sacrament in these strange times is not an emergency of our faith. Jesus has eaten this anew with us, because He has brought us into the Kingdom of His Father, through His Body offered on the cross and the blood of the covenant he poured out. Confident in His promise and power to keep us, we will patiently wait to celebrate the feast, and we will humbly submit to the current conditions. Casting our cares on the Lord, He will sustain us through this point in time. COVID-19 will pass away. All of these measures and their impact will pass away and be recorded in history books. But the Body of Christ will go on as it does eternally—both the Church and the Bread we break. His Covenant will endure through every season until the earth remains no more (Gen. 8:22).

We pray:

Abide with us, Lord, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. Abide with us and with Your whole Church. Abide with us at the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world. Abide with us with Your grace and goodness, with Your holy Word and Sacrament, with Your strength and blessing. Abide with us when the night of affliction and temptation comes upon us, the night of fear and despair, the night when death draws near. Abide with us and with all the faithful, now and forever.
(LSB p. 257)

April 18, 2019

Maundy Thursday (John 13:1-15, 34-35)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR

Maundy Thursday + April 18, 2019

Text: John 13:1-15, 34-35

When we think about the Lord’s Supper as Christians of the Lutheran confession, we talk a great deal about the nature of the Sacrament (what it is), and how it benefits us personally. And it is necessary for us to know that, but as they say, there’s more to the story. The setting for the institution of the Lord’s Supper is the discourse Jesus has with His disciples on the night in which He was betrayed. Here’s how the story continues after the assigned pericope:[1]

¹⁶Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. ¹⁸I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ ¹⁹I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. ²⁰Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

²¹After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” ²²The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. ²³One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, ²⁴so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. ²⁵So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” ²⁶Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” ²⁸Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. ²⁹Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. ³⁰So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³²If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ ³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Love is essential to understanding what Jesus was doing for the disciples that night. It’s also essential to what He expects them and us to continue to do in our continued life together.

Contrary to popular thought, the most insidious thing in God’s sight is not gross immorality; it’s people who call themselves Christians but have no need for a Savior. They may be able to recognize true from false doctrine; they may love conservative practices over clever innovations. But if you truly desire to be a Christian, you must confess yourself a sinner.

Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, you shall never wash my feet!” This is like saying, Thanks for the teaching Rabbi, thanks for giving me a religion to follow on my way to heaven. But you can’t come already clean to Jesus. “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” You must know that you are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, naked,” (Rev. 3:17) and dirty.

This empty-handed sinner’s confession is central to the Lord’s Supper. As the Lord says in another place, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Luke 5:32) One who has no need of this medicine and antidote to the poison of their sin has no place at the feet of Jesus. And at His feet, Jesus washes us where we are the filthiest—in our innermost being, in our heart.

But what about love? On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus says: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is a commandment that cannot be fulfilled merely by outward action. It must begin in the heart. An evil heart, a heart that has not been broken by the weight of sin and healed by the Lord cannot achieve this commandment.

What kind of love is this? It says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” The example that Jesus gave was that He, their Teacher and Lord, humbled Himself as a servant and washed His disciples feet. But that also included loving the very one who would betray Him. The kind of love which our Lord commands us to do is that you give of yourself, even if the only payback you get is betrayal.

But how can we be capable of such love? That brings us back to the Sacrament of the Altar. In Luke 7, Jesus enters the house of a Pharisee, where besides the invited guests, a sinful woman comes and dotes on Jesus in a really embarrassing way: “When she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.” What could have inspired this unabashed love? Jesus says of the woman, “I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.” (7:47). It’s the forgiveness of sins. When we recognize and appreciate what our Lord has saved us from, we love Him and others that much more.

This is what the Lord’s Body and Blood is capable of doing within us. In it, Jesus releases us from our sins and raises us up with new hearts for loving service. That’s why we often pray after receiving this gift: “We give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this salutary gift, and we implore You that of Your mercy You would strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another.” (LSB 201)

[1] Periscope means “to cut around” and describes the complete thoughts into which the Bible readings are divided. Many Bibles use subheadings to indicate this.

March 29, 2018

Maundy Thursday (John 13:1-15, 34-35)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Maundy Thursday + March 29, 2018
Text: John 13:1-15, 34-35

The question of the Passover is, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
The Jewish answer is, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord, our God, took us out from there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm.” (cf. Exodus 12:26-27; 13:14-15)

But this is not the answer our Jewish Savior, the Messiah, Jesus gives. That’s because on this night, He does not point to something in the past, but to something which is happening in the present.

The Evangelist John makes a point repeatedly to distinguish between “Passover” and “Passover of the Jews” (John 2:13, 6:4, 11:55). The Passover of the Jews is the meal that has been commemorated since the day God led the sons of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. Such was the Passover…until the Lamb of God came.

You see, God had promised salvation by a Lamb even before the Red Sea. It was the promise made to Abraham, “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). It was there in the near-sacrifice of Isaac, where God provided a lamb. What this shows us is that there was something greater than the Passover of Exodus.

God was bringing about that which was greater than the Passover, fulfilling the blessing and promise that He had made to Abraham so many generations before. He would provide the Lamb, not in the flesh of an animal, but Jesus was the true Lamb of God—God’s Son and our brother.

So, the Evangelist John makes this distinction, because the true Passover was about to take place. With a strong hand—pierced by the nails—and an outstretched arm—upon the beams of the cross–the Lord God would deliver a people for Himself. Not just from physical bondage, but from spiritual. For, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36) And after this Lamb of God has died upon the cross, the whole burnt offering consumed by the wrath of God, John remarks that they did not break Jesus’ lets, “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water…these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” (John 19:34, 36; Exodus 12:46)

The question for us Christians is, what makes this night different from the Passover? And our answer is,

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.”

So then, why is this night called Maundy Thursday? Because of the Gospel reading appointed for this holy night from John 13. Where the other three Gospels focus on the atoning work of Christ for us, John leads us to reflect on what it means that Jesus, our Teacher and Lord, does this for us:

¹Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him…
¹²When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you…
³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:1-5, 12-15, 34–35)

The name “Maundy” comes from verse 34, “a new commandment I give to you, from the Latin mandatum. So that means Maundy Thursday is about more than the night on which Jesus was betrayed. It’s also the night where He exemplifies loving service by humbling Himself, even to the point of death, and giving freely to those who could never dream of paying Him back.

Our Lord Jesus doesn’t just give His Body and Blood for our forgiveness, but also to transform us to be like Him. “¹⁴If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” The Body and Blood of Christ works in believers to humble our pride, soften our bitter hearts, loose us from our sins, and also to grow in love for others—just as Jesus does. The strength He gives in His Body and Blood is a strength for bearing the cross and serving, just as He did. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” This is where Christians receive the power for Christ-like service, because we are joined in flesh and blood, spiritual union with our Lord and Teacher.

In the prayer after Communion, we often ask the Father, that “of Your mercy, You would strengthen us through [this salutary gift], in faith toward you and in fervent love toward one another.” This is what Jesus is talking about with this new commandment. May He fulfill in us what we are unable to do on our own: to give us humble, loving hearts that do not shy away from lowly service, but count it all joy for the sake of the world’s salvation. Amen.

April 13, 2017

Maundy Thursday (Matthew 26:17-30)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Maundy Thursday + April 13, 2017
Text: Matthew 26:17-30

The Sixth Petition
“Lead us not into temptation”

Tonight, we continue the theme of our Lenten midweek services, taking a closer look at each petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Tonight, we come to the sixth petition, “Lead us not into temptation” on the night in which Jesus was betrayed.

In Scripture, there are two kinds of tempting. One is from God, and the other is from the enemies of God—the world, the devil, and sinful hearts. The tempting or testing that comes from God is good, as James exhorts us, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials[1] of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”[2] This is when the struggles, weaknesses, and failures of life result in a greater reliance on God. It is confirmation of our faith, and the one who draws closer to God out of trial is even called perfect and complete!

But then there’s the other kind of temptation, which is addressed just a few verses later in the same chapter of James: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”[3] Same word as in the Lord’s Prayer and what was called “trials” before. In this case, however, the result is that someone loses trust for God, no longer fears Him, and even hates Him.

This is what happened for Judas, leading up to Jesus’ betrayal.
¹⁴Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Temptation came to Judas, as Satan entered his heart,[4] and he was lead willingly into this evil. Jesus knew beforehand that this would happen—that this must happen—to Judas. But the more tragic thing than Judas’ sin was that he ended up losing his trust in God, despairing of His mercy and “seeing to” his sin himself by hanging himself. [5] He could have repented and been restored, but he gave up on his Lord.

But Judas wasn’t the only one tempted that night. Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”[6] Peter also sinned against the Lord by denying Him three times. The difference was that afterward, Peter was restored. He grew in the awareness of his weakness—that his resolution to suffer with Jesus was prideful and his ability to keep watch was only as strong as his flesh.

And it wasn’t just a one-time battle for Peter or for any of us. Peter had other times he was tempted, like when he gave into the circumcision party and refused to eat with Gentiles.[7] But through the temptations with faith, God’s work in us is to keep us firm in faith.

So in this petition, we pray that we may have the steadfast faith of Peter, and be saved from the unbelief of Judas. Truly the devil is a strong enemy, far more powerful than us. He is able to snatch the Word of God from our hearts and blind us to the Lord’s faithfulness and mercy. Our most heartfelt resolve cannot stand in the hour of testing. Even more, the great company of unbelievers would sweep us away from our faith in God. All of these stand against us persevering in the faith.

But One stands for us, who is Jesus Christ. He prays for us, He fights for us, and He is greater than all who seek our fall. And we pray that this Almighty Helper would never leave us to fend for ourselves—even for a single hour.

Even while we are attacked by these things, our Lord gives you special comfort and strength in His Body broken and His blood shed for you. He offered His very life to make satisfaction for all of your sins, and He now gives that crucified and risen Body and Blood for you to eat and to drink. Do not be afraid in the hour of temptation, for your Lord is near. He was tempted in every way as you are, yet He is without sin. He is gracious to forgive and restore you, and almighty to deliver you!

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.[8]

Just as you eat and drink the fruits of His suffering, He is faithful to bring you to the fruits of His resurrection in glory. Amen!

[1] Same word in Greek as “temptation” in the Lord’s Prayer
[2] James 1:2-4
[3] James 1:13-14
[4] Luke 22:3
[5] Matthew 27:3-5
[6] Luke 22:31-32
[7] Galatians 2
[8] 1 Peter 4:12-13