An Appropriate Response to the Blood of Christ

From the archives. Sermon delivered Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010,

Lectionary texts: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-7, 31b-35.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is Maundy Thursday and a day when we focus on the Lord’s Supper just before his Passion and death. The term, “Maundy,” comes from the Latin, mandatum, which means “commandment.” It is based on Jesus’ command in today’s Gospel lesson at verse 34 “to love one another” as he has loved us.

This evening I want to focus on how we should look at the Lord’s Supper and why we should partake in the Eucharist as often as we can. Our response to Christ’s command to love one another should be done as a grateful response for all that he has done for us and when we feed on his body and blood by faith with thanksgiving, we can count on his very Presence each day to help us be obedient to his commandment to us.

In today’s OT lesson, we have a perfect summary of the plight of the human condition. Israel is enslaved in Egypt and groaning under its oppression. We can relate to this because we too groan in our daily lives as we struggle with the hurts, the sorrows, the sickness, the alienation, the economic hardships, and the broken relationships in our lives. No, it doesn’t take being an ancient nomad to relate to the plight of God’s people enslaved in Egypt. We can relate because without God’s help we too are a people living in alienation and exile from God.

But then we read of God’s mighty rescue plan for his people Israel living in exile and take hope. God has brought a series of disasters on Egypt to demonstrate his might and power to the Israelites. But this latest and last plague—killing the firstborn in all of Egypt—will be the disaster that finally persuades pharaoh to let God’s people go.

Listen to the story as it unfolds. First, God tells Moses that the Passover—so called because God will go throughout the land and “pass over” every house that has the blood of the lamb smeared on its doorposts and not destroy the firstborn of his people—is to be the event around which Israel will build its calendar. The Passover is a foundational event and so important to the life of God’s people that Israel is to remember and celebrate it for all time.

Next, God tells Moses that his people are to eat their lambs in a hurry. They are to eat them with bitter herbs and unleavened bread to remind them of their oppression and sorrow at the hands of the Egyptians and the haste in which they must leave. These are to be tangible reminders of the years God’s people struggled in exile and that they are not to lose hope or courage in following God’s call to them, no matter how impossible or ridiculous that call may sound. As you listen to the instructions and imagine God’s people eating their first Passover meal that night, you can almost feel the tension and awful anticipation as Israel awaits its deliverance from exile. Will God be good to his promises and his word? As the Passover story unfolds, God answers this with a mighty “YES”!

Consequently, the exodus story sets the stage for us to look at the Lord’s Supper because we see Christ prefigured in it. First, we as Christians mark our calendars around Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Like the Passover meal the Jews celebrated just hours before God’s mighty intervention on their behalf, so the Lord’s Supper precedes God’s central Act of salvation on our behalf to end our alienation and exile from him forever.

Second, just as the blood of the sacrificed lambs saved God’s people during that first Passover, so the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, saves God’s people from our sins and eternal separation and alienation from God. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of  blood (Hebrews 9:22). This reminds us of the great and terrible act of love poured out for us on the cross. Here we see God become man, pierced and suffering, and bearing the just punishment of our sins himself.

Likewise and last, we see God sealing his New Covenant with his people in the blood of Christ, a covenant based on the Word of God, Jesus himself. By his blood we are healed and find reconciliation with God, something we could never do or merit on our own because none of us is capable of being perfectly holy as God calls us to be. But in Christ’s blood we find forgiveness of our sins and a chance to live forever with God. We have a poignant reminder of all this as we take ahold of the chalice during the Eucharist today.

As you think about the Last Supper and its the symbolism, it will hopefully evoke feelings of praise, thanksgiving, and a sense of relief in you. We no longer have to worry about trying to gain eternal life based on our own merits, a path that will surely fail and become a terrible burden on us if we are not careful. Self-help is not the way of the Christian. Jesus is the Way.

So what lessons should we take from the Lord’s Supper as we watch Jesus institute the New Covenant just hours before he enters into his Passion and death? Three things, I think. First, the Lord’s Supper reminds us to look back. As Paul writes in today’s Epistle lesson, Jesus himself tells us to remember what he has done for us in the sacrament of his body and blood. The Lord’s Supper points us to Calvary and the cross. It reminds us that Christ died for us so that we might have our exile and alienation from God ended permanently. It reminds us that in Christ’s broken body and blood we have hope and life, our one and only chance to live with God forever. It reminds us that we don’t have to try to earn our way into heaven anymore, something that is impossible in the first place, because God has done the impossible for us in Christ. The Lord’s Supper points us to God’s symbol of his holy justice and holy love—the cross. When we come to the Table, we are to always remember God’s costly and wondrous love for us.

Second, the Lord’s Supper reminds us to look ahead. As Paul reports in today’s Epistle lesson, we are to proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again in great power and glory to finish the work he started. This reminds us that we have a New Creation to which to look forward and that one day Jesus’ work on the cross will be fully consummated. But we do not want to get too far ahead of ourselves and must wait until Sunday morning to talk more about this. In the meantime, as we await Christ’s Second Coming, every time we come to the Table, we are reminded of our hope and glory as we partake in the sacraments of his body and blood, and are refreshed and strengthened by it.

Third, the Lord’s Supper reminds us to look at the here and now. Too often we fail to consider the power that is ours when we come to Christ’s Table. When we feed on Christ’s body and blood by faith, this allows him to work in and through us by the Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit to transform us into his very likeness. Why is this important? Because as we await the New Creation, we realize that right now we are broken and fallen people, incapable on our own of keeping our Lord’s command to love each other. Even as we are eager to respond in obedience for all that Christ has done for us in his death and resurrection, we often find ourselves unable to do so because all too often we try to love others based on our own power and strength, and this often doesn’t work because we are broken and fallen people.

But when we feed on Christ at his holy Table, we are taking him into our very bodies and allowing him to act through the Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit to enable us to obediently follow his command to love one another. We remember that we can only do so through the Power and Presence of his Holy Spirit and when we feed on Christ today and each week, we strengthen his very Presence in us in a quite real and tangible way (and consequently we increase our ability to follow his commandment to us because he lives in us and helps us be obedient).

Both the Passover and the Lord’s Supper remind us that we are part of God’s great rescue plan, a plan that has been fully realized at Calvary but not fully consummated. Just as God rescued his people Israel from their bondage to slavery in Egypt by the blood of the lambs on that first Passover, so he rescues us from our bondage to sin and the separation and alienation it causes through the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Christ, the very blood of God made human. He has promised to come again in glory to finish what he started and gives us his very Self through the sacraments of his body and blood so that we can have life with him forever starting right here and now. That’s good news, folks, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.