Luke 22:14-20

Maundy Thursday

April 9, 2009

 

Luke 22:14-20 (New International Version)

14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

 17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

 19And 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."

 20In 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.

 

 

 

 

“Father, forgive them,” we have been praying during Lent.  Jesus prayed for those around Him who caused the torments and sorrows He endured on the day He died. In our midweek services we echoed His petition for ourselves and the ways we repeat those same sins.

 

Tonight we receive an answer to our prayer in the Lord’s Supper.  Forgiveness has two aspects.  The person who was wronged needs to forgive the offender.  Sometimes that is difficult to do.  We were deeply hurt.  Then the person tells the other, “I forgive you and God has forgiven you.”  It can also be difficult to convince the guilty person that he or she is forgiven, especially if it was a terrible deed or if the sin happened a large number of times.  That’s the situation we are in before God.  We are guilty of numerous sins—countless ones, in fact—and grave sins.  Jesus has provided a special means of convincing us we are pardoned.  On this Maundy Thursday remembrance of its institution we pray

FATHER, FORGIVE US THROUGH THIS HOLY SUPPER!

                                                                             I.  As the Lamb of God fulfilled the Passover v14-18

                                                                            II. As we receive Christ’s body and blood v19-20

 

The Passover was an event filled with meaning.  We go back to the time of Moses and when the Israelites were in Egypt under a harsh slavery.  God called Moses (remember the burning bush?) to lead His people out of Egypt.  However, the Egyptian Pharaoh was not a willing partner to the plans.  He enjoyed the free labor for his projects.  God sent ten plagues on the land, including woes like the Nile River turning to blood, hordes of frogs and gnats and a hailstorm.  Finally He announced the death of the firstborn.  "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.  Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.  But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” 

 

The people of Israel would not even be disturbed (why no dog would bark) if they slaughtered a lamb that was one year old, a perfect physical specimen, and put its blood on their doorpost.  The meat they roasted and served for a meal along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.  They were to eat the original meal standing, ready to go.  When the Pharaoh gave permission they could set out for the Promised Land at once.

 

The Lord also instructed His people to commemorate the event annually with a similar meal.  A ritual developed, which was the high point of the year.  It was like Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July all rolled into one.

 

The Passover festival also pointed ahead.  There is a greater bondage that grips the world, and that is sin.  God supplied a rescuer from the death that we deserved:  Jesus, God’s Lamb.  He was absolutely perfect, not just outwardly so.  He lived a sinless life as our substitute.  He would die as the sacrifice for our sins.  He shed His blood so we would not receive eternal punishment in hell.

 

That event was at hand as the Savior gathered with His disciples that night in an Upper Room in Jerusalem.  His sacrifice would occur the next day.  He was ready to go forward and carry out the purpose for which He entered our existence.

 

His death made this the last Passover that was needed.  Jesus fulfilled the picture.  As they were finishing the meal He told His disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”  His words expressed strong emotion.  His sincere desire was prompted by love for fallen mankind.  His sacrifice exempts us from eternal death.  He made a greater payment, with greater effects.  Jesus spoke about a future time when “the kingdom of God comes.”  He was referring to heaven, the Promised Land to which we are now journeying.  That’s His intended home for all, not for only one nation.

 

Passover was a highlight for the Jewish people, but Christ’s fulfillment is even more wonderful.  Slavery is miserable but sin’s clutches are more horrible and its results are far worse.  Slavery as one’s status in life is reprehensible, especially to us as Americans.  Our nation fought a war about it.  But you could survive being a slave.  Live in sin’s slavery and you suffer forever.  So rejoice in the fulfillment as the Lamb of God was sacrificed.  Know for sure that He paid the price.  You are forgiven, fully and freely.  God has answered our prayer of this Lenten season, “Father, forgive them.”

II.

Because our sins are many and we keep repeating them, Jesus gave us a special item to provide repeated forgiveness, and that is the Lord’s Supper.  We pray, “Father, forgive us through this holy supper” as we receive Christ’s body and blood.  The words are simple.  The meal was at an end.  The head of the family ate the last morsel of lamb, bringing to a close all of the eating.  Just before that step Jesus inserted a new action.  “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.’”  Jesus gave thanks or blessed the bread, giving it beneficial power and effect.  Then He broke pieces off the large, thin sheet made of flour and water, but without yeast.  As He passed out the pieces He made a startling statement, not, “Have some more bread.  Is everybody filled?”  He said, “This is my body,” the same one that would be offered the next day.  He gave the instruction to continue this action, not just at that moment but repeatedly.  They were to remember what the Savior did, that is, His sacrifice and its effects.

 

Next came the same action with the remaining cup of grape wine.  “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”  The action established a new covenant.  The concept of a covenant was familiar to students and heirs of the Old Testament.  The Lord had made several covenants in the past.  After the Flood He promised not to send another universal flood to destroy the whole world and designated the rainbow as a sign of His covenant.  He had made the law covenant at Mt. Sinai.  Through the prophet Jeremiah God had announced a new covenant, entirely one-sided, in which He would forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.  He now put that covenant into effect, sealed by the blood of Jesus.

 

In the Lord’s Supper our Savior gives His body and blood with all that His sacrifice of them accomplished.  He provides forgiveness for our sins, resulting in new life and salvation eternally.

 

The words may be simple but the meaning is marvelous.  “Wait a minute—how can that be?” our overwhelmed minds wonder.  “Because Jesus said it.  He’s God and can do anything,” is the answer.  We accept His words in faith.  We don’t state more or less than what He tells us.  As people respond to these words of our Savior that are beyond our understanding, some say it is impossible, that the bread and wine are only symbols to represent His body and blood.  That approach denies the plain words of Jesus and the power of God to do what He says.  Others make it a change of substance and have us re-sacrificing Jesus.  However, the Apostle Paul, discussing this sacrament by inspiration of the Holy Spirit still refers to the bread and the cup:  “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?  And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”  In the next chapter he also warns us that eating the bread and drinking the cup improperly is a sin against the body and blood of the Lord.  There are four elements together in sacramental union; two that are visible to our senses and two received in a way beyond our comprehension but fully there as we receive them.  We partake of Christ’s supper in faith.  It makes His blessings personal.  We know, “I have received Christ’s body and blood.  He paid for my sins.”

 

To us these many years later, the ritual of the Passover may seem foreign and strange.  Yet we also have ritual meals.  We have customs for Thanksgiving and other holidays.  At family gatherings there may be a consistent menu.  Or consider the traditions about wedding cake.  The bride and groom cut it together, feed each other the first pieces, and save the top layer for their first anniversary, to remember the special event that united them.

 

There are rituals in communion.  The earthly elements are consecrated or set apart for sacred use as the words reporting that action in the Upper Room are repeated.  They tell us that the bread conveys the body of the Lamb that God sacrificed for us and the wine shares Jesus’ blood like the lamb’s blood on the doorpost, saving us from death.  It is more than a ritual.  It is the blessed gospel, a means of grace convincing us we are forgiven.  God gives us that gospel not only on the printed pages of the Bible for our eyes to see or spoken from the pulpit for our ears to hear.  In the Lord’s Supper He places it under our noses and on our tongues to smell and to taste.  Use it and believe it. 

 

Our meditations during the weeks of Lent showed that sin is serious and grave.  We have strayed from God’s ways like the disciples who fled in fear; like the judges who condemned Jesus in hatred and weakness; like the mob who rejected Him; the soldiers who mocked Him; and the women who did not weep for their sins.  How welcome is this message tonight, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”  God marvelously answered our prayer, “Father, forgive us through this holy supper!”  Come, receive this sacrament.  Be relieved that the burden is lifted.  Live in freedom, peace and joy.