Maundy Thursday

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules, and all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. Moses wrote the words down. He built an altar at the foot of Mount Sinai. Twelve pillars stood for the twelve tribes of Israel. Sacrifices were made to the Lord, and half of the blood of those sacrifices were put on the altar, vessels of worship. He read the word of the Lord to the people, and they replied just like before, all that the Lord has spoken will do, and we'll be obedient. And Moses took the blood then and threw it on the people. Behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God. They ate and they drank. The Lord Jesus had told his disciples all the words of the Lord. He even told them, Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And that last word gave them sorrow. They all were saying, Is it I, Lord, not just Judas? Jesus spoke more words, and the disciple Matthew has recorded them for us to hear. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take eat this is my body, and he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. We have heard these words, and we say, Amen. All that the Lord's has spoken we will do. All the words that he has said, we've heard them, we'll do it. But Israel of old, well, they said they'd do them. They said they'd be obedient, and how miserably did they fail? Are we full of such pride that we think we're capable of perfect obedience? Does not a part of you identify even with Judas, betraying the Lord? It seems kind of strange to say yes to that, but do we not say one thing, present one way, but truly we're in it for ourselves? It does seem harsh to call you Judas, but what if I called you Matthew? Does that soften the blow? James, John, or Andrew? Since at our Lord's request for prayer, they slept. When our Lord was betrayed and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, they all fled. Maybe I can call you Peter, bold Peter, with your little denials, because you fear the world and you desire its welcome and easiness in it. Old Israel didn't hold fast to God's commands. When we examine ourselves and our place in life according to the Ten Commandments, we see that we've failed too. We've fled from the words of the Lord. So the Lord Himself appeared as high priest of the good things that have come. The sprinkling of the people with the blood of oxen was only a sign of the sacrifice that was to come. For our high priest was also the sacrificial victim. The epistle notes Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The Lord made his new covenant with his people, and these are the words of the Lord. My body is lifted up, given up on the cross for you. Here am I. This bread is my body. My blood is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Drink it. Don't legalistically drink it only one time a year at Passover, but let this be free and often, for this is how you'll need my forgiveness. Yes, the Lord poured out his life blood on the altar of the cross, atoning for our sins. The Lord's death on the cross, the shedding of his blood on the cross, put his will and testament into effect. When the Lord puts his blood upon his people, he makes them holy. He cleanses and purifies. He calls us his own people in the world, but not of it. In this holy communion we eat and drink with God. We may envy that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and those seventy others were able to behold the sapphire pavement under the Lord's feet as they ate and drank with God. But do we not behold our God in his word and sacrament? Do we not eat and drink with him as he feeds us with true food and true drink, his body and blood, truly present under bread and wine? It's not what is perceived, but believed according to the word. In the Holy Supper of our Lord, the Lord comes to us doubters, deniers, fleers, betrayers, sinners. Our sins give us much sorrow. We haven't been obedient. Is it I, Lord? Oh yes, it's you. That's just the truth, which brings condemnation and terror before the holy, holy, holy Lord. Yet he still sets the table for such desperate sinners. He once laid his life, his body down on the cross, and that cross was lifted up for all the world to see. Behold the payment for your sins. Behold God's will and testament enacted for you. Behold your rescue. God blesses you with arms outstretched. The high priestly victim sprinkles you with his own blood, the very blood that has paid for your sins. In baptism he has washed your sin-stained robe, white as light, purified you, and claimed you as his own. So when the Lord speaks his words of institution, we say, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. We aren't bragging as if we've kept God's law perfectly, or as if we're really doing anything at all of much import, huh? We're not making promises we won't keep. We're saying that we've heard the whole counsel of God. Israel failed. The disciples showed their weakness. We've failed. We're unworthy. We need forgiveness. Only Christ can save us, and there he is, presiding at the table. We hear in the verba domini the words of our Lord. We dare not come on the basis of our righteousness, as if we're worthy to stand before God on our own merit, or met some threshold that makes us somehow worthy in and of ourselves. We come because he bids us come. Come, take, eat, and drink, for your forgiveness. I am with you always. Go in peace. We have faith in his words. We have faith in him. God feeds us with the only food and drink that takes away the sins of the world. And so we kneel, and our mouths are open to the food God gives. That which God has spoken we'll receive with adoring and grateful hearts. And they beheld God and ate and drank. Amen.