Sermon for Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday
Words of Institution; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
1 April, 2010
Emmanuel Lutheran Church—Dwight, IL


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

     Maundy Thursday is so named because of the new commandment (mandate) that Jesus gives His disciples: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (Jn 13:34). Yet the new commandment also comes with a new covenant, or a new testament--a new promise. It is the testament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which He gives to His disciples on the same night when He was betrayed, in order that they may know just how He loves them, and to enable them to love one another in the same way.

     So Maundy Thursday is also Holy Thursday, the Thursday when our Lord gives us a command and a promise by which we keep it holy.

3.

     It is no coincidence that Jesus instituted the New Testament of His body and blood on the night in which the Passover was celebrated. The Passover was that ancient Jewish ceremony celebrated in the Old Testament that commemorated their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. Yet at the same time, the meal was much more, for it also pointed forward to the ultimate Passover, when all mankind is delivered from bondage to sin.

     There are relatively few instructions found in Scripture as to how the Passover is to be celebrated. Most of the instructions have to do with the choosing and preparation of the lamb—one year old, without blemish, cooked whole with no broken bones, roasted over a fire, leftovers were to be burned. The Passover dinner recalled the sacrificial lamb whose blood marked them as God’s own when the Lord passed over their houses with His final plague.

     The other instructions for the meal—unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and eating fully dressed—recalled the haste with which they were called to leave the bitterness of their slavery.

     But in addition to being a meal of remembrance, recalling Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, the Passover was also a meal of preparation for Christ’s Passover.

     The Passover is what we call a type of Christ. The meal and ceremonies in each Passover celebration foreshadow the things that will happen to Christ, the Lamb of God.

     In every way, Jesus is the fulfillment and completion of the Passover. He is the Lamb who was chosen by God, without the blemish of sin. He is the one whose whole body was roasted on the cross as He suffered the torments of hell. His blood marked the posts of the cross, signaling that He has died in place of everyone else who deserved to be there. The bitter tears of our slavery to sin are wiped dry by His suffering. And from the cross begins the journey of all who would be His disciples.

     So St. Paul calls Christ our pascha. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7). Jesus is the end of the Passover.

     With Christ’s death also dies the Old Covenant (or the Old Testament) of the Jewish rituals and feasts, for there can be no greater Passover Lamb than the One who hung upon the cross. But Jesus doesn’t leave a void in the place of the Old Covenant, but He institutes a New Covenant in its place.

2.

     “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 them 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’” (Words of Institution).

     With these words, Jesus institutes a New Testament. It is not, however, a new Passover. Remember that the Passover is fulfilled and completed in Christ’s death. The Lord’s Supper is exactly as He says it is: something new. It is, as the Small Catechism teaches, the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given under bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to each and to drink (SC: Sacrament of the Altar).

     It has been a recent innovation among certain Protestant churches around this time of year to celebrate a Jewish Seder to more fully understand the Sacrament. But this goal cannot be accomplished by a so-called “Christian Seder” for a variety of reasons.

     First, as I said, Seders in the Christian Church are recent innovations dating back to only about 30 years ago. If it took the Christian Church over 1,900 years to incorporate Seders into its piety, then they probably don’t offer too much in the way of learning more about the Sacrament.

     Second, we really know very little about how Passovers were celebrated at the time of Jesus. We have the basic requirements that are outlined in Exodus 12—the lamb and its preparation, bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and eating fully dressed. The rest of the ceremony—which is imbued with Christian meaning—comes not from biblical sources, but from rabbinical tradition. And rabbinical tradition is the tradition of the Pharisees—the same who wanted Jesus silenced and put to death.

     Lastly, many of the ceremonies that purportedly help to understand how Jesus celebrated Passover are from the last 500 years, and not from the time of Christ at all.

     To try to more fully appreciate Christ and His Supper by returning to the Old Covenant of the Passover is a bit like meeting your wife at the door and bending down to kiss her shadow. Why fixate on the representation when you have the real thing right in front of you?

     The better way to more fully appreciate the Sacrament Christ institutes on this night is to meditate on His words, just as we are taught to do in the Small Catechism. (LSB, p. 326; begin with third question)

     What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? These words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there also is life and salvation.

     How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: “forgiveness of sins.”

    Who receives this Sacrament worthily? Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.

     Notice how every question about the Lord’s Supper returns to the Words of Christ. These words promise that the reality to which the Passover pointed—Jesus Christ on the cross—are given to us in the Sacrament.

1.

     Finally, as the Small Catechism teaches, the person who is worthy and well prepared is the person who has faith in the words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” How do you know if you’re worthy and well prepared? By examination.

     Examination happens in two ways. First there is examination by the pastor. Each year our young catechumens are confirmed and admitted to the Sacrament, but before that happens, each one is examined. Even now our catechumens are preparing for their examinations. In a few weeks, they will individually be asked what they believe concerning sin and forgiveness, the Holy Trinity, prayer, and the Sacraments of Baptism, Absolution, and the Supper. Only after they have confessed their faith are they admitted to the Sacrament.

     The same is true of visitors to this congregation. If that person is a member of another Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod congregation, we assume in good faith that another pastor in agreement with our confession has made that examination. But in the case of those who are outside of our confession, we ask nothing more than we ask of all our catechumens before they are admitted to the Altar—examination by the pastor and, if needed, a time of teaching.

     Pastoral examination usually happens only when someone is newly admitted to the Altar, and perhaps from time to time, but the second way of examination should take place each time you go to the Sacrament—self-examination.

     St. Paul writes, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (1 Cor 11:28-29).

     One very simple way to examine yourself is by reading through the Christian Questions with Their Answers in the Small Catechism. This evening, we’ll examine ourselves together.

(Read Christian Questions with Their Answers responsively; LSB p. 329-330)

IN THIS SACRAMENT, JESUS SHOWS YOU WITH WHAT KIND OF LOVE HE HAS LOVED YOU—A LOVE THAT CAUSED HIM TO GIVE UP HIS BODY AND POUR OUT HIS BLOOD  IN YOUR PLACE

This is the love that forgives sins, given to you so that you might give it to others.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


Rev. Jacob Ehrhard
VD+MA