Message for Maundy Thursday 2025.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Matthew 26:26-29 - ‘While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’
27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. 28 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 from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’
Sometime during the course of the meal, probably at, or just before the blessing of the fourth cup, (yes, the Passover celebrations comprised extensive rituals of remembrance of God’s people being delivered out of the hands of the Egyptian oppressors), in that upper room in Jerusalem, we hear Jesus say, after the Words of Institution:
‘I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom’ (Matthew 26:29).
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth; your Word is Truth. Amen.
The Foretaste of the Feast to come.
Brothers and sisters in Christ: when considering the content of Matthew 26:29, that which Mark’s and Luke’s Gospel also record in their own way (Mk 14:25; Lk 22:16 & 18), about what Jesus said at the Last Supper, the title of the Sermon says it all, that what’s presented at table is, ‘The Foretaste of the Feast to come.’
I promised the Lenten Bible Study group, that, if we had time, we would explore this verse. We didn’t have time so I present my personal study as a devotional message fitting for this first Service of the Three Days to Easter (Triduum) celebration.
‘I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom’ (Matthew 26:29).
This statement sounds like a statement of Jesus’ future absence; that he won’t be again at table until such a time as all things are made new in the New Heaven and New Earth. But it isn’t. It is a word of comfort, spoken by the omnipresent Lord
Jesus, who must be believed when he said, ‘This is my body…this is my blood,’ and applicable to the here-and-now of the meantime between the Last Supper and the Last Day.
Yes, Jesus is anticipating the fullness of time when his reign and rule in his Father’s kingdom is made manifest. But this meal, on the night in which he was betrayed, also anticipates that, upon his suffering and death upon the cross, that the Father’s kingdom is there established, as the promised Christ is crowned, but with thorns, and God’s blood is shed, and as his body dies for the sins of the world; that historical fact that must be received by faith. Hence the truth of Jesus’ saying to the penitent thief, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’ (Lk 23:43).
Speaking of the coming kingdom, Jesus earlier comforted his disciples, saying,
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am’ (John 14:2-3).
St Matthew certainly captures the Hebrew way to express Jesus’ saying at table. The phrases, ‘the fruit of the vine’ instead of ‘wine,’ and ‘my Father’s kingdom’ instead of ‘the kingdom of God,’ reflect the teaching Matthew received at table.
The ‘fruit of the vine’ is not grape juice or any grape product other than wine. The wine at the Passover meal may have been cut with water, possibly even up to 50%, but wine is wine is wine, not unfermented grape juice. And besides the fact that all three of the synoptic Gospels include this phrase in the Last Supper discourse, there are over 30 other examples of the Bible authors employing a round-about way of describing something (i.e. ‘the fruit of the vine’), rather than simply naming it - wine. This type of figure of speech is used variously in the Bible. He ‘who falls by the sword’ in 2 Samuel 3:29 means ‘he who is put to death by the public executioner.’ Or, take the two poetic descriptors in Micah 7:5 that are lost in modern translations, but preserved in older ones. i.e. ‘guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom’ (RSV), ‘doors of your mouth’ meaning ‘words’ and ‘her who lies in your bosom’ meaning ‘wife.’
And with the phrase ‘my Father’s kingdom,’ instead of the phrase ‘the kingdom of God,’ that Mark and Luke employ, we hear part of the Trinitarian relationship and the familial truth of Jesus’ Sonship, and therefore the privilege that all Jesus’ disciples have a Father in heaven, and can call upon him as such ‘Abba, Father,’ (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). This truth is replete throughout the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, such as the, ‘Our Father in heaven… Your kingdom come, Your will be done,’ phraseology of the Lord’s Prayer, and in the garden prayers, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’ (Mtt 26:39 & 42), and the words from the cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Lk 23:34) and ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’ (Lk 23:46).
On the night in which Jesus is betrayed by a kiss, but also ‘delivered over to death for our sins’ (Rom 4:25), by the Father none-the-less, he establishes the meal of the New Covenant: the old as referring to the Passover, and the new referring to the Lord’s Supper. Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb that the Passover sacrificial lamb and all the Old Covenant sin offerings prefigured. Even if the intention is good, Christians do not celebrate or recreate, for any reason, the Passover or the Seder Meal, especially not as a Holy Communion replacement, near or on Maundy Thursday. Why would you want to live in the shadows (Colossians 2:17), when you can bask in the Son’s radiance?
Even in the foreboding gloom of betrayal, suffering and death, newness of life emanates from this New Covenant meal. The Last Supper marked the establishment of a new relationship between God and man: made by God for man’s temporal and eternal benefit. I can testify that, here at the Altar Rail, and at the home or hospital bedside, that the eating and drinking of Jesus’ body and blood, in faith, does provide strength and preservation in body and soul to life eternal. Holy Communion can extend the temporal life of the dying, but here Jesus is speaking of something new that is on top of, or in addition to newness of life given at table. He is speaking of eternal life that his death and resurrection will gift to all who believe. He is speaking in the present of the future eating and drinking in the, let’s say, heavenly banquet halls of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, that will come to fullness on the Last Day, when every seat is full, and where the joyous festivities will continue on into all eternity.
In the meantime, Jesus gives the Church a meal that is ‘The Foretaste of the Feast to come.’ This side of the Last Day, in the Lord’s Supper, for we must remember that there was one Last Supper, but that now we are invited to, and participate in the Lord’s Supper, for it is his meal, and there we have a foretaste of the future glory of the life continued eternally in our Father’s kingdom. To this point, St Paul said, ‘For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes’ (1 Corinthians 11:26).
And the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts in minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sermon for Maundy Thursday, 2024
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 26 we hear St Paul say to 'those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ - their Lord and ours' (1 Cor 1:2):
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth; your Word is Truth. Amen.
St Paul said to the Christian congregation in Corinth, 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Take note that he didn't say, "When the Apostles ate" or "When the priest eats" or "When the Minister eats." Rather he said, '26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. The "you" here is in the plural (i.e. you all). So take note that Paul is speaking to the congregation, not to just the shepherd or appointed leader.
Brothers and sisters in Christ: the holy meal you will eat and drink tonight has been rightly understood as an enacted sermon to the world. It has been rightly understood as an enacted proclamation of the death it commemorates. It is not only a remembrance, and certainly not just a memorial meal; rather it is the very Word of God being enacted for the world to sit up and take notice, if only the world would quieten its holiday rush and stop and look in the church's direction! For here the faithful do not ascend by faith into the heavenly realms to partake of the body and blood of Christ. Rather, Christ, mysteriously but truly present, comes down and gives himself fully, in, with and under bread and wine - to be received by faith for the forgiveness of sins.
When you gather around the Lord's Table in this Holy Communion around the holy body and blood of Jesus, and hear the Words of Institution, and eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus that is truly present with you, and for you for the forgiveness of sins, you, not just I, are proclaiming 'Jesus Christ and him crucified' (2:2). Did you hear that? It is you who are proclaiming 'the Lord’s death until he comes.'
"No, no, Pastor, that's your task and calling...you are to proclaim the Lord's death and what it means to us!"
Yes, St Paul did say, 'For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified' (1 Cor 2:2). This is true, but the Office of Preaching is but one side of a two-sided coin. The other side of the coin is the Institution of the Sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion of which tonight's focus is the holy meal.
Upon studying the chief Article of the Christian faith, that is, the teaching as to how a person is justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed by the Scriptures alone, the founding father of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, C.F.W. Walther wrote that, 'The Sacrament is truly "the pulpit of the laity" (quoted in Walther's 'A guide to the Daily Prayer of the House). This claim by Walther is true, that is, if we believe what St Paul said to the Christians in Corinth and what the Lutheran Confessors believed and taught concerning the holy supper - that the Sacrament is "the pulpit of the laity."
Not a bishop, not a pastor, but a layman, Philip Melachthon wrote, 'Thus in the church the Lord's Supper was instituted that our faith might be strengthened by the remembrance of the promises of Christ - of which this sign reminds us - and that we might publicly confess our faith and proclaim the benefits of Christ, just as Paul states [1 Cor 11:26], 'For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes' (Ap IV 210).
Philip Melachthon said that one of the main reasons that Jesus instituted Holy Communion was that our faith might be strengthened by the remembrance of the promises of Christ of which this sign reminds us. This statement harks back to the medieval church teaching that the Mass worked forgiveness of sins in a purely mechanical way - a kind of 'turn up to church and your saved' kind of salvation - a salvation in which the necessity of faith was obscured. Listening attentively to 10,000 sermons will not alone save. Faith is needed. Receiving Holy Communion (in a purely mechanical way), does not save you either, even though you have eaten and received the very body and blood of Christ. It needs to be pointed out that this kind of faithless reception of Christ's body and blood is actually, in body and soul, bringing judgment upon yourself. For St Paul goes on to say, 'For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks jugdment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (i.e. died)' (1 Cor 11:29-30).
However, if you approach the altar in the faith God grants, which is simple trust in Jesus' promise of grace, mercy and forgiveness, then you will leave with the intended blessing, and you will 'Go in peace'. In another place C.F.W. Walther said,
'The preaching of the Word should already strengthen a Christian's faith. But when he is told that, in addition to the Word, God has instituted a special sacred act to which his promise has been attached, the Christian must feel as if he were standing before the very gates of heaven. But this only happens if you cling to the promises of God' (Law & Gospel: how to Read and Apply the Bible, pg 401).
In his Small Catechism Luther puts it this way: 'It is not eating and drinking that does this (i.e. gives forgiveness of sins, life and salvation) but the words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. These words, along with eating and drinking, are the main thing in the sacrament. And whoever believes these words has exactly what they say - the forgiveness of sins.
Walther again said in a Holy Tuesday devotion, that:
'the apostle Paul demands that all communicants "proclaim" the Lord's death at their use of the Supper. Although they celebrate it, above all, for their own sake, they also celebrate it for the sake of their neighbour and the world, thereby preaching and extolling to them all the atoning death of the Lord. The altar on which the holy Supper is celebrated should also be the pulpit of the laity where they, as true spiritual priests, proclaim the virtues of Him who called them from the darkness into His wonderful light. The preacher proclaims the cruficified Christ in his sermon from the pulpit, and when that sermon has ended, the believing congregation gathers at the altar to proclaim Him as well. By this, they demonstrate that they are part of the [one holy Christian and apostolic church] (from God Grant It: Daily Devotions pg 332).
One day I might have opportunity to have a niggle at a congregation or a pastor who has removed the pulpit from their church, saying on the way out, "At least you haven't also removed the 'pulpit of the laity!'
Brothers and sisters in Christ: 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. The holy meal you will eat and drink tonight has been rightly understood as an enacted sermon: an enacted proclamation of the death it commemorates. It is the very Word of God enacted.
When you gather around the Lord's Table in this Holy Communion, around the holy body and blood of Jesus, and hear the Words of Institution, and eat and drink believing that Jesus is truly present with you, and for you, for the forgiveness of sins, you, not just the bishop or the shepherd or the appointed leader, are proclaiming 'Jesus Christ and him crucified' (2:2). Did you hear that? Tonight, and Sunday by Sunday at the Divine Service, it is you who are proclaiming 'the Lord’s death until he comes.'
Preaching from the pulpit is but one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is publicly on show when you gather at the altar rail. So we need both this pulpit and the "pulpit of the laity" as C.F.W. Walther wisely put it. So brothers and sisters in Christ: the Lord's Supper was instituted that our faith might be strengthened by the remembrance of the promises of Christ - of which this sign reminds us - and that we might publicly confess our faith and proclaim the benefits of Christ, just as Paul states [1 Cor 11:26], 'For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes' (Ap IV 210).
And the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.