Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday (C)

April 14, 2022

Text: Luke 22:7-20

            The Passover is unique among Old Testament Feasts, in that it is centered in the home rather than the Temple.  The Passover is eaten with the family.  The liturgy is led by the head of the household, the father.  If the family is too small to consume a whole lamb, perhaps another small family would be invited.  But the point is, communion in the eating of the Passover Lamb is what unites the members of the family.  The Lamb’s blood saves all in the house from the angel of death.  The blood on the doorposts and lintel, smeared in the sign of the cross, causes God’s wrath to pass over.  Thus by the Passover Lamb that has been slain, the family has union with God, union with one another, and is protected by the blood.  “You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever… And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses’” (Ex. 12:24, 26-27; ESV).  He spared the lives of the Israelite firstborn.  He spared their families.  He protected them and fed them in the house.  And the head of the family was to teach this in a simple way to his household.  The Passover is a family meal.

            But our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed, did not eat the Passover with His mother Mary and His brothers and sisters.  What does He say?  “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” (Luke 22:11; emphasis added).  “And he said to [His disciples], ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (v. 15; emphasis added).  And don’t miss what is happening here.  Jesus is not boycotting His nuclear family celebration of the holy feast.  This is not like skipping out on the family at Christmas for a ski trip with friends.  Nor is this to disparage family ties of blood and marriage.  Jesus is all for family values.  But here our Lord proclaims an even more intimate union.  Jesus is showing us that those who follow Him and gather at His Table constitute a new and greater Family, the Family of God.  It is as He said earlier in His ministry, when He was told His mother and brothers were standing outside desiring to see Him.  “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21).  The Church is God’s House, and those gathered within it are a Family united by blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

            Jesus is our true Passover Lamb, as St. John the Baptist proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and as St. Paul preaches, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7).  St. Peter declares, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).  As the Family of God, we come into the House of God, our Father, to eat the Lamb of our redemption, Jesus Christ His Son, protected and saved from the angel of death by His blood that covers us. 

            And there is a certain way that we enter.  Just as the disciples prepared to eat the Passover with Jesus by following the man with the water jar into the house (Luke 22:10), so we prepare and come into the House by means of the water of the font.  That is, we are baptized into Christ, into the Red Sea waters of His blood and death, and into His saving resurrection life. 

            When we come within, the Lord instructs us in the ways of His Kingdom, even as He instructed His disciples who reclined with Him at Table.  There He said that He would not eat the Passover again “until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (v. 16).  So also He told them that He would “not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (v. 18).  In this way, He teaches us what the Kingdom of God is.  It is not simply when He comes again in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead, though that will certainly be the full manifestation of His Kingdom.  We know that Jesus will eat and drink any number of times with His disciples prior to His ascension into heaven.  So what does He mean?  He means this will be His final Passover meal (and the final Old Testament Passover, period!), and the last time He drinks wine with His disciples, until He has decisively and comprehensively established His Kingdom by His death and resurrection.  And then it will be all eating and drinking with Jesus, all the time.  Gathering with Him at Table, where He is both Host and Meal.  Gathering, teaching, and eating.  He makes this abundantly clear after His resurrection when He appears to the Emmaus disciples.  Jesus comes to them, and walks with them on the Way, interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (24:27).  And then He enters the house with them and joins them at table, where they recognize Him in the breaking of the bread (v. 35).  In every resurrection appearance, Jesus teaches His disciples, and in nearly every resurrection appearance, He eats with them.  And this is to say, the Kingdom has come.  Jesus wins His Kingdom by His death and resurrection.  Jesus brings His Kingdom to us as He gathers us together, teaches us, and feeds us with His true body and blood.  And so, He abides with us.  This is how He will continue to be with us, with His Family, the new Family of God.  He will be with us in the preaching of the Scriptures and the Breaking of the Bread.  He will be with us in His Word and Sacrament.  This is real presence language.

            His body is the true manna we need as we travel through the wilderness of this world, the living Bread from Heaven that gives life to the world (John 6:51).  The bread of the Sacrament is His very body given into death on the cross for us, for the forgiveness of our sins.  It is the very body raised to life for us, to be our own righteousness and life.  The wine of the Sacrament is the blood that sprinkles us clean and atones for our sins.  It is His very blood poured out on the cross for us.  And it is this very blood that once again courses through His risen veins.  In the eating and drinking of the Holy Supper, this crucified and risen body and blood becomes a part of us.  Jesus gives it into our mouths.  He hand-feeds us, so that He is in us, really and truly, bodily, and becomes one with us, really and truly, bodily.  When Jesus says He is with us, He means all the way.

            And in this way, the blood of Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, marks this House, this congregation, and every one of us within it, with the sign of the holy cross.  As we will sing on Easter Day, “See, His blood now marks our door, Faith points to it; death passes o’er, And Satan cannot harm us” (LSB 458:5).  And so, in the Communion of this Passover Lamb, this Family lives together here in love and union (LSB 617:3).  Union with God.  Union with each other.  All in Christ, the Son.  Christ is with us, and we with Him, and so with one another.  Even as one cup is filled with the wine of many grapes, and one bread made from countless grains, so we are one Family in Christ.  St. Paul says it this way: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation,” that is, Communion, “in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation,” that is, Communion, “in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:16-17).  So it is in this Family.  We are one.

            Now, as is always the case this side of glory, we know family dynamics can be complicated.  We are sinners, and we sin against God, and we sin against one another.  But in the death of this Lamb, all sin is forgiven.  God forgives us for Christ’s sake.  And as a result, we forgive one another for Christ’s sake.  We love one another.  We serve one another.  We’re there for each other.  He makes it so in this Holy Communion.  And so, for all our individual weaknesses, and for all our varied flaws, there is always a place for us in this House, and at this Table, by grace; for love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).  There is always a place for us to hear the Word of God, and do it.  To eat the Lord’s Passover, marked by His blood.  To dwell, safe and secure, with brothers and sisters who love us.  Jesus earnestly desires to have us here, with Him.  There is always a place for us in Jesus. 

            Here we are in our Father’s House.  The Lamb which has been slain is on the Table under bread and wine.  Jesus has taught us the way of His Kingdom.  Now He gives the Kingdom to us to eat and drink.  If it is asked, “What do you mean by this service?”, we must surely answer, “It is the Sacrament of the Lord’s Passover.  For He passed over us when He struck Jesus in His wrath over our sin.  Jesus died our death, to spare us.  And now the risen Jesus gathers us in His House, as His Family, to eat the Passover Feast.”  The Passover is to be eaten in the Home.  And here we are.  Come, dear Family, come to the Table.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.