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Maundy Thursday
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Mike Moffitt, April 9, 2020


Text: Luke 22:14–30

This year in our journey through the Lenten season we’ve discussed how no one, not Jesus’ closest friends or disciples clearly understood who he really was and the true nature of his coming. They knew he was from God, no one could do the miracles that Jesus did, or teach with the anointing and authority that he had unless they were sent by God. The same thing could have been said of Moses or the prophet Elijah as God moved in miraculous ways through them.

This blindness continued as Jesus and his disciples celebrated Passover together in the upper room on the very night that Jesus would be betrayed. The only one in that room who knew exactly what was coming was Jesus, and what he would teach them that night continues to echo down through the history of the Christian church over 2,000 years later.

This was to be a pivotal shift in the disciples understanding of the identity of Jesus and of the intimacy to be found in relationship with him. They were encountering God in the flesh, the very one who had spoken all things into being at creation, the eternal God who has no beginning or ending. The Son of God who eternally existed in perfect harmony with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Who would have believed that God would come to us in human form and allow himself to be arrested, beaten, tortured and crucified so that his created image (mankind) could be restored to the fellowship that God intended before man fell into sin? How could they fully understand who he really was without the Holy Spirit’s revelation? The interesting thing is that after for over 2,000 years men and women still struggle to understand who Jesus really is apart from the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Today we move a little closer to what was revealed on that first Easter morning long ago.

It is often customary on Maundy Thursday to focus on the Gospel of John and the account of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. I have always loved that story as one of the greatest reminders that God was willing to come down and wash the feet of his disciples. If he was willing to take the place of the humblest of servants, then we should be willing to love and serve each other to the same degree.

However, tonight we will be considering Luke 22:14–30 where Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper. It is often a time of looking at the symbolism of the Feast of Passover or the way that Jesus reveals that he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, and we will touch on that briefly. I prayed again this year as to what direction I should take for tonight’s sermon, but I found that time and again I went back to focus on the intimacy of the meal that night in the Upper Room. Every story we have looked at since the beginning of Lent has invited us into a deeper understanding of Jesus and a greater intimacy with the Trinity.

That’s what I want to focus on tonight. I want to begin by looking at John 6:51–57 where Jesus first teaches about the need to partake of his body and blood. I believe that this will serve as the background for tonight’s passage.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.”

We should remember that when we read this passage we have the advantage of knowing what Jesus was really talking about. However, Jesus’ original audience completely misunderstood what Jesus was actually teaching. It has been my experience that even today object to Jesus saying that they must eat his body and drink his blood. The first hearers were used to thinking about feeding on the sacrifice of a lamb in the Temple sacrificial system, which was fairly impersonal. This sounded like cannibalism and the drinking of blood, both strictly forbidden in Old Testament law.

In order to test their hearts, Jesus did not correct this misunderstanding but instead used the figures of eating his flesh and drinking his blood to illustrate the powerful intimacy of the union between Christ and the believer. This spiritual union, by which Christ imparts new life and nourishment to the believer, is portrayed later in John 15:1–8, as the union of the vine and the branches. It’s sometimes called a “mystical union” because its nature goes well beyond our comprehension and involves a powerful identification even beyond the union of man and wife, where the two become one flesh. Paul refers to this in Galatians 2:20,

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In other words, Jesus was offering the reality of a spiritual unity where true life and all the benefits of salvation come through that union. What he is pointing to is not merely symbolic but is realized through a literal act of faith, eating the bread and drinking from the cup. Thinking about bread doesn’t offer nourishment nor does looking at a picture of bread. Focusing on a cup of water will not quench the thirst, only drinking from the cup will do. In the same way Jesus is revealing a level of commitment and intimacy that no one would have imagined to be possible with God.

It’s interesting to note that in the John 6 passage many of those who had been following Jesus left because of this teaching saying,

“This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. Jesus then turns to the 12 and says, “Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

The twelve disciples heard the same words from Jesus that everyone else heard but rather than leaving they stayed because they had become convinced that Jesus’ words were life. I guarantee you that this was not the first time that Jesus’ words were a mystery and it wouldn’t be the last time either.

With all this in mind we will turn to Luke 22:14–30.

The scene is the Passover meal in the Upper Room with Jesus and the twelve disciples, the ones who had stayed with him through all of his teaching and had followed him to Jerusalem. He previously told them that he had come to suffer and die but still they can’t pick-up on the reality that is about to come upon Jesus and them. Each of the 12 were Jewish and had celebrated Passover many times. They would have likely known the story of the Exodus from Egypt and the ceremony instituted in Exodus 12. They knew what to expect and the correct words that would be spoken and the responses. They understood the meaning of the bitter herbs, the four cups that would be passed around and the way that the sacrificial lamb was to be eaten. The symbolism was a vital part of their Jewish customs and memory, but Jesus was about to change the meaning and importance of this meal. Let’s read Luke 22:14–18,

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

This celebration of Passover itself was an intimate ceremony remembering their common heritage as the people of God, but Jesus sets a new mood. Jesus desires this meal to be a final fellowship between them before he suffers. They cannot yet understand that Jesus had come to die as the Passover sacrifice (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Jesus gives them the first cup which symbolized fellowship and told them to pass it around and share it. He reveals that he will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Again, Jesus was looking forward to the coming of the Kingdom of God. This is an important part of the Lord’s Supper; in that it points past itself to the Lord who is coming again to restore all things. This is why Jesus desired to eat this Passover with his disciples. He longed for them to be restored to the place that only he could take them because of his death and resurrection.

It’s the next statement that would have caused them to stop in surprise because Jesus introduces words to the ceremony that were new and pointed them to the truth that they had first encountered in John 6:51–57, that we read earlier. Let’s read Luke 22:19–20,

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

When the bread was lifted up at the traditional Passover, the head of the meal said:

This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let everyone who hungers come and eat; let everyone who is needy come and eat the Passover meal.

Jesus didn’t give the normal explanation of the meaning of each of the foods but instead he reinterpreted them in Himself, and the focus was no longer on the suffering of Israel in Egypt, but on the suffering of Jesus as the substitute on their behalf. The words ‘this is my body’ had no place in the Passover ritual; and when Jesus said them they must have had a stunning effect. Instead of remembering that God had rescued Israel from the bonds of slavery in Egypt, the disciples of Jesus were to remember that Jesus had become the sacrifice that they were to feed on for nourishment and strength for the journey in the wilderness.

To further drive home the point, Jesus gives them another cup later on in the meal but again redefines the meaning of the cup of blessing. It was now to be remembered pointing to a new Covenant sealed and bought with the blood of Jesus. Both Jesus and Paul draw on something from Jewish tradition to provide insights not previously understood. By calling the cup “the new covenant in my blood,” Jesus makes a direct reference to the promise of Jeremiah 31. God had declared that He would make a new covenant because the previous covenant had become “broken” (Jeremiah 31:32). To violate a covenant agreement with God would surely incur His wrath and judgment—a terrible cup!

But instead, God promised a new covenant of grace and salvation. Jesus declared that this new covenant would be poured from the cup of salvation in His blood. The cup of redemption stood for more than the Hebrews’ escape from Egypt; it stood for the plan and purpose of God for all the ages. Judgment and salvation, wrath and redemption are brought together in the mystery of one cup, explained by the Messiah in that upper room.

Jesus was not speaking of the cup in a purely symbolic manner. He was describing events that would soon occur in His own life and he was also pointing to who he was. No man could ever institute a new covenant between God and man, but Jesus is the God-man. He has the authority to establish a new covenant, sealed with blood, even as the old covenant was sealed with blood. Exodus 24:8,

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Jesus was going to make the sacrifice that would renew the covenant that God had made with Moses and Israel on Sinai but this time it was to be a new covenant and God’s final word. The Apostle Paul, in recounting the institution of the Lord’s Supper on the night that Jesus was betrayed, repeats the words of Jesus to his disciples but then adds an important reminder in 1 Corinthians 11:26,

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Notice the connection between proclaiming the hope of the gospel and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Paul was teaching that the visible celebration of the Eucharist was bound up with the mystery of faith that we proclaim every week as we say together:

“Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.”

There are those who feel that the Eucharist is merely a ritual or a symbol for us to remember but that wasn’t what Jesus was teaching his disciples. He was offering new life and hope through the intimacy of his body being broken, pierced and his blood being poured out for their sins.

Whenever we come to the table of the Lord, the invitation is to feed on the body of Christ and drink his blood as the real presence gathers with us with the same love, intensity and intimacy found in the Upper Room over two thousand years ago. What we are invited into is one of the most sacred moments that we have in our time of worship. We are invited into Jesus’ holy presence as we seek a deeper intimacy and union with him. Only Jesus can satisfy the hunger for God that is built into the soul of every man and the Eucharist is God’s gift for us to be filled and nourished. This is why the table of the Lord is reserved for those who have come to saving faith and have been baptized.

The table comes with a warning both from Jesus and from the Apostle Paul. We see the warning of Jesus in our passage tonight in verses 21–22 and 28– 30. Let’s read those again, Luke 21–22,

“But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”

Judas Iscariot was present for the Lord’s Supper and received from the Lord the bread and the wine. However, in his betrayal of Jesus he made a mockery of what was offered. For those who remained faithful, Jesus promised in verses 28–30,

“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

The Apostle Paul taught on the blessings found in the Lord Supper but gave a warning to those who came without faith and repentance in 1 Corinthians 11:27–31,

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 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 on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

Many have wondered what it means to come to the table in an unworthy manner. It’s helpful to see our passage in 1 Corinthians 11:23–34 in light of verses 21–22 of the same chapter,

For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

Paul’s concern was primarily about the humiliation of the poor who were apparently left out of the feasts where the Lord’s Supper was celebrated. The Eucharist symbolized the unity of God’s people, from all walks of life. He wrote in 10:17, “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body. For we all partake of the one loaf.” With that in mind, Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 11:29 makes sense, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body (of believers) eats and drinks judgment on himself.” Paul accuses the church in Corinth of not seeing the true gift of the Lord’s Supper as bringing intimacy with Christ and each other. The invitation was to examine their hearts and see if there was need to make things right with a brother or sister before coming to the table.

That’s why in our worship together, before we come to the table, we hear the Word, we respond together proclaiming the Nicene Creed as our statement of faith, and we confess our sins to God. We come understanding that Jesus is offering us life and nourishment through his body and blood and that in partaking together we are proclaiming that there is life through his death until he comes again. At the Last Supper Jesus was inviting his disciples into a deeper union with him and each other. Today we have the same invitation. We are the body of Christ.

Let’s pray

©2020 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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