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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have heard read tonight, as will be read each of the next four Wednesdays, a portion of “The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, as drawn, or compiled together, from the four individual divinely-inspired Gospel accounts. Tonight’s portion bears the heading “The Lord’s Supper”, and, indeed, the reading includes many, though not all, of the things that were said and done in the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed. To keep our focus relatively narrow, and mindful that we will revisit the events of that night again on Maundy Thursday, I have selected, as the basis for our meditation tonight, only a few verses of the reading, specifically the following three verses found only in the 22nd chapter of St. Luke’s account:
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 [again] until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
And, we do well to also consider a similar statement that St. Luke records Jesus making a few verses later, which statement is also like a statement of Jesus that both St. Matthew and St. Mark record in their accounts:
“For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
We reflect on these verses under the theme “Longing to eat this Passover”, and, we pray God thereby to grant us greater faith in Christ, increased longing for our Sacramental Passover meal, and better understanding of what otherwise can be puzzling statements of our Lord.
As St. Luke narrates the events in the 22nd chapter of his account, he has already twice mentioned the “day” related to the Passover, and, then, in our text, he mentions specifically the “hour”. The nearness and resulting urgency have increased! Jesus reclines at the table, and the apostles with Him, as they had reclined at various tables countless other times, though, as Jesus quickly makes clear, this time is different. St. Luke’s wording underlines the initiative and dominant position of Jesus, especially in the dialog that takes place. Deeply moved, Jesus speaks first, saying that He “earnestly desired to eat this Passover” with them; literally, He says He desired to do so with desire; some translate that He eagerly desired, or very much longed to eat this Passover with them. His deep desire is not because He was not sure that He would be able to, for, as we heard, He seems to have kept the location of the meal a secret to be sure that He would be able to eat this Passover with them.
Do you and I ever have a deep desire to sit down and share a meal with friends or family? Perhaps we especially desire to share a meal with friends or family whom we do not normally get to see or with whom we do not normally get to spend time. Maybe you are especially thinking of holiday meals, such as those at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. I am thinking both of some farewell meals I shared with friends before I moved from Austin and of a few meals I have had with some friends from there since. Of course, even though I have not expected dinner invitations from any of you, I have appreciated sitting at some of your tables and our sharing meals together. We all probably recognize sharing a meal together as a universal act of hospitality, even as we probably can think of a few people with whom we would not want to share a meal (though I am sure that is not why I have not gotten dinner invitations from everyone in the congregation).
One of the things that is especially unique about Jesus’s earnestly desiring to eat this Passover with the apostles is that St. Luke’s record of it is one of really only two times in the New Testament that “desire” is explicitly positive. When not neutral, the other references to desire are to human desires that can be called “lusts”. One writer even goes so far as to say that, at least in the Old Testament, desire is “chief of all sins”, writing that God wills for us to reject the desires that seem natural and legitimate, at least to our fallen, sinful human natures. Think about our so-called “natural” desires for a moment: maybe coveting what others have, maybe wanting to destroy someone else’s reputation, maybe lusting after sexual gratification of one type or another, maybe desiring physical revenge, or maybe wanting to be free from human or even divine authority. When it comes right down to it, we by nature are unable to obey God’s will of not satisfying such sinful desires, much less are we able to give up the sinful desires themselves. We selfishly seek the things that we think that if we have them they will give us pleasure, the things that we think if we lack them they will cause us pain.
Ancient philosophers would dissect human nature and distinguish between different types of desires and appetites, but the New Testament mentions such sinful desires we all share at least in part in order to call us to repent, to lead us to turn away in sorrow from such sins and to trust God to forgive them for Jesus’s sake. Neither the philosophers’ looking inside themselves nor our looking inside ourselves can take seriously how wrong our sinful desires are. We need God’s Word to show us how we fail to deny ourselves as God calls us to do and how, for such failures, we all deserve death now and for eternity. But, when we turn away in sorrow from such sins and trust God to forgive them for Jesus’s sake, God does just that: He forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be.
In addition to the richness of the Passover as an important holy-day, family meal, at least part of the reason Jesus earnestly desired to eat this Passover with His apostles is because He knew He was about to suffer and die. St. Luke’s whole account of Jesus’s words and deeds in the upper room the night Jesus was betrayed are framed with Jesus’s twice referring to His death: the first reference in our text, and the other, which we did not hear, in which Jesus refers to His needing to fulfill Scripture. There is joy for Him to be with His disciples and to know all that He is going to accomplish for them and for us, but there is also His knowledge of His approaching death. Jesus is the Passover Lamb, the spotless Lamb of God Who is sacrificed and thereby takes away the sin of the world. So, what that death and the subsequent resurrection will accomplish—namely the apostles’ and our salvation—ultimately also brings Jesus joy, and He looks forward to again eating the Passover with them and with us in the fullness of the Kingdom of God.
Earlier I mentioned how we probably can think of a few people with whom we would not want to share a meal, and the people in Jesus’s day were little different. Throughout Jesus’s ministry, especially as reported in St. Luke’s account, including our text tonight, He graciously was present at tables, teaching about the kingdom of God, and sharing meals in an atmosphere of acceptance, friendship, and peace—with sinners! Especially in our text tonight, that presence is both as a guest at the table and as the sacrificial victim in the meal’s food and drink. When we honor His words and “Do this in remembrance” of Him, He is still graciously present at the table (albeit only sacramentally), teaching about the kingdom of God and sharing a meal in an atmosphere of acceptance, friendship, and peace—with sinners! In bread that is His body and wine that is His blood He gives us sinners forgiveness, life, and salvation. And, as Jesus carefully limited who was present that night, so we exercise care in who communes at this altar: baptized believers who confess the same faith confessed at this altar and who therefore are in fellowship with Jesus and with us.
Jesus’s gracious presence at table, teaching and sharing a meal has set the pattern for the church through two millennia of Divine Service: a Service of the Word and a Service of the Sacrament, both of which are the center and purpose of gathering on Sunday mornings, since they are both important to us as we continue to struggle with what we desire. Jesus, Who earnestly desired to eat that Passover meal with His apostles, in this Sacramental Passover meal gives us His Holy Spirit and sustains us as the desires of the Holy Spirit in us wage war against the desires of our sinful flesh. Those desires of the flesh, St. Paul writes to the Galatians, keep us from doing the things we, led by the Spirit, want to do. So, we earnestly desire to eat this Sacramental Passover meal, and we can eat it because the Kingdom of God has in some sense already come in Jesus. Although Jesus will not eat of the Passover again until the Kingdom of God is completely, manifestly, and finally come with Him on the Last Day, He expects that we will eat and drink often, until He comes. Then, as the Old Testament Passover was fulfilled by the Lord’s Supper, so also the Lord’s Supper will be fulfilled by the marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end.
If someone in dying left us tens of thousands of dollars of the estate in his or her will, would we not do whatever we needed to do to receive the inheritance? In such a way we should come to the Sacrament of the Altar, The Rev. Dr. Luther writes in a 15-20 work on the Lord’s Supper. As earnestly as Jesus desired to eat that Passover with His disciples, so we should desire to eat Him in this Sacramental Passover meal. If we do not hunger and thirst for the sacramental meal, then The Rev. Dr. Luther, in his later Small Catechism, encourages us to put our hand into our body and see if we still have flesh and blood, and then believe what the Scriptures say about our flesh and blood. When we repent and believe, those same Scriptures assure us that by grace through faith in Christ there is forgiveness for all our sin, and, since the Sacramental Passover meal gives us that forgiveness, we “earnestly desire” or “long” to eat it. For, as our Office Hymn says of the Sacramental Passover meal: “It is our comfort in distress, / Our heart’s sweet joy and happiness.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +