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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.
Preparing to preach tonight, I was very mindful that this sermon, on the night when our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, could easily become a “lecture”, about the Passover meal as the historical background of and context for the Sacrament of Altar. For example, we could consider speculation on how what we think we know about the observance of the Passover in the days of Jesus lines up with what Jesus did, and so forth. While some of the historical background and context is arguably more-critical to properly understanding tonight’s Gospel Reading, my prayer is that, with the inclusion of any such background and context, you will not hear such a “lecture” but a sermon that proclaims both God’s law that convicts you of your sin and God’s Gospel that freely forgives your sin for Jesus’s sake, as you repent and believe in Him. So, in considering the final five verses of the Gospel Reading tonight, we direct our thoughts to the theme “Passovers past, present, and future”.
The first of the past Passovers that we should think about is the very first Passover, which was connected to God’s delivering the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and took place the night of that Exodus (Exodus 12:1-51). A spotless lamb was sacrificed: the lamb’s flesh was to be consumed by all those who were incorporated into the people of Israel by circumcision, and the lamb’s blood marked the doors of believers’ homes, so that their firstborn would be spared the tenth and final plague, the plague of the temporal death of the firstborn. That very first Passover included provisions for future Passover observances every year, which observances would recall that deliverance, and that first Passover and those subsequent Passovers also anticipated a far‑greater Passover associated with the Lord’s Messiah, the Christ. The observance of the Passover itself was a part of the larger covenant that God later confirmed with His people, as we heard in tonight’s Old Testament Reading (Exodus 24:3-11), which covenant confirmation also included sacrifices: the sacrifices’ flesh was likely eaten as part of the meal the people shared with God, and the sacrifices’ blood in a sense marked God and the people as the parties to that covenant.
The second of the past “Passovers” that we should think about is the one in tonight’s Gospel Reading, which is connected to God’s delivering His people from their slavery to sin and took place the night of that “exodus” (confer Luke 9:31). That Passover recalled the past Exodus from Egypt but also was something new. The spotless Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36) was being sacrificed, and, in this case, His Body and His Blood were given to His closest followers, sinners who had failed to keep God’s covenant and yet who, by their table fellowship with Him, were forgiven and spared the eternal consequences of their sin. That Passover also included provisions for future observances, in this case, far more “often” (confer 1 Corinthians 11:25) than once each year, and that Passover and those subsequent Passovers also anticipated a far-greater Passover associated with the Lord’s Christ in the Kingdom of God.
Regardless of how what Jesus did in the Gospel Reading might line up with how the Passover actually was observed in Jesus’s day, we can say that the God-man Jesus Christ treated His Body and His Blood as if they were already separated by His self-sacrificial act, His being numbered with the transgressors, His bearing their iniquities and sins, His pouring-out His soul to death, and His making them to be accounted righteous (Isaiah 53:11-12). He gave His own body to His disciples. His own blood of the covenant was poured out not only for the others who were there but also for all people, including us. Out of God’s great love for us, Jesus died on the cross for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. Jesus’s statement about not participating in the Passover, but only for a time, made clear both that He was going to die and that He was going to rise, and so would participate in the “Passover” again.
The present “Passover” that we observe tonight is one of the future subsequent Passovers envisioned by the Lord when He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar. This present “Passover” is one of God’s ways of delivering us and all the baptized who receive it from our slavery to sin. The spotless Lamb of God has table fellowship with us sinners who fail to keep God’s covenant and yet who by eating His Body and drinking His Blood with repentance and faith are forgiven and spared the eternal consequences of our sin. We anticipate future regular observances like this one, but we also anticipate a far‑greater “Passover” associated with the Lord’s Christ in the Kingdom of God.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus certainly anticipated that others in repentance and faith would also receive His Body and Blood, and He likewise delivered to the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul, who in turn delivered to the Corinthians, for example, not only the most-important truth of Jesus’s death and resurrection according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) but also the institution of the Sacrament of the Altar (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), which, in tonight’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 10:16-17), we heard called a “participation” in Jesus’s Body and Blood. Thus Jesus Himself could say that His flesh is true food and His blood true drink, that unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood You have no life in you, but that if you feed on His flesh and drink His blood then you have eternal life, and He will raise you up on the last day (John 6:53‑55). As with “Passovers” past, so with “Passovers” present, partaking of them is necessary to receive their blessings, and we partake of them and so receive their blessings regularly, because of our great need for forgiveness and the strength that comes with it. So, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins, and, as a result, we have joy and peace even now amidst our sins and other afflictions.
The future “Passover”, the far-greater “Passover” associated with the Lord’s Christ in the Kingdom of God, will also no doubt in some sense recall both the past Exodus from Egypt and the past “exodus” from sin and also be something new. Holy Scripture says those who are invited to that marriage supper of the Lamb are blessed (Revelation 19:7, 9). In resurrected bodies reunited with souls, glorified and so freed from sin, we will feast endlessly with the Lord and experience joy and peace and glories that await us, to which Holy Scripture says our current sufferings are not even worth comparing (Romans 8:18).
In considering the Gospel Reading tonight, we have directed our thoughts to the theme “Passovers past, present, and future”. God’s being willing, you have heard not a lecture but a sermon that proclaimed both God’s law that convicted you of your sin and God’s Gospel that freely forgives your sin for Jesus’s sake, as you repent and believe in Him. We thank God for His Gospel, especially as it is applied to us in the Sacrament of the Altar, and we thank God for that Gospel in our very observance of the Sacrament of the Altar, what is also called the “Eucharist”, a name for the Sacrament that comes from the Greek verb that St. Mark uses to narrate Jesus’s giving thanks to God for the cup of wine and setting it apart to be His Blood. Jesus’s Body and Blood that we receive here truly bring forth our thanks, but, more importantly, they strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to live everlasting.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +