Communion Service/Sermon in LLC Summer Services 2004, Outlook, Saskatchewan, Canada 03.07.2004

For this topic of study, for this communion service, I thought to read from the Gospel of Saint Luke, chapter twenty-two, verses fourteen through twenty-two:

“And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, ‘With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, ‘Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.’ And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed.’ Amen.”

The context of the words of this text bring us back nearly two thousand years into the city of Jerusalem. It was during the time of one of the three major annual Jewish festivals. The people of Judah and Jewish descent would wish to come to this festival. They would come from the country of Palestine, its different parts. They would come from the country of Syria and Egypt. There were people who were arriving in the city of Jerusalem who were Arabs, Persians, Greeks, and also Romans.

This was the annual Passover festival. Also, the king, King Herod, arrived. Also, the governor, Governor Pontius Pilate, arrived. The numbers of people in the city, typically, during this annual Passover festival would increase by fourfold.

I’m sure Jesus himself had many times participated in this Passover festival, perhaps earlier in his life, even with his parents, even though the Bible doesn’t relate those events. Typically, the Israelites had this thought and prayer in their mind that, if at least once in their life they would be able to arrive in the city of Jerusalem and attend one of these great annual festivals.

Typically, according to history, on such a day, at three o’clock in the afternoon, trumpets would sound in the temple courtyard, and there would be many Roman soldiers that would also arrive in the city to keep watch over the happenings. At times, Pontius Pilate invited six hundred additional soldiers into the city of Jerusalem. For the Acts of the Apostles relates that, on some occasions, uprisings had taken place during such festivals.

There were tens of thousands of people, typically, in the city of Jerusalem on such a day, during such a festival as Passover. And when the trumpet would sound, the mass of people would separate and make a pathway for a festive procession that would be led by the high priest, who was dressed in his beautiful, festive, priestly, Aaronic garment that was stored in the Castle of Antonia and only taken out on this special day.

A blue robe, bells on its hem, with beautiful letters embroidered into the robe, purple, red, and other colors. He had a beautiful breastplate around his breast, carrying twelve beautiful royal stones, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel. He had a miter upon his head, a diadem on his forehead, in which was inscribed, “Sanctified unto the Lord.” These are all precisely described for us in the Book of Exodus and in the Book of Leviticus.

Following the high priest would be the priests, dressed in simple white robes. And some years, on some occasions, nearly seven thousand priests would be following the high priest. And after this would follow the Levites, which would be hundreds, perhaps thousands, in number.

Jesus most likely was not in this procession this year. For six weeks earlier, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, from the grave, the High Council, the Great Council, the Sanhedrin, had made a decision that Jesus should be captured, and there was a warrant out for his arrest. For the next six weeks, Jesus basically traveled in secrecy, often going the back roads.

On Palm Sunday, several days earlier, according to the Old Testament prophecy, he did publicly ride on an ass, the colt of a donkey, when they sang to him, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord.” But after this event, he withdrew back into the town of Bethany, five miles out of Jerusalem, and then slipped into the city each of the days leading up to this Thursday.

There was at least one reason why Jesus then sent out his two disciples, Peter and John, ahead of him into the city, to go to the city well, where they would meet a man, which was a very untypical occurrence, who would be carrying a water jug or a pail for water, because normally women fetched the water from the well. This man they were to follow, who would lead them eventually to the upper room of one house that Jesus had set aside and dedicated for this evening.

Peter and John, I’m sure, like the tens of thousands of other pilgrims who had arrived in the city, went into the temple courtyard and bought a one-year-old male, unblemished lamb, which they brought to the priest in the temple courtyard. And there, the priest would take the lamb from those people bringing the offering, would take a knife, cut the throat of the animal, drain the blood into silver vessels, sprinkle blood upon the person bringing the offering, and also sprinkle blood upon the fifteen-foot-high altar there in the temple courtyard, upon which was burning an eternal flame. Then the priest passed the lamb back to the people bringing the offering.

They would then return back to their own homes, where they would begin the traditional annual Passover festival. Peter and John most likely, like everyone else, did precisely in this way as it was annually done.

The Bible here relates that eventually the twelve disciples gathered together in that upper room of that house. After all of the twelve disciples were gathered, then Jesus slipped in, or came in last. Jesus did not want to reveal to his disciples ahead of time where exactly this house would be, because he knew, as God’s Son, all-seeing and all-knowing, was present Judas Iscariot, who had already prearranged with the high priest the deception and betrayal of his Lord and Master.

Jesus then arrives into this room where his twelve disciples were gathered, and they all then sat down together to begin to commemorate, to begin to enjoy this Passover meal, which began at six o’clock in the evening, which was the time when the day changed from one to another, and the first star began to shine up in the sky.

In all of the homes in that city on that night, from six o’clock till midnight, they would enjoy their Passover meal and not leave until all of the Passover lamb had been eaten.

And so before they began this Passover meal, one would take a hyssop, dip it in blood, go out and paint the doorposts of the room in which they were gathered, as was done for hundreds and thousands of years annually on this day during this festival.

Jesus here says, “And when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, ‘With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’”

Jesus and the twelve disciples that evening were all gathered together to commemorate the Passover festival, which was a meal of remembrance of that event that took place when the people of Israel, long, long ago, had been for those four hundred and thirty years in bondage, in captivity, in the country of Egypt.

And the twelfth plague that was given and inflicted upon that country was that evening when the angel of death passed through that country and slew the firstborn, human and animal alike, of all of those homes where the doorposts were not marked with the blood of the lamb.

So the Israelites gathered together, each in their own families, where they enjoyed the eating of the Paschal lamb, and they also ate bitter herbs. They also enjoyed unleavened bread, which was a bread of haste. They had to be quickly ready for departure, not knowing exactly when that moment would be.

For when it was announced to go, they had to immediately leave at that moment, and they couldn’t wait for typical bread to rise that had been fermented with yeast. They were to be departure-ready: sandals on their feet, loins girded about, staff in their hands. They were ready for the departure from the bondage of Egypt.

Annually, after they were released from this country of Egypt, from the bondage of Egypt, God ordained that the people of Israel would every year gather together to commemorate this great deed of God, when he, in a miraculous way, released them from captivity, from bondage, set them free, and called them to be his nation, and then ordained the Old Testament Levitical priesthood.

So likewise, Jesus now on this Thursday evening, now known as Maundy Thursday evening, gathered together with his disciples as well, to roast this lamb, this Passover lamb, on a fire that was rotating on a stick, as scholars have said, in the shape of a cross. Also enjoying bitter herbs and unleavened bread.

Jesus said, “For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took the cup and gave thanks, and he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come.”

This was a moment of change. It was a line of demarcation, we could say, when for the last time Passover was being commemorated as a picture, an unfulfilled picture, but now it would be fulfilled.

The Old Testament time, the Old Testament covenant, and all of its pictures would now cease this evening, and everything would take on a new meaning. The New Covenant era was now dawning this night.

And so, typically, on this evening, a prayer was said, a blessing was asked for, and in the houses, one of the children, the oldest child, would ask a question: “Why is this evening different than any other evening during the year?” The father, Jesus, most likely this evening, answered that question and would recall those events of the first Exodus, thousands of years earlier.

Four cups were passed around the table, and then at the time of the third cup, then Jesus says, when he then begins to institute the New Testament sacrament of Holy Communion.

“And he took bread, and he gave thanks, and he brake it, and he gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.’”

They had been enjoying the eating of the Passover lamb. And as we heard already today, when the eunuch, when returning from Jerusalem to the city of Gaza, was in his chariot and reading from the prophet Isaiah, from chapter fifty-three, about the lamb that was brought before its shearer and brought before its slaughter, and it opened not its mouth—the eunuch was reading from the Bible, but did not understand what he was reading, and therefore Philip asked him, “Do you understand?”

The eunuch said, “I do not understand.” And then Philip began to explain.

The explanation is very simple. As John the Baptist, when he was on the shores of the River Jordan, saw that one man approaching as he was baptizing other people in the river, lifted up his finger and pointed and acknowledged, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who has come to take away the sin of the world.”

For thousands of years, at Passover time, they would enjoy the eating of this lamb, this Passover lamb, and watching and waiting in faith for the fulfillment of that promise of he who shall be born of the seed of the woman, who shall come to crush the head of the serpent.

And now, this was the last time, because during that same day, within that same twenty-four-hour period, the next day between twelve noon and three in the afternoon, Jesus himself, as the innocent Lamb of God, would outstretch his hands, his feet, to be nailed to the cross, to be roasted between two fires. As believers have always said, one flame was the wrath of God burning on one side. On the other side was the flame of God’s love. God hates sin, but God loves the sinner.

And this Lamb of God, who has come to take away the sin of the world, we can enjoy. We can eat in faith, in the Gospel message.

As John says in his Gospel, in chapter six, and he said, “Who does not eat of the body and blood of me, of Christ, will not have eternal life. But he who eats my body and drinks my blood will have participation in everlasting life.”

And Luther says so clearly that this has nothing to do with the sacrament of Holy Communion, but herein is simply eating and drinking in faith, by and through the Gospel message.

But here Jesus, during this same Passover meal, then gives it a new meaning and a new content, when now is the dawn of the new covenant era.

As Jeremiah wrote during the Old Testament time in chapter thirty-one, talking about the new covenant which shall come, which shall be a covenant of grace and the forgiveness of sins, not like the old covenant that God gave to the fathers, to the people, when they were traveling in the wilderness.

And so Jesus then took the bread and gave thanks, and he brake it, and he began to pass it out and give it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.”

So what does this mean for us this evening? After this, Jesus then likewise took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”

Jesus took the bread, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples. Jesus said in another place in the Bible, “I am the bread of life, who has come down from heaven.”

That same evening, after this meal was over, which ended with a hymn of praise, the disciples with Jesus went out into the garden of Gethsemane. And that same evening, the servants of the high priest came, and sinful hands were laid upon Jesus, the bread of life himself, who had come from heaven, to bring him from interrogation to interrogation. And eventually, the next morning, he would be hanging on the middle cross of Golgotha.

This is what Jesus said, that he took the bread, and he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Do this in remembrance of me.” That this communion is, in one sense, a meal of remembrance.

That every time when we gather together as God’s children to commemorate the Lord’s Holy Supper, and we can, in our mouths, feel the wafer that is laid upon our tongue, and we swallow it—we can taste it—we can remember what Jesus did on that Good Friday, that he, as the bread of life, who has come down from heaven, has done all of this on your behalf and on my behalf, when he was like the bread was broken, nailed to the middle cross of Golgotha.

And likewise Jesus took the cup. He says, “This is the cup, the New Testament, in my blood, which is shed for you.”

Likewise, when we taste the wine in our mouth, we would recall it is a meal of remembrance. “Do it in memory of me,” says Jesus.

Remember that Jesus himself, God’s only Son, the innocent Lamb of God, has shed his blood on the middle cross of Golgotha to the last drop on your behalf and on my behalf.

Jesus instituted the Lord’s Holy Supper, and therein we drink his blood, and we eat his body. And it is for the strengthening of our faith. It is to refresh that living hope of heaven, and it is also to tighten and strengthen the bonds of love between us as family members of the family of God, brothers and sisters in living faith.

It is a communion meal where we commune together, kneeling down at the same altar, or today, standing side by side at the same altar.

Paul writes of this in his letter to the Corinthians, that it is the one bread, which is a picture of God’s kingdom. And how is a loaf of bread made? First, grains of wheat are gathered together. They are ground up into flour, all intermingled and intertwined together, and then baked in one loaf of bread. This is how close the communion we have, fellowship we have between brothers and sisters in God’s kingdom, members of this living fellowship.

And as Luther says, likewise, how is wine made? When grapes, individual grapes, are gathered together, and they are squeezed to produce the liquid of grape juice, and then it is one cup of wine. So is the union, the communion, and the fellowship that we as brothers and sisters have and enjoy by and through faith and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So when we are commemorating the Lord’s Holy Supper, the sacrament of the altar, in faith, we enjoy the body of Christ, and in faith we enjoy the blood of Christ.

It is not, as is said in Roman Catholicism, that at the reading and during the reading of the words of institution, that the bread and the wine would change into the body and the blood of Christ. It is neither, like Zwingli said, that the bread and the wine only represent the body and the blood of Christ.

In 1529, Luther was gathered together from October 1st to the 3rd at the Marburg Colloquy, where he was visiting with Zwingli and his colleagues about the significance of communion. For two years prior, they had, on many occasions, had a dialogue about this same topic, but now were finally coming together one last time.

Fifteen points of discussion were written down. During the three days, they discussed fourteen of these points, and they saw eye to eye on all fourteen. Now was the time when point number fifteen was to be discussed.

Zwingli and his followers said that the bread represents the body of Christ, and the wine represents the blood of Christ. Luther lifted up the gold, the purple tablecloth that was covering the table and wrote down three times on the table, “Est,” in the German language, which means, “It is,” the body of Christ. It is the blood of Christ.

Luther had to say to Zwingli that, “You have a different spirit than I.”

Luther referred to these words of institution, recorded not only here in Luke, but also in Mark, also in Matthew, but also recorded by the Apostle Paul when writing to the Corinthians in the eleventh chapter in his first epistle, where Jesus says, “This is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.” And likewise, he took the cup, which he said, “Is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.”

So this is not only a meal of remembrance, but it is a meal of thanks, and the Greek word is Eucharist, which is commonly used in many areas of the world.

When Jesus, along with all the others, annually would gather together for the Passover meal, it was a meal of thanksgiving, remembering those great deeds, what God had done to the people of Israel, releasing them from the bondage of that country. But don’t we have greater reason for thanks? When Jesus Christ has offered himself as the innocent Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

He shed his blood, and he died on our behalf so that he could open the pathway to heaven, and that by faith in his name and in his blood in the Gospel message, we can be released from our sins. We can be a member of God’s kingdom and an heir of eternal life in heaven. Isn’t this a great reason for praise and thanksgiving?

And it is a meal of hope. A hope that one day, when we lay down the travel staff, we can be translated from this life to that eternal wedding festival there on the shores of heaven, where we will no longer be inflicted in carrying this corrupt body of sin. But there we can see our Savior as that host at that wedding festival and meal. We can see him face to face.

It is also a meal of confession. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Isn’t this a fellowship in his blood and a fellowship in his body?”

And so, brothers and sisters, we can simply believe that this is true, that God’s only Son, Christ Jesus, has done this on our behalf.

Typically, at a communion occasion, we kneel down at an altar rail, which is in the shape of a semicircle, and we can imagine that the other half of the circle is invisible, as if going behind the wall that is behind the pulpit. We are all part of this one body of Christ.

We who are together, living, traveling together today in living faith, whether we are here present in body, but also together with those in spirit who have not made it here, or those who are in other parts of the world.

But also part of the same big family, spiritual family of God, are those former saints who have already attained the victory and are waiting for that final day of resurrection, when we will hear that call, “Come, you blessed of my Father, to inherit that kingdom, which has been prepared for you and for many from the beginning of the foundation of this world. Go into the rest of my Lord.”

And so we can simply believe, even this evening, that it is true. Christ Jesus has done all on our behalf. He has suffered and died for me. He has redeemed me, not with gold or silver, but he has redeemed me with his holy and innocent blood, his suffering and death, and his victorious resurrection from the grave.

So, brother and sister, this evening, just as you find yourself weak, failing, under many doubts and temptations, you can come freely to the table of the Lord, to, in faith, in joy, partake of the body and the blood of Christ, for the strengthening of your weak faith, for the refreshing of the hope of eternal life, and also strengthening the bonds of love between all of us as believers, brothers and sisters, together in this one mutual faith.

Believe even now: sins forgiven in Jesus’ name and the precious atonement blood.

In Jesus’ name, amen.