1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Maundy Thursday is taken from Luke 14:12-14, it’s entitled, “Hey, It’s Not about Me,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15). Our text: “And Jesus also went on to say to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, call the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12–14).
3. If a meal is an investment, how is that grace to you? Any terrorist can do that. If the feast is for the host, how is that love? And just about the time you’re amazed at how accurately Jesus teaches you about you, then suddenly it hits: “Hey, wait a minute! You weren’t talking about me.” Let me explain.
4. Jesus told us that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:20). Because of our sin that always suspects God of trying to get something from us, this sounds like he was giving us an ultimatum. But, “Hey, wait a minute! He wasn’t giving us an ultimatum; he was giving us himself.” “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify” (Rom 3:21).
5. “Thy righteousness, O Christ, Alone can cover me” (LSB 565:5). The whole Bible is about Jesus. He told us, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:25). It sounds like Jesus is preparing us for how hard it would be for us to get into heaven unless we’re first beaten into poverty. But, “Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t he say, ‘What’s impossible with man is possible with God’ ”? Jesus wasn’t preparing us for how hard it would be for us; he was preparing us for how hard it would be for him! He was the only one who was rich. He was the only one who found it hard to enter heaven. Everyone makes it in by grace except Jesus. He gets into heaven only after he is reduced by torture to a displayed corpse with Sacraments streaming to the poor, so that it’s easy for them—for us—to enter heaven.
6. And now Jesus teaches on how to give a feast, who gets invited, and why. Hey, wait a minute. The whole Gospel leads up to a feast. The whole salvation history leads to a feast. The whole Divine Service leads to a feast. Jesus leads by example with his feast. This feast.
7. Did Jesus invite his equals? And who would those be? None but the blessed Holy Spirit and God the Father. If Jesus gave feasts like we do, we would have all been bound hand and foot in the outer darkness, weeping and gnashing our teeth. He had no equals here. You can’t repay him for this feast. This is a charity banquet. You are in the debt of sin when you eat here. You will always be in debt, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
8. Does Jesus invite the rich? Does he call those whose lives are already fulfilled to his table? No. Does he call those who enjoy Communion but can live without it? No. Does he call those who are pleased with their Christian life? No. If this is no big deal to you, you’re not invited.
9. If you think Christ is investing, on the off chance that our future behavior will be a sound investment, that any holiness of life on our part in any way would be a repayment for this meal, then we don’t know what we eat and drink. It’s not a matter of, “All he asks is that we do our part.” That would be an insult. We’ve already done our part. We made our bed, and Christ slept in it. “Crucified, dead, and buried.” If you are bringing anything to this table other than your poor, crippled, lame, and blind self, then stay away.
10. Are you poor? Do you find that the longer you know Christ, the less you have to give him? Are you appalled when you realize that the gulf between what you are and what you should be has widened and deepened? After all this time, all of the Bible reading, receiving forgiveness, being graced with the Holy Spirit, making promises, you have nothing to offer God at this moment but empty pockets, again?
11. Are you poor? All your hopes and plans finally to make something of yourself spiritually and outgrow God’s charity have blown up in your face, and you are as needy as ever. You are no holier than your last sin. You should be rich in grace by now, so many times God has forgiven you, and blessed you and assured you, and held you, but, empty. When it comes to righteousness, are you declaring bankruptcy again? Only the bankrupt are welcome here. You must give up on “doing your part.” You must dine for free. You must consent to being a constant drain on Christ. His side was pierced for no other reason. Are you poor? Come. There’s a place at the head table waiting.
12. Are you crippled? Not very good at being a Christian? Not cut out for church life? You know exactly where you are crippled, and it is the grief of your life, the ache in your heart. Are you plagued by torments that twist you? Does it terrify you to look directly into the darkness of your own soul, to look into the face of what cripples you? Do you think it shouldn’t be hard at all to have a relationship with God but it is for you? Everyone else seems to succeed at being a Christian, but not you.
13. Are you too crippled by your past to hope in Christ the way you want to? Too crippled by your fears of being hurt—again—to love freely? Are you ashamed that what should be beautiful and easy is hard for you because your own crippled heart is holding you back? Come. This bread is only for the crippled. This wine is only for those who are too bent over to straighten up. This, the Lord’s own true body and blood, is only given to those who are already bowed down.
14. Are you lame? Does your own stunted sinful nature hold you back? Do you find yourself not doing what you want to do but instead doing what you hate? (Rom 7:15). Do you see the ancient story of original sin actually playing itself out in your behavior while you watch? Are you ashamed that the only way you’re going to get to heaven is if Jesus picks you up like a broken lamb and carries you home on his shoulders? Jesus is not ashamed to be used for a crutch. He wasn’t ashamed to be stripped naked in public, if it meant you would be kept warm in the robe of his righteousness. He was not ashamed to be scourged open and nailed down and lifted up and exposed to the wrath of God if it meant your sins would be covered. He was not ashamed to return from hell and the grave, calling for the lame, “Come to the feast.” This meal is only for his little brothers and sisters who must let him carry them.
15. Jesus says, only for the lame, the crippled, the poor, and the blind. Are you blind? Do you confess that original sin has blinded you with sins of both presumption and despair? (SA III I 1). Do you ask yourself why it’s taken so long to see the truth, finally realizing that you need Jesus to take you by the hand and lead you like a shepherd leading a sheep? Do you have to survive on a mystery of flesh and blood that’s hidden from your eyes under bread and wine? You will survive. Jesus promised! Come. You will be carried along by faith through the darkness by God himself, body and blood, given and shed for you.
16. “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Because Jesus invites to the feast only those who can’t pay Him back—the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, to the feast of his own body and blood, given and shed for those who can’t pay him back. The risen Christ, the five-wounded Victim, “will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (cf v 14) when he sees you alive from the dead, rich and glorious, strong and sound, and wide-eyed for the feast that goes on forever, starting right now. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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