1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly
Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The message from God’s Word on this Maundy Thursday is taken from Mark 14:12-26
and it focuses on the third commandment.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
A
wise man commented as the cars sped by, “This
is typical of our age, tearing like mad to get nowhere.” Everyone seems to
be in a hurry, complaining they don’t have time for things they should be doing.
Most folks don’t even get enough rest at night, let alone make time to spend
with their families, or time to spend with God. We’re a restless generation.
Our lifestyle seems to be cheating us out of rest.
3.
For
1,500 years, from Egypt to Christ’s coming, Israel was searching for rest. But
it passed them by because of a lack of faith. The children of Israel wandering
in the wilderness paint a picture of humanity chasing after rest. They failed
to enter the Promised Land with its rest from their weary wanderings. This rest
is the great Sabbath that God created on the seventh day of creation. It’s
Christ’s work of redemption. It’s the rest that’s given to us by promise. We
enter this heavenly rest by faith. The Israelites didn’t enter this rest
because of the hardness of their hearts. Unbelief was their downfall.
4.
Unbelief
is also at the root of today’s troubles. Some influential theologians claim the
Bible isn’t infallible, historical, reliable, or authoritative. This leads to
false teachings and human suppositions, such as the belief that the creation
and the fall into sin is just a story Moses made up. Postmodernists deny the
virgin birth of Christ, the sinful nature of man, and Christ’s resurrection,
among others. With these denials Christ and His work of salvation is lost.
There’s no longer a need for a Savior from sin.
5.
No
wonder then within the 3rd Commandment is this command to remember, remember and don’t forget, don’t change the teachings, and promises
of God found in His Word. It’s a lie from the devil himself when people say there’s
no longer a need for an eternal rest because it can be found in the comforts of
this life. But, we have a better promise given us to enter a rest from our weary
pilgrimage. We have the good news of the rest in our Lord Jesus. He replaced
the ancient Sabbath that we might know rest can only be found in Him—He is our
Rest! By Jesus’ death, to cancel our sins, and His resurrection to guarantee
the resurrection of our bodies, He gives us evidence of what real rest in God
is. Not repeating the foolishness of the Israelites who died in the wilderness
without entering their rest, may we hold to our faith and the promise to enter
our rest in the mansions prepared for us. “So
then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4: 9).
6.
Remembering the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy is
all about God being God for you, his sinners, through his Word. God is a
talker. A speaker. Doing and giving what he says with his words. Catch that?
I’d better say it again: God Gives Gifts, Serves His Sinners, through
His Words!
7.
So, you’re given by God to take a little time out of
your busy schedules (yes, that even includes sporting activities; yes, that
even includes work schedules) in order to let God speak to you
through his Word, to be receivers of his speaking to you through his Word. Through
his Word, God actually holies you. He sanctifies you. He purifies you from all
your sin through his divine Word preached and proclaimed by the preacher;
namely, “I forgive you.” When you’re hearing those words or any of
Christ’s words, you’re hearing Christ himself. The living voice of Christ is
heard in the divine word of forgiveness. You are to make use of God’s Word and
exercise yourself in it. Or, as the Small Catechism teaches: you should fear and love God so that you do
not despise preaching and his
Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear
and learn it.
8.
Magnificent preaching about the Sabbath Day in the
way of the Third Commandment by the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was
betrayed. They are his divine words of promise attached to and filling the
Passover meal’s bread and wine. “Take,”
Jesus says of the bread, “this is my
body.” With regard to the cup of wine, Jesus flat out guarantees: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many” (Mk 14:22, 24).
9.
These are the words of the divine, eternal majesty
himself. From his own divine mouth. From his own divine lips. Who spoke all
creation into existence by speaking. “Let
there be light,” and it was! The words of the Lord’s Supper are God’s
sacred Word. They are his most holy Word. Gladly you are to hear them.
Happily you are to learn them, make use of them. After all, they are for you.
For your benefit—giving you the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
10.
But will you? Or are you bored with his words? Do
you routinely blow off his words, ignore them, disregard them, snub your nose
at them? Or would you change the Lord’s words to what you believe are better
words? Such as, “This symbolizes my body,” or “This is only a symbol
of my blood,” which translates into . . . just bread and wine on the altar
. . . only bread and wine in the pastor’s hands . . . merely bread and wine in
my mouth. No body. No blood.
11.
But that’s not what Jesus says or promises. “Take; this bread is my body.” “This
cup of wine is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
There’s no spinning it. No massaging it. Is means is. The bread in the
Lord’s Supper is his body. The wine in the Lord’s Supper is his
blood. St. Paul makes this very clear when he asks you rhetorical questions. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it
not a participation [or communion] in the blood of Christ?” Well, is it? Of
course it is! “The bread that we break,
is it not a participation [or communion] in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor
10:16). Well, is it? Of course it is!
12.
So tonight you hear the Lord’s words from the Lord
himself. It’s his sermon, his preaching to you and for you: “Take; this is my body.” “This is my blood
of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Again, these are the words
of the crucified and risen Jesus, who won and achieved the treasure of
salvation for you in his Good Friday death. That which was once acquired
under Pontius Pilate at the cross on Golgatha is ever again distributed: the
body of Jesus given for you, the blood of Jesus shed for you for
the forgiveness of sins. Through these specific words of proclamation (“Take;
this is my body,” etc.), Jesus speaks to you. He gives you exactly what he says
through his words—namely, his body and his blood for you for the
forgiveness of your sins. That’s why the Words of Institution are to be spoken
facing the congregation. Again, his words are preaching words. He’s talking to
you in and through his words so you know and believe exactly what he’s giving.
13.
The whole point of the Sacrament is this. It’s the
Lord’s service to you and for you. He came not to be served but to serve. Jesus
is among you as one who serves. He bestows his body and blood with the bread
and the wine by virtue of his Word. You are to receive or commune passively, to
be given to by the Lord from his Word of promise. That’s in keeping with the
Third Commandment’s point of making sure you hold his Word sacred and gladly
hear and learn it—making use of it, exercising yourself in it. That means you
go to the Lord’s Supper when it’s offered and that you believe what Jesus gives
according to his Word. As you believe his Word, you have precisely what he
promises. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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