Bible Passage: Luke 22:7-20
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: April 14, 2022 Maundy Thursday

Bulletin Maundy Thursday 2022

Luke 22:7–20

⁷The day of Unleavened Bread arrived, when it was necessary to sacrifice the Passover lamb. ⁸Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.”

⁹They said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?”

¹⁰He told them, “Just as you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters. ¹¹Tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ ¹²He will show you a large, furnished upper room. Make preparations there.” ¹³They went and found things just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

¹⁴When the hour had come, Jesus reclined at the table with the twelve apostles. ¹⁵He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, ¹⁶for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁷He took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves, ¹⁸for I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

¹⁹He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰In the same way, he took the cup after the supper, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you.

Jesus’ Testament for You

1. A precious gift.
2. A continuing gift.

Dear fellow redeemed in Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God,

The year: 1948. The place: Saskatchewan, Canada. A very unique example of a last will and testament. A man named Cecil George Harris was pinned beneath his tractor after an accident, and he managed to get out his pocket knife and carve a simple message into the fender of the tractor. The message read: “In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo. Harris.” After Mr. Harris died from his injuries, the fender was removed from the tractor. It was presented in court, and it was probated as a valid will. The wife, Mrs. Harris, received the estate just as her husband intended.

The year: 33, give or take a few years. The place: the upper room in Jerusalem, in Judea. A very unique example of a last will and testament. Jesus’ testament was not carved into the fender of a tractor; Jesus’ will and testament was given in a meal. And while His bride was the beneficiary, Jesus did not leave His parting gift to just one person or even to just the twelve persons who were seated with Him at the table. The sacred meal that was established that night is Jesus’ Testament for You. It is testament that bestows a precious gift. It is a testament that bestows a continuing gift.

If you have much experience with wills and testaments, then you know that they go into effect on the occasion of a death. As Jesus reclined at the table and ate the Passover with His disciples, this would be His last meal with them before His suffering and death. The very next day would be the Friday we call Good. But by the Jewish ordering of a day, in which a new day begins at sunset, it was Friday already, and later that day, Jesus would die. In less than 24 hours, He was going to give up His life in a way that will be remembered until the end of time.

There’s a lot of talk about memory in the lessons this evening, isn’t there? Do you ever find that your memory seems to have a strange power when it comes to the sins you have committed? You can’t remember that person’s name. You can’t remember where to turn to get to that restaurant. But after decades, you can remember vividly the sins of childhood, the cruel way you treated a sibling or the hurtful thing you said about a classmate. After years, you can remember the fight with a friend that never needed to happen. After months, you remember that temptation that you never should have fallen into, and you certainly should not have fallen into it a second time or a third time. There’s a way that sins stick in our memories like burrs sticking to your socks and shoes after you walk through the weeds.

But here’s the power of what Jesus did when He gave His life on the cross. Even if you have not been able to clear the hard drive of your memory of all those awful sins, do you know who has cleared from His memory every single one of them? God has. God has cleared from His memory every one of your sins. That’s the promise that He made in our Old Testament lesson, when He said, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” [Jeremiah 31:34]. It’s the promise that was carried out in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He gave His body to be broken. He gave His blood to be shed. Our sin was great, greater than you or I can even comprehend. But as great as our sin was, our Savior is greater. He did the time. He paid the price. With His body and His blood He gave the sufficient sacrifice that God will never forget.

Now, as His testament for us, His beloved, He delivers that body and blood to us. He brings His body to us with bread; He brings His blood to us with wine. He puts His body and His blood right here in our midst not so that more sacrifices might be offered to God, but, rather, so that forgiveness and salvation might be delivered to us. One sacrifice for sin was made 2,000 years ago on a hill on the other side of the world, but here in this sanctuary, once again, tonight, the fruits that were gained by that sacrifice are distributed to you for you to eat and to drink.

Your Savior bestows a precious gift in this meal, especially precious for you if you are burdened by the memory of your sins. In this meal, Jesus wants you to remember His death on your behalf. In this meal, Jesus wants you to receive the forgiveness that obliterates all the guilt of your sins. In this meal, Jesus wants you to eat His body and to drink His blood to feed your faith and to strengthen it against all doubt and all fear. In this meal, Jesus wants you to be united to Him as a member of His body who will rise with Him and live with Him in glory everlasting.

In no other will and testament has such a precious gift ever been given. And the gift in Jesus’ testament for you is also a continuing gift. Unlike any other gift, the gift of Jesus’ body and blood is a gift that can never be exhausted or outspent. As Jesus reclined with His disciples and miraculously gave them His body and His blood under bread and under wine, He did not intend for that to be the only occasion in which this miraculous meal would be given and received. He made that abundantly clear when He told His disciples to “Do this in remembrance of me,” [19]. In their gatherings in the future, they were to do as He had done. They were to speak His words, to bless the bread and the wine, and to distribute His body and His blood to be eaten and drunk. The gift was for them, but it was for many more people as well, and it was given to be received often as a saving feast for sinners.

One of the ancient church fathers, a man named Ambrose, expressed his need to repeatedly receive the Lord’s Supper by saying, “Because I always sin, I ought always to take the medicine.” Isn’t that a good way to think of this meal, as a prescription of medicine for sinners? We fight against our sin, and we strive to do what’s right, but while we still live here and our sinful nature still clings to us we are always sinning. So we take the medicine. We receive the prescription. Here we have the cleansing power of Christ’s forgiveness delivered to our mouths and to our hearts and to our souls. While our sin brings death, here we gain immortality. For those times when our memories dredge up all the worst sins from our past, in this meal we remember the death of our Savior for us. His body and blood are a stronger medicine than all the guilt of all your sins.

Now, even as the strongest medicines are given with great care, God’s Word leads us to give and to receive the Lord’s Supper with great care. We want all who receive this supper to receive it to their benefit. In your last will and testament you might leave your Cadillac for your child, but your child will need to learn to drive and he’ll to get his license before he puts the key in the ignition and takes that Cadillac on the road. While this meal has been established for you, before we give it we first instruct and examine so that no one will receive it in judgment as the Apostle Paul warns, but rather you will receive it for your good. So if we cannot give this Supper to you tonight, we hope that the day comes when we can give it to you after there has been the time for talking, for instruction, and for profession of your faith.

If you cannot take this meal tonight, you have forgiveness and life and salvation from Baptism, and from the Gospel, and from the Absolution that was spoken just after we confessed our sins. Yet this meal is one other way that Jesus delivers His blessings to sinners.

While we think of it as medicine, we can also think of it as manna. Remember how the Israelites were fed and sustained with manna from heaven until they came to the Promised Land. Well, we are waiting for our Promised Land. We are waiting for that banquet of heaven, the Wedding feast of the Lamb. While we remember the death of our Lord as we eat and drink, we also remember His promise to return in glory. As the Apostle Paul keeps both things in view when he writes, “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes,” [1 Corinthians 12:26]. Jesus even alludes to a coming banquet in our text when He speaks of eating and drinking when the kingdom of God comes. This testament of Jesus, this meal He has given us sustains us like manna as we wait for the heavenly banquet to come. When you are wearied by this world, when you are ashamed of your sins, when you are struggling with temptations, Jesus’ body and blood will feed you. Jesus’ body and blood will give you the nourishment you need to sustain you in faith through this wilderness until Jesus comes in glory.

What a death He died for us! What a testament He provided for us! No one else will ever give you gifts that can match what Jesus freely offers for you in this meal. One of the hymns from our hymnal puts it so well:

He who craves a precious treasure
Neither cost nor pain will measure,
But the priceless gifts of heaven
God to us has freely given.
Though the wealth of earth were proffered,
Naught would buy the gifts here offered:
Christ’s true body, for you riven,
And His blood, for you once given. (CW 311:3)

Amen.

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