Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: Maundy Thursday: April 6, 2023

Bulletin Maundy Thursday 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

It would be impossible to know for certain how many times the Passover was celebrated before Jesus came.  We know it was first observed on the eve the Israelites left Egypt a free people under the leadership of Moses.  We could give ourselves the year 1500 B.C. for this.  We know that the Passover was to be an annual festival for the Jews, so every Jewish household was supposed to observe this festival for the 1500 years leading up to the time of Jesus!  Now, there were times in Israel’s history when they had strayed from the LORD and the Passover was not being celebrated annually, but even taking into account these gaps, suffice it to say, the Passover meal was easily eaten millions of times!

One spring evening in Jerusalem a special Passover meal was eaten by Jesus and his disciples.  Jesus even told his disciples that he had eagerly desired to eat this Passover with them.  Jesus knew this one was going to be special.  In fact, it was going to be pivotal.  And that is what we are going to consider tonight:  how the Passover Jesus ate on Maundy Thursday was The Pivotal Passover.

 In our text,  Paul is reviewing for the Corinthians the basics of the Lord’s Supper.  They were having some problems in their congregation with their celebration of the Lord’s Supper, so Paul explains Communion to them EXACTLY the way Jesus explained it to him!

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you:  The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you.” (v. 23-24)  Right here is a huge pivot!  The central feature of every Passover meal was the roasted lamb.  Kind of like Thanksgiving for us, the turkey is the main thing on the table.  The Passover lamb was central to the meal.  God’s instructions for preparing the  lamb were clear.  They were to roast the lamb whole.  Head, legs, everything.  No lamb chops or lamb shanks.  On the table was the ENTIRE body of a lamb.  But Jesus pivots them away from the lamb on the table.  He takes the unleavened bread and says, This is my body, which is for you.

He does the same with the blood.  Another central feature of the Passover was the lamb’s blood.  In Egypt the blood of the Passover lamb had been painted onto the doorframes of the Jewish homes.  It was the blood that gave the event the name “passover.”  Recall that the final plague the Lord visited on the Egyptians, and the one that would finally “persuade” Pharaoh to let the Jews go, was the death of the first born.  The Lord would pass through the land at night and put to death every firstborn male in the land of Egypt.  But he told the Jews to paint their doorposts – up and down, side-to-side, with the blood of the Passover lamb.  When the Lord saw the blood-painted door posts he would “pass over” those homes. There would be no death.  This blood of the Passover lamb was of the essence in the Passover celebration.  On Maundy Thursday, Jesus pivots away from the blood of the lamb to his own.  He takes the cup of wine:  This cup is the new testament in my blood.

Jesus has now given us a meal where we have pivoted away from roasted lamb and painted blood, to his body and his blood.  He gives us his body in, with, and under bread.  He gives us his blood in, with, and under wine.  Jesus calls it “covenant blood.”  Here is the covenant:  Jesus gives forgiveness and we receive it.  You say, “Wait!  What kind of a covenant is that?  He does everything and I do nothing!  He gives his body into death and sheds his blood and then GIVES me the forgiveness?  He bleeds and dies and I simply receive forgiveness?  That’s the covenant?”  Yes, friends, that’s the new covenant!  That’s called grace.

Let’s consider one more “pivot point.”  After telling the disciples to eat the bread and drink the cup, Jesus said, two times, Do this…in remembrance of me. (v. 24, 25)  The whole point of celebrating the Passover was remembrance.  When the Lord God told the Old Testament people celebrate the Passover every year, he said, Remember this day when you come out of Egypt. (Exodus 13:3)  Generations of Jewish families sat down each year on the 14 of Nisan and they remembered how God brought their fathers out of Egypt and saved them from slavery.  Now we eat the bread and drink the wine and we remember Jesus.  We remember how his body was given, how his blood “painted” some wood – up and down, side-to-side. The sign of the cross.  That bloody cross becomes our door to freedom – freedom from sin and damnation.

May I mention one more “pivot point” in this pivotal Passover?  Paul concludes our text by saying, [A]s often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (v. 26)  Part of the yearly celebration of the Passover, was the telling of the Exodus story.  Each year when Passover was celebrated, the Lord gave this instruction:  On that day you are to explain this to your son, “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.”  (Exodus 13:8)  Each Passover they were to tell the story.  Paul says that whenever we Commune, we are “proclaiming” a story.  Communion proclaims the death of Jesus for our salvation!  The given body and the shed blood tell and retell the story of Good Friday!  Have you ever explained it to your sons and daughters?  They are wondering what is happening here.  I remember as a child watching my parents go to communion, the reverence, the kneeling, hearing the words the pastor spoke, my mom coming back to the pew, her breath smelled of wine.  I was curious.  They made sure I knew the story.

How many millions of times do you think this meal has been celebrated since Jesus instituted it?  And every time, this pivotal meal brought Jesus’ given body and his shed blood!  Every time, in this supper the penitent sinner pivots from guilt to grace, from death to life, from self to Christ.

Amen.