X Take, this is My body and My blood of the new testament X
1 Corinthians 11,23-29[30-32]
Gründonnerstag 030 weiß Anselm of Canterbury, Archbishop † 1109
21. April 2011
1. O Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us the joy of Your bread to eat and Your cup to drink in remembrance of Your sufferings, we pray, enlighten us so that by true self-examination we may worthily receive that Sacrament, in true discernment of Your presence. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Paul the holy apostle writes: 23For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, 24and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, „This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.“ 25In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, „This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.“ 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He arrives. 27Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. This is our text. 3. On this night, Maundy Thursday, we begin to draw to a close Lent and Holy Week. The final three day of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Saturday) constitute what the Church calls the Triduum. These next three days are the pinnacle of Lent and Holy Week and take us through the final hours of Jesus precious life, His humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross, and lead us to that first Easter dawn.
4. Our Lord Jesus Christ institutes the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper during the Jewish feast of Passover. The old testament Passover, which Moses tells Israel, is to be a day of remembrance for you; you shall perpetually celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh (Exodus 12,14). The Passover involves a meal: lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. The Passover reminds Israel of Yahweh’s great act of deliverance from Egyptian slavery and entrance into the Promised Land. Year after year, Israel celebrated the Passover, and even today Jews continue to celebrate Passover.
5. In A.D. 30 Jesus celebrated His last Passover with His disciples (Thursday 31. March). Passover is the great festival of redemption and a feast of hope looking forward to the arrival of the Messiah. Thus the Apostle Paul proclaims: »Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed« (1 Corinthians 5,7). Jesus arrived to fulfill the old testament. He is our Passover and Deliverer from sin, death, hell, and the devil. He is our Paschal lamb who was slain for the world’s sin. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover, and He fulfills the old testament by establishing a new testament. The old testament flows to the new testament and the new testament flows from the old testament. The old testament prepared the way for Jesus, and the new testament is founded solidly upon Jesus. Thus, Jesus institutes a new Passover meal, a new testament Sacrament, that we call the Lord’s Supper. This Holy Communion is grounded upon Jesus and points our gaze upon Him alone.
6. This Holy Sacrament involves the elements of bread and wine which becomes the body and blood of Jesus. Here the Apostle Paul exhorts us: »Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself« (27-29).
7. St. Paul tells us to examine ourselves so as to guard against unworthy eating. There are two main ways Christians become guilty of unworthy eating. If a person does not recognize the sacramental presence of Christ in this meal so that he or she removes the real presence of the bread and the wine (Roman Catholic transubstantiation), then such a person does not rightly understand the Sacrament and partakes of it unworthily. If a person does not recognize the sacramental presence of Christ in this meal so that he or she removes the real presence of the body and blood (Reformed memorialism [Gedenkheit]) so that the bread and wine are mere symbols of the absent body and blood of Christ, then such a person does not rightly understand the Sacrament and partakes of it unworthily. A worthy eating understands that the verb „is“ means „is“. Thus, the worthy recipient knows and believes that the bread is bread, the wine is wine, and by nature of the sacramental union the bread is also Christ’s body and the wine is also Christ’s blood. We do not need to know how this is but only believe that it is by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures.
8. Jesus Himself exhorts us to eat and drink the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him (25), and St. Paul declares that as often as we partake of this Sacrament we proclaim Jesus’ death until He returns. The Holy Scriptures truly teach that the Lord’s Supper is a commemoration and a memorial meal of Jesus’ crucifixion for us and in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. The celebration of the Lord’s Supper, then, focuses our attention upon Christ crucified. And naturally, we will feel sorrow and guilt over what Jesus endured on our behalf to redeem us back to His Heavenly Father.
9. The Sacrament of the Altar, however, does not merely look back in remembrance to Jesus’ crucifixion but the Sacrament also looks forward to celebrating it with Jesus also partaking of it on the last day. The Gospel according to Matthew records that after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday, He said to the apostles: »I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s reign« (Matthew 26,29). Holy Communion, then, looks back and remembers Jesus crucified for us and also looks ahead with the hope of Christian faith that we will one day eat and drink this Sacrament with Jesus our Lord also partaking of it in our midst.
10. Jesus rightly teaches that this Sacrament is partaken in remembrance of Him and His crucifixion, and He furthermore properly teaches in this Lord’s Supper we receive the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said to the Jews: »I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the Bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this Bread will live forever« (John 6,51.53-58).
11. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) record that Jesus spoke concerning the Lord’s Supper: »this is My blood of the covenant which is poured out for everyone for the forgiveness of sins« (Matthew 26,28). „These words, „Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,“ show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation“ (Luther 31).
12. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to examine ourselves and approach the Lord’s Table worthily. „That person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: „Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.““ (Luther 31). The Lord’s Supper is for sinners. We gather together for this meal to receive the Lord’s absolution upon our sinfulness, and in this Sacrament the Lord puts His absolution in our mouths. „This Communion is a meal for the sinner because it is the meal of the penitent and those who are repentant. It is the meal for sinners in view of the cruel death of Jesus who have been deeply frightened over their own debt and godlessness. It is the meal for sinners who do not look for someone else to be guilty for the death of Jesus, but confess that they are the ones responsible for it, so that He had to die“[1] (Wenz 3 §24).
13. If you desire the forgiveness of your sins, then come to the Lord’s Supper and receive the absolution that Jesus paid for with His very own body and blood. Receive Him in this Sacrament in faith and believe that in this Sacrament Jesus gives you what He has promised, namely the forgiveness of all your sins.
14. We leave the altar in God’s peace, for Christ gives us His body and blood. Therefore, we have life everlasting, life won upon the cross and given out in the Sacrament of the Altar, and we will have life in a resurrected body forever in the Lord’s presence. Tonight we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in church fellowship, but on the last day we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the Lord Jesus Himself partaking of the meal again. Jesus is both the Giver and the Gift; receive the salvation He graciously and freely gives in this holy and blessed Sacrament. Amen.
15. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, You have caused Your wonders to be remembered; You are gracious and merciful. In this Sacrament of the Altar You give us Your true body and blood in the true bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins. Help us to rightly remember all You have done for us in Your life and crucifixion whereby You merited the forgiveness of each and every sin we have or will commit, for Your forgiveness is properly given to us through this new testament Passover meal we call Holy Communion, so that we may always know and believe that we are at peace with You on account of Your holy merit that has been applied to us as our own merit. Amen.
Which is poured out for everyone.
X
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand. Luther, Martin. Luther’s Small Catechism. Copyright © 1986 Concordia Publishing House.
Wenz, Armin. A sermon preached on 1.April 2010 (Maundy Thursday) in Oberursel, Germany on 1 Corinthians 11,23-32. Copyright © 2010 The Rev. Dr. Armin Wenz. Translation © 2011 The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind.
[1] Nein, das Abendmahl ist Mahl der Sünder, weil es das Mahl der Buße, der Umkehr ist. Das heißt: Es ist das Mahl für die Sünder, die angesichts des grausamen Sterbens Jesu über ihre eigene Schuld und Gottlosigkeit zutiefst erschrocken sind. Es ist das Mahl für die Sünder, die nicht andere Schuldige für den Tod Jesu suchen, sondern die bekennen, daß sie selber schuld daran sind, daß er sterben mußte.
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