Exodus 12,1-4.6-8.10-14. Maundy Thursday

✠ Take, this is My body and My blood of the new testament ✠

Exodus 12,1-4.6-8.10-14 2520

Gründonnerstag 030

Mary Clopas, sister of the Mother of God, John 19,25. 

Dietrich Bonhöffer, Pastor and Confessor, † 1945 

Coptic Martyrs (44+) in Alexandria and Tanta, Egypt by ISIS on Palm Sunday, † 2017 

9. April 2020 

1. O God the Father, Creator of our life, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, so gather us under Your arms of Providence, so that we are comforted and protected during this time of pandemic and restore our world to health once again.  Amen. 

2. »The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: „This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.“ 

3. Maundy Thursday begins the pinnacle of the Church Year as we remember die große Heilsgeschichte (the great salvation history) of our Lord Jesus Christ. The final 3 days of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday) constitute what the Church calls the Triduum, and they take us through the final hours of Jesus’ precious life, His humiliation, suffering and death on the cross plus the awaiting of His victorious resurrection from the grave. 

4. Jesus celebrated the Passover with His apostles on Thursday, and it is the context of this celebration that He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, that is, the Lord’s Supper. Passover is the yearly Jewish celebration of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery; it is one of the 3 holiest feasts in Judaism. The Lord told Moses: »This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord.« 

5. We remember what occurred on that first Passover. »Take some of the blood of the lamb and put it on the two door posts and the lintel of your house. It is the Lord’s Passover. I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.« 

6. The Passover was the type, and Jesus is its antitype; the Passover pointed to and prepared for Israel for its fulfillment in Jesus. Since Adam’s fall, the world has been subject to the bondage of the Serpent; Satan is a much crueler taskmaster than the pharaoh who had enslaved Israel. Our sinful flesh is bound to the curse of suffering and death; pandemics like Covid-19 are one way the curse plays itself out upon mankind. Sin, and the fear of death and hades, bind our consciences in despair. 

7. Christ Jesus is the Passover Lamb sent by God to deliver us from sin, the curse of sin, death and hades. Blood must be shed, holy blood, and the only holy blood capable of delivering us is that of God becoming man. That is Jesus: born of the Virgin Mary; He is True God and true man. His blood saved us. We remember this on Maundy Thursday and its connection to Passover: God delivered the world from its sin. Like Passover, God the Father looks upon the blood of Jesus and He passes over us. His wrath has been satisfied in the precious Lamb who has been slain, His only begotten Son, Jesus. 

8. This year we aren’t able to celebrate this with the eating together of the Lord’s body and blood in His Supper. Tonight we draw a comfort from another Sacrament Jesus gave us: Holy Baptism. This Sacrament works forgiveness of sins, rescues from Death and the Devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare as Jesus says in Mark 16: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16,16). Our Baptism connects us to Christ who has redeemed us. We remember His mercy again this day for His Passover is a memorial day for us every time we gather to wOrship.  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Lord, You are a Merciful and Gracious God; bless us this day as we remember the wonder of Your Son’s sacrifice to deliver us from sin, Death and the Devil.  Amen. 

Which is poured out for everyone

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