✠ Take, this is My body and My blood of the new testament ✠
Exodus 12,1.3-4.6-7.11-14 2013
Gründonnerstag 030 weiß
Malchus and his companions, Martyrs 260
28. March 2013
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. Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: „Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man will take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor will take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you will make your count for the lamb, and you will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill their lambs at twilight. Then they will take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. In this manner you will eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you will eat it in haste. It is Yahweh’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood will 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. This day will be for you a memorial day, and you will keep it as a feast to Yahweh; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you will keep it as a feast.“
3. Tonight, on Maundy Thursday, we begin the pinnacle of the Church Year and remember die große Heilsgeschichte (the great salvation history) of our Lord Jesus Christ. The final three 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.
4. There is a continuity between the testaments. Yahweh gave the Mosaic old testament on Mount Sinai, and He gave the Christian new testament on Mount Calvary. The old testament prepared the way for the new testament.
5. The great feast in the old testament was the Passover meal. Yahweh was about to redeem Israel from Egyptian bondage by sending His angel to pass through the land killing all the firstborn of men and cattle. Each Jewish family was to take a lamb, kill him and put the blood on their doorposts. The angel would passover each house that had this blood and thereby the firstborn would be spared. Each year the Jews celebrate this feast with a Passover meal and remember the great act of deliverance they received from Yahweh’s hand.
6. The great feast in the new testament is the Lord’s Supper. On the night before His death, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and celebrated it with His apostles. This Abendmahl (evening meal) is the first Sacrament delivered unto Christ’s Church. Jesus tells us that this bread is His body and this wine is His blood. Which body and blood is this? The very body of Christ that would be crucified tomorrow, and the very blood of Christ that He would shed on the cross. Thus the Church teaches the Real Presence of Jesus in the Sacrament of the Altar. This (bread) is the body of Christ; this (cup) is the blood of Christ. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, the Apostle Paul teaches that we participate in the body and blood of Jesus. Thus we participate in Christ’s death. »For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He arrives« (1. Corinthians 11,26).
7. It is easy to see from the Holy Scriptures how the old testament flowed into the new testament. Jesus Himself taught: »Do not think that I have arrived to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not arrived to abolish them but to fulfill them« (Matthew 5,17). The Bible is ultimately about Jesus. The old testament was established to prepare the way for the new testament. The Passover was a type for the Lord’s Supper. The old testament was glorious, but the new testament surpasses the old with even more glory.
8. The Passover meal leads us to the Lord’s Supper and the Paschal Lamb. This Lamb is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Passover leads to the Lord’s Supper, and the Lord’s Supper brings us to the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus. The Sacrament of the Altar unites us to the crucified Christ with the Effect that the forgiveness Jesus purchased on the cross is given every time you receive the Lord’s body and blood. Christ has achieved the forgiveness of sins on the cross, but this forgiveness is not distributed or given out on the cross (Luther 213). Christ distributes the forgiveness won on the cross through the Word and the Sacraments (Luther 213). „If you now seek the forgiveness of sins, you do not run to the cross, for you will not find it given there. Nor must you hold to the suffering of Christ ... in knowledge or remembrance, for you will not find it there either. But you will find in the Sacrament or the gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers and gives to you that forgiveness which was won on the cross“ (Luther 214).
9. The old testament and its Passover feast were Yahweh’s great act of deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery and entrance into the land of Canaan with milk, honey and many other rich blessings. The new testament and its Lamb of God is Yahweh’s great act of deliverance of the world from sin, death and the devil that culminates with the entrance into eternal life with a new heaven and earth.
10. Yahweh told Israel: »The blood will 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.« John testifies the following at Jesus’ death: »But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there flowed out blood and water« (John 19,33-34). In this way, the Roman soldier verified that Jesus was indeed dead as His heart had stopped as water had pooled around His heart. John later explains the importance of the water and the blood in his first epistle, writing: »This is He who arrived by water and blood﹣Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Holy Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Holy Spirit, the water and the blood; and these three agree. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this eternal life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has eternal life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have eternal life (1. John 5,6-8.10a.11-12).
11. The old testament promised life and prepared the way for the new testament which not only promised life but fulfilled the promise. The old testament gave life, but it was necessary to repeat the testament over and over, day by day, year after year. The new testament gives life, but it only was necessary once, for the new testament life is effective every day throughout all eternity. The old testament had its myriad of lambs led to sacrifice and prepared the way for the new testament with is solitary Lamb of God who gave up His life one time for the salvation of all the men and women past, present and future.
12. The shed blood of Jesus, our Paschal Lamb, is the sign of our redemption. God the Father looked down from His heavenly throne, saw the flowing blood and the lifeless body of His Son, and He passed over us with His anger and wrath. The crucifixion of Jesus assures us that God has a friendly heart toward us, a heart that if full of compassion, love, mercy and forgiveness upon His fallen creation and sinful mankind.
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 through faith and believe that in this Sacrament Jesus gives you what He has promised and merited for you on the cross, namely, the forgiveness of all your sins.
14. The old testament prescribed a yearly Passover meal to commemorate and celebrated the great act of deliverance from Egyptian slavery. The new testament also has a prescribed meal to commemorate and celebrate the greatest act of deliverance from sinful depravity, death and the devil. The institution of the Lord’s Supper is an ongoing feast that is rightly celebrated every time the church gathers to worship her risen Christ.
15. „Dearly beloved, in God’s behalf, ... according to mine Office, to administer to all such as shall be religiously and devoutly disposed the most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; to be by them received in remembrance of His meritorious Cross and Passion, whereby alone we obtain remission of our sins, and are made partakers of the reign of heaven. Wherefore it is our duty to render most humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God our Heavenly Father, for that He has given His Son our Savior Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but also to be our spiritual food and sustenance in that holy Sacrament. Which being so Divine and comfortable a thing to them who receive it worthily, and so dangerous to them who will presume to receive it unworthily; my duty is to exhort you in the mean time to consider the dignity of that holy mystery, and the great peril of the unworthy receiving thereof; and so to search and examine your own consciences, and that not lightly, and after the manner of dissemblers with God: but so that you may come holy and clean to such a heavenly Feast, in the marriage-garment required by God in Holy Scripture, and be received as worthy partakers of that holy Table“ (Book of Common Prayer). Amen.
16. May the Almighty and Merciful God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, accomplish this in you and me. You have been invited by Christ Jesus Himself to His Heavenly Father’s glorious banquet of eternal life. This Lord’s Supper of Christ’s Body under the bread and His Blood under the wine are a foretaste of that heavenly feast to come. Do not excuse yourself from Christ’s invitation and Supper, but receive His invitation with joy and thanksgiving for He has established and instituted this Supper for your blessing. The Supper has been set; join me in receiving it for our salvation and forgiveness. Amen.
16. 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.
✠
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.
Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1771 Oxford University Press.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Gerhard, Johann. An Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Copyright © 1999 Repristination Press.
Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works: Church and Ministry II, Vol. 40. Conrad Bergendoff, Ed. Copyright © 1958 Muhlenberg Press.
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