The King's Feast
Maundy Thursday, 17 April 2014.
Rev. Bruce Skelton, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colorado ☩ www.hclchr.org
God is the Great Storyteller. He simply loves to tell stories, and one of His favorites is the account of the Passover. And not only does God love to tell this story, but he loves His people to hear it. In fact, if you take a close look at the Passover meal what you will notice that it is a storytelling session. The youngest child present is to ask, “What makes this night different from all other nights?” And then comes the story, a story so good that no child ever says, “Get to the good part,” because it is all good.
There is the part about the bread. God’s people had to eat unleavened bread, because they didn’t have time to wait around for it to rise. There is the part about the dish with bitter herbs, reminding them of God’s delivering them from the bitterness and misery of being slaves in Egypt. There is the part about them eating it in haste, with their belts tightened and sandals on their feet and a staff in their hand, because they had to be ready to follow their Shepherd Moses.
But it gets even better. There is the part about selecting the lamb. They were not to eat it raw or boil it; they were to eat it roasted with no leftovers. But the best part is what they did with the lamb’s blood. They took hyssop branches and painted the blood on their doorposts, so that the angel of death would Passover them and save their firstborns from death. The Lambs blood was God’s mark upon them that would save them.
But it get’s even better they would hear about what happened to the bad guy in the story, the evil king, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh. The enemy of God’s people who hardened his heart and opposed God. He was the one who made life miserable for God’s people by enslaving them and making them drown their baby boys, and using them for His own glory.
And then comes the really good part, where God fought for His oppressed people and struck down the firstborn of that evil king and all the Egyptians, while the Israelites made their getaway. “I’ll catch them; I’ll pursue them; I’ll overtake them,” that evil king thought. But he was going down.
God blew open a path in the midst of the sea for His people and they went through on dry ground. But God brought back the water and drowned the evil king and His army in the depths of the sea, thus saving God’s people. All that was left was for them to do was to sing praies to their God and dance, for He had given them complete and total victory.
But as good as that story is, it was not the end, it was only a prequel of a better story yet to come. The story we read a portion of in our Gospel reading for tonight. You see, there were even bigger enemies for God to fight, one was more cruel, more hateful, and more evil than Pharaoh could ever be, whose name is Satan, and there was death, the final enemy of man, and of course sin which continues to plague all mankind.
And so, in the fullness of time, the Great Storyteller took on flesh, and on this holy night begins to bring the meal and the story of Passover to its fulfillment. If you thought the first Passover was the night of nights, this night is even better. This night, Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday night the Holy Spirit has gathered us to hear what Jesus did to ensure a happy ending to our story as well. For on this Passover, He was going to go forth to fight for sinners like us.
Jesus celebrates the Passover with the Twelve and he is in complete control of the situation. He is not caught by surprise. Fittingly, tonight’s account even began with a question: “Where will You have us prepare for You to eat the Passover?” The great Storyteller, of course came not only to speak but also to accomplish something. He was not making it up as He went along. He knew exactly what was going to happen. He had already arranged for the Upper Room to be ready and, as He said, it was His time.
Like the old story, the bitter herbs were there; Judas dipped his hand in. We know the unleavened bread was there, and the cup of blessing was there. The lamb was there, but where was the bad guy? Where’s the evil king who’s going to be brought down?
Certainly if anyone deserved to be struck down in this account, it’s Judas, that greedy, hardened betrayer, that tool of the devil, but Jesus loved him and even warns him, but he also spoke tenderly to him, calling him “friend.” If God struck Judas down He should certainly strike us down too. Haven’t we, too, been money hungry? Haven’t we too let greed have dominion in our hearts? Let us consider how our own deceit, our own lies, our own calloused hearts, our own betrayed confidences have offended God. God would be perfectly justified in going after us and demanding our blood.
But now we get to the really good part. God doesn’t go after sinners like Judas or you or me. In a plot twist that no one could ever have never thought up, God the Father instead chooses to execute His justice upon His own Son, the Messiah, God’s Anointed King, Jesus. He goes after Him because it is His blood and His blood alone that can make full payment for our sin. Jesus is not only the good guy, He’s the perfect guy. He was nothing like evil Pharaoh. His heart was never calloused against God’s Word. He loved the Father’s will and cherished it. But the Father’s will was to save sinners through the sheding of His holy blood.
In his book Written In Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
"Would you give your blood to your sister Mary?" the doctor asked. Johnny hesitated and his lower lip trembled a little, then he finally smiled and said, "Sure, for my sister." Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room--Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned. As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. With the ordeal almost over, Johnny’s voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. "Doctor, when do I die?'
It was only then that the doctor realized why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he'd agreed to donate his blood. Johnny had thought that he was giving all his blood to his sister which meant giving up his own life. In a brief moment, he'd made the decision to sacrifice his own life in order to save his sister. The doctor then quickly explained to the boy that he didn’t need all of his blood, just some of it, and that he would not die.
Now, when you stop and think about it, each of us has a condition more serious than Mary's and it required Jesus not to just give some of His blood, but all of it. So for our sake, God the Father imputed our sin and the sin of everyone who has ever lived or ever will live unto Jesus. He plunged Him into the sea of His wrath, for our sake. He required the blood of His innocent Son to blot our sin, so that we might be spared and so that the story of our lives would have a happy ending.
Oh, what great comfort we can take in Jesus’ story, because that was His being the Lord’s anointed, God’s chosen King, is all about. That is why He came into the world. That after instituting the royal feast of His Holy Supper, He might shed His blood that causes eternal death to pass over us.
Jesus is not in any way a cruel king, like Pharaoh. He’s the King of love which is why He left that final Passover with his friends to offer His body to be broken and His blood to be spilled, so that we could be saved. The words from His lips were never deceitful, never self-serving, but always in the best interest of sinners. Yet those lips are the ones that would drink from the cup of God’s wrath so that our lips might sip the cup of blessing, the blood of the covenant, and eat the bread of Life, which gives us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
Now that’s a great story. There’s a happy ending that no human being could have ever thought up. The power of death passes over us, because it didn’t pass over Jesus. God’s firstborn was struck down so that we would be spared. Now eternal death passes over us because the gift of Baptism has marked us with His blood. Damnation passes over us because Jesus is our Crucified King, whose body and blood with the bread and wine, makes holy communion a royal feast of feasts.
What makes this night different from all other nights? This is a night that we not only get to hear the wonderful story of how Jesus instituted a new and better Passover, but we also get to participate in it. As St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth: “ for the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” So come, you blessed ones and receive the the feast prepared for you, by your good and gracious King, Jesus. To Him be all power glory, hnor and might, now and forever. Amen.