Sermon - Lent Midweek 2 - 2018

“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Luther writes that these words “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.” The Lord’s Supper is medicine that heals. 

Healing is exactly what people need today. “For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous.” The people in this world are sick and twisted. If you look at the news headlines, what are you going to see? Conflict in the middle east. Sexual assaults. Assassinations. Bombings. Shootings. People dying of the flu. Domestic violence. It’s not just others who are sick, but like God says YOUR hurt is incurable, and YOUR wound is grievous.

But in our almighty, infallible, human wisdom we think we have the cure, the medicine for the sickness we see in our world. More people should have guns. No people should have guns. We need more culture. We need less culture. We need better hospitals. We need better medicine. We need better leaders. We need more social workers. We need more school time. We need more recess. 

We assume from the outset that all of our problems in this world can be fixed by implementation of a program or a law. We think that if we do things just right, then all of our problems will go away. If we just have the right laws, programs, and mindsets, then our world will be cured, we think. 

But the Lord says “There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you.” The sickness we face in this life doesn’t have a cure that you and I can invent. The human heart is desperately sick. Out of this heart comes all evil thoughts and desires. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” The prognosis is grim; our hereditary sickness will kill us and there is no cure we can invent. 

“In vain you have used many medicines… Go up to Gilead.” Go to dark Gethsemane. Follow to the judgment hall. Calvary’s mournful mountain climb… “and obtain balm.” There outside of Jerusalem, upon a hill, your Savior Christ Jesus the Lord didn’t merely sweat drops like blood, but from His hands, His feet, His side Your God did bleed for you and for your cure.

There is no cure we might invent for the sickness of this world. Yet the Lord did send a cure into this world and from the earthly, flesh and blood body of Jesus, He has given you healing from the sickness of this life. This was the Father’s will from all eternity: that you would be healed of your incurable wound and granted life everlasting through the precious body and blood of Jesus.

Yet to the cross we cannot walk. We cannot traverse time and space and grovel at the feet of our crucified Christ. So instead, the balm of Gilead, the cure from the cross, comes to you and says: “Take, eat; this is My body,” and “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus gave up His body and His blood as the one sacrifice needed to atone for our sins. And in this sanctuary, at the altar, Jesus gives you His body and pours out His blood, the one and only, the same body and blood offered up on our behalf at Golgotha. This body and blood forgives your sins, and where you receive forgiveness you receive life and salvation, you receive healing. 

Only in Jesus can we receive true healing and restoration. At the altar Jesus gives us this healing. This is healing that restores life to our sick and twisted world. It doesn’t look like much, just some bread and some wine. It’s not a long elaborate program, it’s not a law; it’s Jesus, your cure and your salvation. 

As such this teaches us an important lesson about the value of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is God’s true body and blood given for the forgiveness of our sins. The Lord’s Supper is the cure for our sinsick heart. The Lord’s Supper is more valuable than all the gold and silver in all the world. So how we treat this holy meal, how we talk about it and how we think about it, really do matter. 

With what reverence do you approach the altar of the Lord? Do you bow or kneel out of habit or local custom, or because before you is Jesus Christ your Lord? Are you more concerned with the extra 10 minutes the service is going to take than the fact that you get to receive Jesus’ body and blood? Do you consider it a blessing or a hassle? Because this meal is by far the most important meal that you will partake of during the week. It’s more important than getting to dinner a few minutes earlier. It’s even more important than any sport or athletic competition. 

In this holy supper, Jesus comes and feeds us medicine to heal our sin-sickened hearts. He pours out this medicine for many. This is a healing medicine to heal the world! God “the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the World,” which is why it was the Father’s will that the cup Jesus would bear is the cup of suffering and pain and death. Because in the death of Jesus, His blood became the balm and healing for the world! 

We need to stop looking for a cure to our sinful human condition from the inventions of man. No tower of babel that we build will ever save us from the sickness of sin. Instead our only hope and cure is found in the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. From this blood our sins are forgiven, and where forgiveness is found, there we will find also life and salvation. If you want to point people to the cure for the sickness in this life, then take courage and point them to the sacrament of the altar! Because that’s where Jesus points us, to His blood, which is the healing medicine shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.

We pray: “Jesus, grant that balm and healing in Your holy wounds I find, every hour that I am feeling pains of body and of mind… Every wound that pains or grieves me by Your wounds, Lord, is made whole; when I’m faint, Your cross revives me, granting new life to my soul. Yes, Your comfort renders sweet every bitter cup I meet; for Your all atoning passion has procured my soul’s salvation.” Amen.