Sermon - Maundy Thursday 2019 - 1 Cor. 11:23-32

On this day in which we reflect upon the institution of the Lord’s Supper, we would do well to regard this holy meal as one of the great gifts of God to us His dearly beloved church. Amidst the severely splintered christendom on earth, one of the most contentious topics is that of communion. With such a great divide in the church on this matter, we mustn't’ waver on it one bit, but we must faithfully hold fast to the Lord’s Supper which Jesus has given to us.

So this evening, very briefly, let us consider how an error made in regards to communion results in errors made in regards to the clarity of scripture, the presence of Jesus with His church, and of the very forgiveness of our sins.

One of the most flagrant errors in our day pertains to when Jesus says “This is my body; this is my blood.” Since the days of the Reformation, Christians had begun doubt those words of Christ, asserting that Jesus’ body and blood cannot be present in the sacrament of the altar. Surely, they say, Jesus meant that the bread and wine symbolize His body and blood. It could not possibly be His actual body and blood, that’s absurd! 

Yet, we Lutherans, together with the church catholic, insist that the bread and the wine in the sacrament is indeed Jesus’ body and blood. But how can we make such crazy assertions? What do we base our beliefs upon? The very word of God is our foundation. St. Paul clearly said, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.” St. Paul’s writings on the sacrament are no subjective opinion, they’re not the results of human traditions or foolish myths, but are the very words of God.

Christ Jesus Himself, who is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty in heaven, deemed the Lord’s Supper so important that He directly revealed its institution and mandating words to St. Paul. So what St. Paul records for us today are the very words of Jesus. If you have an issue with these words of Christ, then you also have a great problem with any other words Jesus speaks. 

Afterall, Jesus’ words aren’t unclear. He quite plainly says that this bread is His body and this wine is His blood. If I were to hold up my glasses and say that these are my glasses, it’s plainly obvious that they’re my glasses. If I pick up a cup of wine and give it to you and tell you it’s wine, it’s clearly understood that I’m telling you that the cup is filled with wine. Then even more so, when our Lord Jesus Christ, on the vey night in which He was betrayed, the day before He was crucified and killed, would He not be telling us the clear simple truth that this bread is His body and in this cup is His blood. If these simple words of Jesus aren’t clear, then neither is it clear when Jesus says that He is God’s Son or that the world is saved through Him. So hold fast to Jesus’ words and trust that what He says is true and clear.

Furthermore, when Jesus says “This is my body… this is my blood,” He’s declaring that He is really and truly bodily present with His church in a very real and physical way. God isn’t just here in my heart and my feelings, like some sort of ethereal ghost, but He’s legitimately here, really and honestly. God is present with His church. Remember what He promises, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.” And “Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”

Jesus does not lie to us. The one who is both true God and true man, our Savior and Messiah, is present with us here in this supper. It is true that God is present everywhere always, but He’s not always present everywhere for our benefit. Look to the Old Testament for this truth. At times He was present in order to work great plagues upon Egypt, to defeat armies and wipe them out completely, to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, and to flood the entire earth killing all life except for that preserved upon the ark. But here in the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus is present for you, as He says “This is my body, for you; this is my blood, for you… for the forgiveness of sins.” 

If Jesus isn’t bodily present in this sacrament, if this is just a dead sign, an absent Christ, then it’s nothing and it should be done away with. But it’s not. In this sacrament the truly living Christ is bodily present for you here. This is no empty sign; this is where Christ promises to be present for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

So we come to the final point now. This sacrament is the most precious and absolute pledge of the forgiveness of our sins. Yes, of course forgiveness is given also in baptism, preaching, and absolution, so we might be tempted to think that we have no need of this supper. But this is not true. Instead, the Lord’s Supper is the crown of all the means of grace wherein Christ bestows forgiveness. Jesus declares, “Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you… Take, drink, this is my blood which is shed for the forgiveness of your sins.” Here in the Holy Meal you have the very thing itself, given into your body, which forgives your sins. 

If you’re a debtor and someone promises to pay your debt, is there no greater assurance that your debt has been paid than when the very treasure used to pay your debt is placed into your hands! Indeed you have that great treasure here in the holy precious sacrament, where Jesus’ body and blood, the treasures of our redemption, are given to us poor miserable debtors.

Therefore we must take this sacrament and hold it dear to our hearts and let no false doctrine creep in regarding what it is and what it’s for. Because if we give in on the sacrament of the altar, we lose the clarity and certainty of scripture, we lose the comforting promise of the presence of Christ for us, and we lose the very forgiveness of our sins. So let us this evening diligently draw near in faith to the table of the Lord; pluck and eat the fruit of heaven from the very tree of life; stoop and draw water from the spring of God which wells up in our hearts to bestow upon us eternal life. Let us eat, let us drink, because here God has given us the most glorious treasure.