Maundy Thursday

'For You'

Text: 1 Corinthians 11:24

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

The blood of Jesus was shed for you. That’s what the Scripture says. Our focus on this Maundy Thursday is the foundational realities that underpin this truth. Holy Communion was never considered to be a supplemental sacrament appended to the otherwise standard worship of the Christian church. From the beginning it was the sacred but regular meal that nourished the faithful. In this gift we have a convergence of mysteries. Christ is present in a unique way with the power of forgiveness. Holy Communion is a participation in the mystery of the incarnation.

The “for you” nature of Holy Communion is rooted in the fact of Jesus’ presence. Appreciating the importance of this is challenging in an age of skepticism about anything not scientifically verifiable. Christian teaching must be careful not to capitulate to a theology of the absence of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not a substitute for the human nature of Jesus. The ascension is sometimes misunderstood as a loss of the presence of Christ; almost as if at His ascension Jesus went back to being a spirit being only- a sort of “dis-incarnation.” The Holy Spirit is not a replacement for the bodily presence of Christ. The Holy Spirit unites the church in the blessings and benefits of His bodily presence. The Holy Spirit does no other work than this. If the Spirit is not leading a person to a deeper affirmation of the truth of Jesus’ body given for them then it’s not the Holy Spirit that’s doing the leading.

The ascension of Jesus into heaven doesn’t mean He confines Himself to that dimension or is no longer present here on earth. At His ascension Jesus was fully exalted and enthroned at the Father’s right hand. The sacrifice completed, death overcome, He began His rule as true God and true man for eternity. The ascension was truly a gain, not a loss. He is present bodily with His church on earth wherever and whenever He desires it. He has ordained that He will be present in the sacrament of Holy Communion in that way.

Here we not only “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes,”1 as Paul says, but also receive the risen, ascended, and glorified Christ. Hidden under these elements of bread and wine Jesus comes to you with the forgiveness of sins. We commune always in the pale of the cross but in the light of the resurrection. When we commune we make ourselves vulnerable to the purifying work of the cross. Grace can only be received in repentance. To approach the throne in unbelief invites only judgment.

Therefore the unrepentant sinner seeks anonymity. If not ruled by self-righteousness his thoughts easily turn to excuse and avoidance. Perhaps the tangled mass of sinful humanity can become an advantage after all? Maybe in the menagerie of sorting out the judgment we can just be lost in the shuffle? Maybe our deeds won’t be revealed and the evil intentions of our hearts remain undiscovered? Of course Scripture says otherwise. “Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”2

The heart knows that God sees. And the piercing eyes of God do not allow the smallest sin to escape unnoticed. False piety is also an offense to Him. Try to claim that you’re not worth His effort and see how quickly your intended humility is shown to be arrogance. Precisely in your ‘noble’ desire to be of no trouble to Him you end up discounting His sacrifice. We might do this not by any intentional slander or rejection of His suffering and crucifixion but by questioning whether we were worth the effort. In doing so we rob Christ of the fullness of His glory. You are trouble to Him, everyone is. That is precisely the point.

But you have never committed a sin He has not seen before. You cannot shock Him. You will not surprise Him. Even if you did something so original and evil that it has never happened in the history of the world, still God can see the potential for such wickedness conceived in the original fall. There is no actual sin that is more pernicious than the total corruption of human nature which is its source. Christ was crucified not only for the actual sins of men but for the very possibilities which complete rebellion against God- idolatry- leads to.

No soul is expendable to God. God does not follow a utilitarian ethic. He will not overlook the one for the good of the many. He is not constrained to make decisions which would throw humans into a quandary. He is not forced to choose the well-being of one above the other. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”3 Christ did this for the world and He did it for you.

Christ suffered for you. Luther says, “Of what help is it to you that God is God, if he is not God to you?”4 The sacrificial nature of Jesus is shown with clarity during His last meal with His disciples before His arrest. There He was, nearing His last hour, facing all the forces of darkness and what does Jesus do? He performs the task of a servant. He washes their feet. He models the humility that the disciples would need to imitate in their apostolic ministry. It was important symbolically, but it wasn’t merely an object lesson. Christians don’t just occasionally swallow their pride to perform lowly tasks on behalf of others; servanthood is the Christian way of life in all circumstances. Christians walk the path of humility not as a matter of personality or individual choice but as evidence they are bearing the cross and being conformed to Christ.

Dear friends, our Lord holds nothing back as He offers Himself for the forgiveness of your sins. In the Upper Room He blessed His followers before His death. In this place where He meets you He offers the same blessings. The Bible says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”5 The cross was raised for you. For you the nails were hammered. His blood was shed for you. For you His body was broken. The stone was rolled for you. For you death was conquered. For you He bore the insults, the humility, the curses and the shame. For you He lives and intercedes before the Father. For you baptismal water is poured. For you the Spirit is given. For you He will return. Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +

Maundy Thursday
April 1 2010
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 Corinthians 11:26
2 Hebrews 4:13
3 Romans 4:25
4 “A Meditation On Christ’s Passion”
5 Romans 8:31-32