"God’s gifts for God’s people” (Maundy Thursday)

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14, Luke 22: 14-30
Preached at Baldwin Presbyterian Church on April 1st 2010

From the Book of Exodus we heard of the institution of the Passover. You remember the story. The Israelites are led out of Eygpt, but only after a series of plagues have desolated the land. The final of those plagues was the death of the firstborn children as the angel of death passed through the land.

The Israelites are told to mark their door posts with the blood of a lamb, a sign to the angel of death to pass them by. The Eygptians die, but those Israelites who have obeyed Moses instructions live. Hence - the Passover - a celebration of the people’s deliverance.

We come to remember a Passover meal that took place in an upper room shortly before Jesus was murdered. It is at this meal that Jesus made clear to His disciples that His hours of greatest confrontation were about to take place. In the coming hours they would witness betrayal, personal failure, injustice, and the death of one they had come to love.

He was about to become their sacrificial Lamb. Through His blood their salvation would be secured. Through His sacrifice a door was to be opened into the presence of God that none could close. Through His sufferings they would learn that God stood with them in their sufferings. Through His act of abandonment and self-sacrifice they would learn that the way to glory was the way of giving themselves in service to the will of God.

So during the supper He takes bread. 'This Bread' he explains "Is my Body". A body they would witness being tortured, broken and pulled apart. A body they would see hung upon a tree on a desolate hillside amongst thieves. A body that would be held by cruel nails to a cross that he Himself had been too weakened by His tormentors to carry.

Broken. How well this word captures the events that were to follow. Broken promises. Broken hearts. The breakdown of trust. The breakdown of truth, the lies and compromises that took place at the hands of rulers and people alike. The breakdown of confidence and hope and faith that took place in the disciples lives. The vision of the Kingdom. The great triumph of love they thought they would see. When they witnessed the crucifixion they felt within themselves an overwhelming darkness that caused them to deny and abandon all that they once held dear. They knew what being broken was about.

This table is a place both for the broken and to be broken. We are bid to come to this table as we really are. With no pretence or presumption. Without self- pride or justification. Come, not declaring our independence, but seeing our dependence, our need, and our inability. We are bid to come in our brokenness to one who declares, "I am broken for you".

Luke tells us that it was at this supper the disciples fell into an argument as to which of them was the greatest. John tells us that Jesus showed them; by taking a towel, a basin of water and washing their feet. The way of the kingdom is not the way of the world.

At this supper Jesus also pours out the wine saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Tonight we don’t come to celebrate Passover. We come to a Maundy Thursday Communion. This is not the Old Covenant. This is the New Covenant. The Old was a shadow of what was to come. The New is the fulfillment.

In the Old Covenant, the Passover covenant, it took the blood of a lamb to save the people. In the new Covenant, Jesus offers His blood that people may be free. At the start of His ministry Jesus is recognized by John the Baptist with the words, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”.

In the Old Covenant, it was the death of the sons of Egypt that prompted the release of the captives. In the New Covenant it is God’s Son, who offers Himself, that we may be free from sin.

The Old Covenant required innocent victims to be sacrificed, the lambs and the firstborn sons. In the New Covenant Jesus becomes the victim who is both the lamb and the firstborn son.

In the Old Covenant it was the blood that averted the angel of death from touching the firstborn sons of the Israelites. In the New Covenant Christ offers His life, “that whosoever believeth in Him, may not die, but have eternal life.”

Passover commemorates the delivery of a particular national and ethnic group, at a crisis point in their history, at a particular geographic location. Our communion celebration has no boundaries of nationality, history or geography. In a once and for all act, Christ died upon the Cross of Calvary for our salvation.

The Bread represents a broken body. The wine represents a New Covenant. These are God’s gifts for God’s people. Jesus calls us to remember Him in this way.

So we will lift high the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. We will feast upon the Bread of life that our spirits may be refreshed and souls renewed. Tonight the bread and wine point us towards the sacrifice of Good Friday. On Easter Day they point us back to the cross and will remind us that love is stronger than death.

Above all things, these symbols of faith are given that they may bring the presence of Jesus to our lives. They are given that the Holy Spirit may live in our hearts and that we may live in Christ. These gifts are given to nourish us and sustain us on our journey of faith.

It is in faith that we come. Faith enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Faith that what we do tonight has significance far beyond words. Faith that the love of God is greater than our sin and the life of God is more powerful than death.

Taste and see that the Lord is good!