Maundy Thursday
“Jesus Leaves Us Everything”
Luke 22:7-20
7
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be
sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John,
saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?”
they asked. 10 He replied, “As you enter
the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11
and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room,
where I may eat my Passover with my disciples?’
12 He will show you to a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
13
They left and found things just as Jesus told them. So they prepared the Passover. 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles
reclined at the table. 15 And he said to
them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not
eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the
17
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among
you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink
again of the fruit of the vine until the
Our Savior doesn’t need to
use a lot of words to give us a lot of comfort.
The more common the words of Jesus, the more powerful they truly are. We’ll see tonight that Jesus uses common, yet
powerful words as he leaves us everything.
Jesus left us everything he had during the Passover meal of that very
first Holy Week.
The very first Passover was
special. It happened the night before
God’s people left
a)
Moses said to
Pharaoh, “The LORD says to let his people go.”
b)
Pharaoh
arrogantly replied, “Who is the LORD, that I should listen to him? NO!”
c)
Moses said, “The
LORD will send a terrible plague on you.”
And the plagues came:
Blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail,
locusts, darkness for 3 days…
d)
Pharaoh would
relent temporarily and say like a child who’s mad he has been caught but not
really sorry, “I’m sorry, I’ll let your people go…just take away the plague.”
e)
Moses would pray
to the LORD and the plague would stop.
f)
But Pharaoh would
not let the people go.
That same sequence happened
nine times. After the final time, the
tenth and worst plague was promised. It
was the plague on the firstborn. Every
firstborn male in
But for
Passover was the central
festival on the Jewish calendar. Everyone
always looked forward to Passover. But
this one was different. Jesus was going
to start something new. It had been
promised for centuries that the Lamb of God would provide his blood. But now the promise was about to be
fulfilled. After tonight things would
never be the same. The long-awaited Lamb
of God was about to leave all he had with the disciples to keep them safe – his
body; his blood.
And so with almost no fanfare
or fuss – that night there were neither trumpets nor fireworks - Jesus took bread, the plainest bread
possible, and said, “Take this and eat it.”
As he did so, he declared, “This is my body!” He didn’t explain it. He didn’t give a dissertation on how both
bread and body are present. He didn’t
tell them to parade it around or save it up.
He just said, “Take it; eat it; this is my body given for you.” And then with equal simplicity, he took a cup
of wine, the normal wine from the Passover celebration. And he said, “Take and drink; this
cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Again, he didn’t give a lecture. He just said, “Take it; drink it; this is my
blood for you.” Simple words; amazing power. This was not just paint on the doorpost. This was real forgiveness for real sins
directly from God to the human heart.
Could it possibly have been any simpler?
Could he possibly have given anything better? And now you’re starting to see how Jesus doesn’t
need to use a lot of words to give a lot of comfort.
Jesus didn’t use fancy words,
but in the simple words he did use he left them all he had. Jesus gave them his entire estate. He didn’t leave them stocks and bonds because
he didn’t own any. He didn’t leave the
family homestead or a set of fine china or a sentimental painting. He left them all he had – himself. He gave his last will and testament; he bequeathed
to them his body and his blood. It’s so
simple it’s easy to miss the glory.
I wonder if the disciples
caught on to the significance of what they were doing. I doubt it.
As usual, their minds were on something else. Who wants to talk about a last will and
testament at a celebration? They had
been so busy arguing about who was the greatest and who was exempt from the
servant’s task of washing the feet that nobody did it except Jesus. Their minds were not wrapping around what
Jesus was about to do for them.
But are we any
different? Do we catch the glory of what
Jesus does in the Lord’s Supper? A
common conversation that happens in our homes before Sunday is, “Are we having
communion today?” “Well, I don’t know;
did we have it last week?” “No, I don’t
think so.” “OK, well then I guess we are
having it today.” Perhaps even tonight
you were thinking, “Well, it’s Maundy Thursday, and that means we have
communion; because we always have communion on Maundy Thursday.” Do you see?
We easily forget the magnitude of Communion. It’s all so simple we can easily treat it
like an empty ceremony that has little depth or purpose. We know what we do; but we forget why we are
doing it.
Now how would you feel if you
thought about a gift, made every effort to save for it, buy it, wrap it and
give it to your spouse at just the right time…and then they responded by
thinking about it for all of a half-second and mutter, “Thanks” and then went
on with our life? How do you think Jesus
feels when we take the Lord’s Supper so lightly, a gift he intended to be so
special? Thankfully Jesus forgives us
for taking the Lord’s Supper lightly. He
washes away our sins and keeps coming to us with his body and blood, real
forgiveness for real sins.
He is so consistent with his
love. When Jesus died the next night,
all around him the masses were crying out, “If you really are the Son of God,
come down from the cross.” Why didn’t he
come down from the cross? Because the
night before he had willed and bequeathed himself to you. He had come to give up his body and blood;
not to protect them at all costs and use them for himself. He didn’t come down
from the cross because the night before, he had declared in his unalterable
will that he would never be separated from you, not for time and not in
eternity. The only way he could fulfill
that promise is by paying for your sins in full.
By God’s design, ordinary
food and drink have the ability to preserve our bodies and give them
strength. By God’s design, the food and
drink in the Lord’s Supper preserves not only the body but the soul for eternal
life. What a beautiful estate Jesus left
for us when he left us all he had - his very own body and blood for
forgiveness! Amen.