For I, myself received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus in the night which He was delivered over, took a bread,
and having given thanks, He broke, and He said, "This is My body, the
one on your behalf; this you do into My remembrance". Likewise also the
cup, after the supper, saying, "This, the cup, is the new testament in
My blood; this you do, as often as you drink, into My remembrance." For
as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, the death of the Lord
you proclaim until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be liable of the body and the blood
of the Lord. And a man tests himself approved, and so of the bread he
eats and of the cup he drinks. For the one eating and drinking eats and
drinks judgment in himself–not rightly judging the body. Through this in
you many are weak and ill and a considerable number have fallen asleep.
Yet if we rightly judged ourselves, we would not be rightly judged. And
having been judged rightly, you are trained as a child, so that, with
the world, you will not be judged against.
This is Holy Thursday. It is known for different things in various
circles. Some congregations practice ritual foot washing on this night.
Others will have a special seder supper in attempt to re-enact the
Jewish passover meal. Some have white paraments, others purple, and
others scarlet. Here we will strip the altar at the end of worship to
prepare for Good Friday. But none of these things is essential to what
this day is all about. For this is known as "Maundy" or in English,
"Mandate" Thursday.
Now, the challenge with this name for today is that we have a lot of
misconceptions about just what a "mandate" is from Jesus' lips. You may
be quick to wrongly assume that Jesus is in His words this night
ordering you around, or commanding you what to do, for this is what
mandates from mere men seek to accomplish. But Jesus' mandates are
different. First, He tells you to do things that you, in and of
yourself, are simply unable to get done. Yet He provides all that you
need in His very mandate!
Take, for example, Jesus' mandate to "love one another". Now, you may
think you can do this, but what about that person that just drives you
nuts? What about your enemy? Are you able to love them with such perfect
love that you can wash them completely clean as Jesus does? No, you
can't. But Jesus has washed you clean in the waters of baptism, so that
by the very same forgiveness He provided for you, you forgive those who
sin against you with Jesus' Own perfect agape love!
Or consider the remembering of this sacrament. Could the disciples that
night "remember" Jesus' giving His body to death and shedding His blood
for them–an event that wouldn't even happen until *the next day*?! No!
Can you remember what Jesus did for you at Calvary almost 2000 years
before you were born? Of course not! That's why Jesus remembers to take
both His body & blood "back to the future" to you this night, a memorial
meal that passes through time constraints to bless you, here and now,
with His presence.
Or ponder the proclaiming of the Lord's Supper. Do you go out to
street-corners to proclaim that Jesus died for you and indeed for the
whole world? You don't?! I understand that you are no trained preacher,
and that you haven't had courses in homiletics. Yet Jesus finds a way
for you to proclaim His death anyway, in an "actions speak as loud as
words" sort of fashion. For by your eating the bread & drinking from the
cup, you are making a public proclamation of what Jesus has done for you!
Or think on the tasks God gives you to get prepared to receive the
Sacrament of the Altar. You "examine" yourself & check to see if you
"discern" Jesus' body on the Lord's Table. Do you actually look in your
heart to see your sins, or do your eyes recognize the body of Jesus in
the bread? No?! So the Lord gives you the eyes of faith, so that you see
things as God does. You are truly worthy & well prepared simply by
having faith in these words, "Given & shed for you for your forgiveness."
Finally, look at the mandates of the words of institution themselves:
"Do this...take, eat...take, drink." Are you, by your actions of eating
& drinking, able to make Jesus come into you? You aren't?! Well, don't
fret about that, since you know that it is not the eating & drinking
that does this, but the words of Jesus, "Given and shed for you for the
forgiveness of sins". What Jesus says about the sacrament makes it what
it truly is: His body given for you, and His blood shed for your
forgiveness at Calvary.
So these words of Maundy Thursday aren't really commands or demands at
all. For Christ's mandates are actually blessed invitations to you, that
you be gifted with faith, with forgiveness, with life, and with
salvation! What God requires of you, He Himself provides for you! This
is why Maundy Thursday is truly a "Holy Thursday" indeed--for the
blessed gifts of your Lord Jesus make you holy with His Own holiness
from the +, where He became your sins, so that you, in trade, have now
become His righteousness!
John C. Drosendahl, Pastor
[email protected]
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