At the Table

Maundy Thursday

March 28, 2024

1 Corinthians 11:23-32

 “Journey to Joy: At the Table”

Tonight our Lenten journey takes us to the table – and not just any table, but the Lord’s table. The Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples in that upper room became the setting for Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist. This meal goes by many names. But it all begins at the table. The altar here in our own Sanctuary resembles very much a table, and like the tables in our own homes, it is a place where we eat and drink. When we are celebrating a special occasion we dress up our table. We do things like put linen on the table, light candles, and pull out the good silver. Nothing is too good on such occasions, especially if there is an honored guest. But in the meal at this table, we are not the host. We are merely the guests. Though unseen by our eyes, it is the Lord himself who is the Host, and who invites us to his table to dine with him. For this reason, among the many names that this holy meal goes by, the one I like best is “the Lord’s Supper.” That name reminds me that this meal is not mine, but the Lord’s. I do not “own” it, but can only receive it in humble and repentant faith. I also like that name, “the Lord’s Supper,” because it hearkens back to another era when the three daily meals were not breakfast, lunch and dinner, but breakfast, dinner and supper. Supper is the evening meal, and it was that evening meal of Passover that Jesus’ celebrated with his disciples from which the Lord’s Supper emanates. And so the message for this Maundy Thursday evening is entitled “At the Table.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

This evening’s first Scripture reading (Exodus 12:1-14) tells the story of how the Passover meal began, and that is important for us to know. Often our own Holy Week and Easter celebration is close to, or even coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover, but not this year. Passover this year does not begin until sundown on Monday, April 22. The blood of the sacrificial Passover lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the homes of God’s people caused them to be saved. The angel of death literally “passed over” their homes, striking down the firstborn of the Egyptians. This was the tenth and final plague which God brought upon the Egyptians so that Pharaoh might know that there is no god except the Lord God. And while the blood of that sacrificial lamb painted outside kept God’s people safe, they were gathered inside their homes at the table, eating that very lamb. And so each year, God’s people were commanded to commemorate this great deliverance by keeping the Passover meal, telling the story of God’s salvation

The blood of all those Passover lambs pointed ahead to the blood of a single Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus is that Lamb of God, and each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, receiving his very Body and Blood from his table of grace, we sing about this Lamb: “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us…” That Lamb is depicted in the wood carving above our Baptismal altar, reminding us of how his precious blood was shed for us; how he claims us as his own in the waters of holy Baptism; how he holds the banner of victory over sin and death; how he alone is the One who is worthy to take the scroll and break its seals, because “by [his] blood [he] ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:8-9).

Here at the table, the table of the Lord, we tell the story of God’s salvation in words that are very familiar to us. Whenever we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we hear these special words, words spoken by Jesus and recorded in the Epistle lesson for this Maundy Thursday. We call these the Words of Institution: “The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23b-26). Through the power of God’s almighty Word, in a way that defies our understanding, we receive the very Body and Blood of Christ under the bread and the wine. We take Jesus’ words at face value and believe what He says: “This is my body… This… is… my blood.” We don’t try to explain it away or rationalize it, saying it’s just a symbol; a representation. “It’s not really Jesus’ true Body and Blood.” If Jesus says that’s what it is, it is – full stop. Yes, bread and wine are still present, and that’s what our senses tell us it is. But faith accepts that in, with and under these ordinary elements are things supernatural; things received only by faith and for faith; things which only God can give us: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. As a stanza in one of our Communion hymns for this evening puts it so beautifully:

            Search not how this take place,

            This wondrous mystery;

            God can accomplish vastly more

            Than what we think could be (Lutheran Service Book 628, stanza 4).

Being thus fed at the table of the Lord, we then go forth to do what Jesus commands us to do in that Gospel lesson (John 13:1-17, 31b-35). “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them… A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” As Jesus has loved us, so we are to love and serve one another. It’s as simple – and as challenging – as that. We will spend our entire lives growing into the people Jesus would have us be. And that is why we come again and again to the table, the table of the Lord, to find encouragement, strength, forgiveness and blessing to love and serve others as Jesus has loved and serve us.

As we enter into these blessed Three Days of Maundy Thursday-Good Friday-Easter Vigil and Day, may our journey to joy lead us back to the table of the Lord. “For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation” (Luther’s Small Catechism, “The Sacrament of the Altar”). Thanks be to God. Amen.