Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Maundy, Meal, Mission



God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My focus is the Gospel of Luke. … Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”[1] Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
Today, we observe Maundy Thursday. Our Gospel portrays the Last Supper. And when we leave here, we commence a mission. Three words for three points: Maundy, meal and mission.
First, Maundy. Growing up, we referred to this day as Holy Thursday. As boys, my brothers and I decorated Easter eggs. Under mom’s direction, we dipped hardboiled eggs into cups of PAAS© dyes. In the evening, we rode with dad to seven different churches, an ancient Roman custom.
Today has deep spiritual meaning for Christians in different denominations and cultures. Christians in India celebrate a statewide public holiday. In the Philippines, businesses close, and television and radio stations go off-air. Certain German states declare a holiday for public employees. In other countries, churches silence bells. Here, we will strip the altar and chancel to prepare for Good Friday.
We call today Maundy Thursday. Maundy from the Latin word mandatum meaning commandment. Mandatum refers to Jesus’ words from John’s Gospel: “Mandatum novum do vobis.”[2] In English: “A new commandment I give you.”[3] In today’s Gospel from Luke, we follow the Lord’s command to eat His Body and drink His Blood under the form of bread and wine. We observe and celebrate what occurred during the Last Supper. Hence, we move from Maundy to meal, my second point.
Jesus’ journey continues from Galilee’s villages to Jerusalem’s Temple.[4] Here, Jesus, who set his face towards Jerusalem, prepared to journey to God through the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension – the Paschal Mystery.
The account begins with two complementary units, which introduce the Last Supper. The first unit, verses 1-6, calls attention to the approaching feast of Passover, and focuses on the efforts of the chief priests, scribes and Judas to betray Jesus. Within the context of the Last Supper, Judas’ betrayal stood as a warning to future Christians.
Betrayal, persecution and internal struggles surface in the Christian community, manifesting Satan, the ultimate opponent of Jesus and the Church. While Luke outlined the plans and preparations of Satan and Jesus’ enemies, they were not alone in preparing for the feast. Jesus firmly controlled the events and commissioned Peter and John to prepare the Supper.
God firmly controlled the day’s events. God revealed His providence in His unfolding plan of salvation. Note that Luke wrote, “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.”[5] For Luke, the paschal lamb symbolized Jesus, and its sacrifice symbolized the necessity of His passion. The sacrifice of the lamb prepared those who shared in Jesus’ sacrificial meal to understand the nature of their own persecutions.
Luke showed how the Twelve joined Jesus in this meal so that Luke’s readers could ask themselves if their attitude and commitment reflected Christ’s. Only in this way could Christians confront their enemies and the power of darkness that permeated the hour of Jesus. For when his betrayer and enemies appeared to seize him, Jesus said, “When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”[6]
The Last Supper was Jesus’ most significant meal for it was the only meal where Jesus identified the bread and wine as his very body and blood, and directed his disciples to repeat.[7]
Subsequent generations participating in the Lord’s Supper recognized that they benefited from Jesus’ broken bread and poured out wine.[8] When the power of darkness seemed to have its hour, Christians participating in this meal would recognize the firm control and open hospitality of a loving and saving God.
Today, Christians participating in this meal recognize the firm control and open hospitality of a loving and saving God. Hence, I move from meal to mission.
In some churches, a phrase above the doors reads, “You are now entering mission territory.” We derive mission from the Latin mittere. It means to send or dispatch.[9] The oldest dismissal in worship is the phrase, “Ite, missa est.”
Our dismissal comes after the pastor says, “The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in body and soul to life everlasting. Depart in peace.” Our custom, however, is to wait until after the final hymn. We exit the doors and enter mission territory.
As missionaries, we meet opportunities and enemies. Opportunities to share the Gospel and enemies opposed to it. We have opportunities to evangelize unbelievers and other believers, families and friends, colleagues, co-workers and the world. We have opportunities to share the Good News to Moslem and Buddhist, atheist and agnostic, the nondenominational and the nones. That’s the good news about sharing the Good News.
The bad news is that the Gospel has enemies. Its enemies are no longer Pharisees and Sadducees, stiff-necked scribes and ruthless rulers. Today, some Christians believe our enemies are Biblical inerrancy or syncretism, anti-intellectualism or apathy.[10] True, but St. Paul and Martin Luther concluded: The Gospel’s list of enemies includes me. To illustrate that point, allow me to reminisce once more.
In addition to coloring eggs and visiting churches on this day, another memory from 50 years ago is Cartoonist Walt Kelly’s comic strip, Pogo. Kelly combined sophisticated wit, slapstick comedy, poetry, puns and lushly detailed artwork.[11]
The most famous Pogo quote was "We have met the enemy and he is us." More than any line Kelly wrote, this summed up his attitude towards our foibles and human condition. "We have met the enemy and he is us."
On Maundy Thursday Pogo’s line reminds us that our mission to evangelize the world may seem insurmountable, but Luke’s Gospel reminds us that God is still in control.
As missionaries, we will encounter enemies and opponents of the Gospel, and often times, like Peter rebuking Jesus, we recognize that the greatest enemy of the Gospel is not Biblical inerrancy or syncretism, anti-intellectualism or apathy. Rather, there are times when I am the greatest enemy because I tell Jesus I will do it my way.
Folks, God’s enemies will not be defeated through bullets, borders or the ballot box, but through the power of Christ – the power of Christ’s Body and His Blood broken open and poured out for us at the Lord’s Supper is enough to defeat Satan, sin, death, the world and our selfish, sinful selves.
To cite Dr. Luther, the means of God’s grace suffice. Christ Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper sufficed for the original Twelve and the Church of Luke. Today, the Sacrament suffices for us. We have no need of bullets or border security. We need only Christ’s Body and Blood.[12]
Friends, when the power of darkness seems to have its hour, when the power of darkness permeates the hour, recognize the firm control and open hospitality of a loving and saving God. Recognize that Christ’s Body and Blood broken apart and poured out at the Last Supper and on the Cross suffice for your salvation and for your mission work. With that, confront the Gospel’s opponents. For when you do, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.


[1] Psalm 122
[2] John 13:34
[3] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Maundy+Thursday
[4] Eugene LaVerdiere, Luke. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, Inc. (1986), 250ff.
[5] Luke 22:7
[6] Luke 22:53
[7] Arthur A Just, Luke 9:51-24:53. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1997), 829ff.
[8] Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press (2000), 173.
[9] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mission
[10] http://bellatorchristi.com/2013/12/30/ten-great-challenges-facing-the-church-in-2014/
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_%28comic_strip%29
[12] http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=g&word=GRACE.MEANSOF

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