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
