God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Maundy, Meal and Mission and my focus
is our Gospel (Luke 22:7-20).[1] … Let us pray. Heavenly
Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let
us go to the house of the Lord.’” 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, a local custom that originated in ancient Rome.
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.” In English: “A new commandment I give
you.” 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. 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.”
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.”
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. Subsequent generations participating in the Lord’s Supper recognized
that they benefited from Jesus’ broken bread and poured out wine. 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. 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
after which the pastor proclaims, “Go in peace and love to serve the Lord.”
We exit the doors and enter mission territory.
As missionaries,
we meet opportunities and enemies. Opportunities to share the Gospel and
enemies who oppose 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. 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 five or
six decades ago is Cartoonist Walt Kelly’s comic strip, Pogo. Kelly
combined sophisticated wit, slapstick comedy, poetry, puns and lushly detailed
artwork.
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’s 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.
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]
The original sermon for this Gospel can be found here: https://cwynar.blogspot.com/2016/03/maundy-meal-mission.html.
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