+ Maundy Thursday – March 24th, 2016 +
Redeemer Lutheran, HB
Series C: Exodus 12:1-14; 1
Corinthians 11:23-32; John 13:1-17, 31-35
In the Name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Holy Week begins with a
procession. Crowds gathered. Palm branches waved. Jesus rode atop a donkey. And
the walls of Jerusalem echoed with shouts of “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes
in the Name of the Lord”. All as Jesus makes his way to the temple. Behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Every year, all the one year-old
male lambs without blemish made the same procession. A Lamb for a household, the Lord said in Exodus. And so it was. The
Paschal lambs, the suffering lambs, were shepherded from their flocks outside
the city, through the gate, and up to the temple for the Passover sacrifice.
Blood was shed. Blood was painted on the doorposts.
The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you
are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Then the Lamb was roasted and eaten. Death passed over once
again.
For Jesus, Holy Week ends as it
began, with a procession. Jesus gathered his disciples in the upper room. They
ate the Passover together. Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. Judas led the soldiers
to Jesus and the procession continued on to the temple courtyard, to Pilate,
and finally outside the city walls, up the hill, onto the cross, and into the
tomb. And unlike the thousands of Passover lambs slaughtered during the feast,
this Lamb is slain and yet lives. All for you.
Truth be told, this procession is
a long time in the making. This procession began long before Palm Sunday and
the Exodus. It began in a garden with a betrayal. No, not Gethsemane, but Eden.
The serpent lied. Adam and Eve
ate and disobeyed. And the procession that began in joy ended in dreadful
curse, bitter tears, and the agony of death. Their eyes were open and they knew
not only good, but evil. But the Lord did not lead them out of the Garden naked
and ashamed. The Lord God made for Adam
and his wife garments of skin and clothed them. Blood was shed. A sacrifice
of mercy in place of their sin. In a way, this was the very first Passover. Was
it a year-old lamb without blemish? Perhaps it was.
Behold, the lamb of God who
covered the guilt and shame of Adam and Eve.
Many years later, YHWH promised
Abraham that from his offspring would come the one who would bless all people.
But then the Lord commanded Abraham to make a procession of his own. Take your son, your only son Isaac whom you
love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering.
Abraham and Isaac marched on to
the mountain. Isaac carried the wood on his back. Abraham had the fire and the
knife at the ready. Where is the lamb for
a burnt offering?
God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering,
my son. And he did. First on Moriah and
then on Calvary.
Behold, the ram of God caught in
the thicket, who gave his life in place of Isaac and the promised lamb to come.
God’s promise to Abraham came true.
His offspring became a great nation indeed. But their procession was halted for
hundreds of years in slavery in Egypt, until the Lord sent a lamb. It was the
10th and final plague. All the first born in Egypt would die, unless
the blood of the Passover lamb covered the doorposts of the home. It is the Lord’s Passover. Israel ate
in haste. They painted their doors with the sacrificial blood. And they
remembered the Lord who was about to deliver them from slavery in Egypt.
Behold, the lambs of God who gave
their blood so that death passed over Israel.
Centuries later the procession
moved on from the wilderness to the kingdom of Israel. And once again, the Lord
promised a lamb by the mouth of his prophet, Isaiah. Like the first Passover
lambs, this lamb would be a suffering servant. Unlike the first Passover lambs,
he would also bear the flesh and blood of Adam. A man of sorrows. One
acquainted with grief. Despised. Rejected. Yet, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. Like a lamb led to the
slaughter, and a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his
mouth.
Behold, the Lamb of God who was
stricken, smitten, and afflicted for you.
Tonight we also make a procession,
not to our death. Jesus has taken care of that for you. No, tonight, we process
to our life, to the one true Passover feast. Up to the altar. On our knees. It
is a holy feast of holy food. The Lamb’s flesh is given to you. Take, eat. The
blood of the Lamb is poured out for you. Take, drink for the forgiveness of all
your sins. Tonight, death passes over you and onto Jesus.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to
you, that 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.
Jesus is the Lamb without
blemish. Jesus is without spot or stain. He is here for you.
Behold, the
Passover Lamb of God who gives his flesh and pours out his life-blood for you.
A Blessed
Maundy Thursday to you all…
In the Name
of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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