Homily for Holy Thursday (2020)

"Washed and Fed to Love"
John 13:1-15, 34-35

Listen here.

What a strange Holy Thursday this is. On this night, when our Lord was betrayed, we must forego receiving the very Meal that is the hallmark and focal point of the festivities. Instead of joyfully dishing up this heaping portion of forgiveness, life and salvation, I am forced to make you simply hunger and thirst for it. Believe me, that can be very disorienting and discombobulating for a pastor!

And yet we are not without our Lord’s sustenance for faith and life. We also know this day as “Maundy Thursday,” from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “mandate” or “command.” A new commandment I give to you, Jesus said, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (Jn. 13:34).

But how was Jesus’ bickering band of disciples supposed to love each other? How are we? This group of men who argued over the seats of honor in Jesus’ kingdom—how were they to love one another? How are we in our current forced separation and distancing? Didn’t the Law already command us to love our neighbor as ourselves? What’s  so new about this “new commandment”?

We cannot fully grasp Jesus’ mandate to love apart from His Supper, but we can still take His point. Jesus’ words to love one another also go hand in hand with His servant act of washing His disciples’ feet. It all happened in the Upper Room: foot washing, Lord’s Supper, and Jesus’ new mandate. It all happened on the night when He was betrayed into death. So we cannot speak of our self-sacrificial giving of ourselves to one another in love apart from Christ’s self-giving of His Body and Blood in the Supper and on the Cross.

John’s Gospel doesn’t give us the Institution of the Lord’s Supper. For that we look to Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul. But St. John is catechizing us. The Lord’s Supper is woven into the background. St. John is expanding our horizons on what it means to cling to Jesus’ love and actually love one another.

The Lord’s Supper is in the background when Jesus turns Old Testament washing water into New Testament wine at the wedding of Cana. The Lord’s Supper is in the background when Jesus feeds the five thousand and proclaims Himself the very Bread of life. “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink,” He said. “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn. 6:55-56) The Lord’s Supper is in the background of the whole sermon Jesus preaches in the Upper Room on this night of His betrayal. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5)

Baptism and Lord’s Supper go hand in hand in John. They are as bound together as the water and the blood that flowed from the pierced side of Jesus at His crucifixion. They are as close as the foot washing and the Supper in the Upper Room the night before He was crucified.

Jesus knew what lay ahead of Him that night. He knew one of His own disciples would betray Him. He also knew that all things were given to Him by His Father, that He had come from God, that He was going to God. He knew that the time of His Passover was near—the time when His blood would paint the wood of the cross so that death might pass over.

So, knowing all this, Jesus rose from the table, laid aside His garments, tied a towel around His waist and poured a basin full of water. He knelt down. He began to wash His disciples feet. Then He dried them with the towel He was wearing. Jesus did what no Hebrew slave was asked to do: wash feet.

Now foot washing was a crucial part of social etiquette in Jesus’ culture. It was something like our moms saying, “Don’t forget to wash your hands before supper.” They did that, but they also washed their feet. Remember, Jesus and His disciples reclined on pillows at a low table, instead of sitting in chairs as we do. That put your neighbor’s feet very close to your face, and vice versa. Thus, foot washing!

And yet foot washing was one of the lowest and most menial tasks. Only the lowest rank of slave would do it. But here in the Upper Room, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Incarnate Word through whom all things where made, sets aside His own garments and puts on the lowly vestments of the humblest slave. What extreme humility! The One called Teacher and Lord washes the feet of His students!

Peter objected. “You shall never wash my feet!” Peter is too proud to have Jesus bend down and wash his feet. That same sort of pride keeps us from Baptism, Absolution, Lord’s Supper, and the Gospel proclaimed. It also keeps us from bending down to wash the feet of brothers and sisters in our midst. Surely Jesus is more glorious than a bath, a spoken word of forgiveness, and a bit of bread and wine! Surely washing feet is not a proper use of our great spiritual gifts! Isn’t the real Jesus more glorious, more “spiritual,” than some crucified foot-washer?

But that’s not faith; that’s unbelief. “If I do not wash you,” Jesus says, “you have no share with Me.”

We too must be washed by Jesus, bathed as little children, baptized into His death and resurrection. We cannot wash ourselves. We wouldn’t even if we could. Like little children who play in the mud, we rather enjoy the filth of our sin. We’ve grown accustomed to it. So Jesus bends down to us in His humbled, crucified humanity to wash us. He reaches down to the dirtiest and most deeply soiled places in our lives, down to the soles of our feet, where we touch the earth from which were made, the dirt to which we return in death. He reaches down to the place where the dirt of our earthly life is ground in and stubborn. And washed by Jesus, baptized into His death, we are cleansed from head to toe.

Jesus’ washing drowns our stubborn pride and the ego of our old Adam. It frees us from the bondage of our pride to serve others in the humility of Christ. “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.” Jesus shows us the posture of the disciple before the world: stooped down as a servant with towel and basin, washing filthy feet. To be a disciple of the Lord Jesus means having your feet washed by Jesus so that you may, in turn, wash the feet of others. It means being loved by a humbled and crucified Christ so that you may be humbled and crucified to love one another, in Him.

Now if we could receive the Supper this evening, I would say that once we’re washed by Jesus, we are clean and ready for Supper. We could recline, relax at His table, and let down our defenses. But, alas, we’re not able to do that right now. We rightly long for Him to be our host, servant, and main course all at the same time. We long for His precious Body to eat and His Passover blood to drink. But take comfort and strength from this: He is still the true Vine; we are still His branches grafted into Him through faith. His life still flows from the cross through the cleansing water of Baptism and the Word of forgiveness you hear. And His life in us always bears fruit. His love for us overflows to one another.

It’s in this context that Jesus gives His “new mandate.” He says, “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.” What’s “new” with this commandment? It’s not the love. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the old commandment, from Moses. What’s new is Jesus’ washing and His feeding—His Baptism and His Supper of Body and Blood. These are Jesus’ “mandates” for you. This is how you learn to love one another. Right now, oddly enough, we even learn to love one another as we forego His Supper, caring for those most vulnerable to this dreaded disease.

Jesus’ new mandate to His disciples is to receive His love in all the ways He has to give it. Jesus’ new mandate means being loved by Him so that His love flows through you to one another. His love is poured out for you in His death and poured into you in His Baptism and His Supper, which you will receive again. His love bears fruit as it has its way with you—leading you to bend down, leading you to wash each other’s feet, leading you to serve each other, leading you to live for each other’s benefit.

As we learn to be filled with Jesus’ self-giving love, His love flows through us to each other. As the hymn sings: “My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me, Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.” Amen.

Homily for Holy Thursday - 2018

"A Meal for the Wounded"
Exodus 24:3-11

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Did they realize what they promised? Did the Hebrews in the wilderness have the first clue what they were agreeing to? “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” We don’t need to think about everything the Lord had commanded to realize the hopelessness of their response. We can think merely of the two chief commandments—the ones our Lord uses to sum up the whole Law: love the Lord your God with all of your all, and love your neighbor as yourself. “We will do that, and we will be obedient.” Really? With all of your all? From the very depths of your being?

Have you ever tried it? To love God with all of your all, I mean. Your heart undivided by competing loyalties, but given to God and to Him alone. Your only desire to enjoy His presence and to do His bidding. Your only fear that you will cause Him some displeasure. You go, give it a whirl, and let me know how it goes! And then there is your neighbor, the one made in God’s own image. Love this one as yourself. Or, again, as our Lord paraphrased, do to others as you want others to do to you. Have you given it a yeoman’s try? You most certainly should!

But I’m afraid you and I would end up about as successful as the people of Israel who offered up their big promise, but then promptly fell flat on their faces. Their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land was hardly a display of loving God above all and loving neighbor as self. Instead, there was grumbling against God and the way He led them; distrust that He would provide them with water, with food; neighbor squabbling with neighbor and wearing Moses out as he sat on the judgment bench from dawn til dusk trying to settle their petty squabbles. “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Eh, not so much.

Yet despite their words, despite their foolish trust in themselves and in what they could muster, the covenant was sealed with blood. Part of the blood went on the altar; part, on the people. And with the blood came forgiveness. For “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). And right on the heels of the blood sprinkling the people, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel climbed the mountain to behold the wonder of God’s glory. They saw Him, and the beauty wounded their hearts. There He was upon His throne. At His feet a pavement as of sapphire, blue and crystal clear as the sky above. Now in God’s presence, covered in the shed blood, they were able to sit down and to eat, and they did not die, but they lived—though they knew they had no right to see such holiness and continue breathing.

They lived despite the fact that they did not keep their end of the covenant. They lived despite the fact that they had not loved God with all of their all. They lived despite the fact that they did not love their neighbor as themselves. They lived because they were under the blood, and under that blood the presence of God came to them as an experience of life, not death.

Today is Holy (Maundy) Thursday. We are well aware that we have failed to keep this covenant of the Lord. The Ten Commandments, which spell out the shape of love in our lives, accuse us without end: No, we do not love the Lord with anything close to our all. No, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Like Israel of old, we have not kept the words of the Lord to do them, no matter how many times we have promised to do better, to change our ways. Yet Jesus still comes to us this night and prepares a gift for His people—a gift that has been on God’s heart from before time began; a gift that will go on sustaining His people until the day of His glorious appearing. He provides a meal for His wounded people, for His broken people who do not live up to His covenant of love. He feeds them with His own Body and Blood so that they might live, so that they might be forgiven, healed, and restored.

Do you realize why there is life in that Body and Blood? Because it is the very Body and Blood of the One in whom there is nothing but love—love for His Father with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength; love with all of His all. And not only that, there was love for the neighbor, for you and me and for every member of our fallen race. Jesus loved us as Himself, indeed more than Himself. For us He will allow that body to be nailed to the tree and that blood to stain the earth, wiping out the curse of the Law that is against us. You see, the Law can never condemn Him. After all, His whole being—His every word and thought and action—always was and always is only love. And He calls us to live under that blood.

Now, to live under that blood means we get to taste something greater and better than the food that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the other seventy elders of Israel ever knew. We not only eat and drink in the presence of the All-Holy One, but also through our faithful eating and drinking, He—the God of Israel, who appeared in glory to the ancients, who is now made flesh—He comes to us. He enters us with His forgiveness. He plants within us wounded people a life that death cannot overcome. We live because of what He gives us to eat and to drink: the Body and the Blood of Him who is Love—Love incarnate, Love crucified, Love risen, Love triumphant and coming in glory. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Ps. 34:8).

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you” (John 13:34). And Jesus gives you the strength to do just that. With this gift of His Body and Blood, this gift of His love for you, Jesus Himself pours into you the strength of your love for Him and for one another. His gift in the Supper guarantees that what you now enjoy in a hidden and mystical way will be your eternal joy in the life to come. His gift gives you the courage and strength to sing and pray, even as death comes to you:

Be Thou my consolation,
My shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee,
Who dieth thus dies well. (LSB 450:7)

Wrapped in His cross, marked with His blood of the covenant, fed with the Body and Blood of Him who is Love incarnate and immortal, you will be prepared for your passion, your suffering, and your death whenever it comes. You will be held by a love that is stronger than death. You will be held by a forgiveness that is greater than all your sin. To Him alone be glory forever—our Lord Jesus, who gives us this meal to heal the wounded with His love. Amen.

Homily for Holy Thursday - 2017

"Meal of Faith and Life—Sacrament of the Altar"
Exodus 12:1-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; John 13:1-15, 34-35

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther says the words of Christ are the main thing in the Sacrament of the Altar: “These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament.” These words deliver “exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins.’” The words are the main thing. The words of Christ deliver the gifts of Christ.

So, what’s the big deal about whether we actually receive Christ’s Body and Blood? Why bother with the actual, physical eating and drinking? Why focus so much on whether or not Jesus’ Body and Blood are actually, really present in this Meal?

This has been a major issue since the 16th Century Reformation. In fact, it’s on this rock that the unity of Protestant churches has broken apart. Whether Jesus’ Body and Blood are really given and received in the Sacrament is the issue that separates Lutherans from most other Protestant church bodies. But why? What’s the big deal? Why can’t we just come together in unity? After all, don’t they have the words of Jesus? Aren’t these words the main thing in the Sacrament? Don’t the words still deliver the forgiveness of sins?

The bigger question is this: What is really at stake in this centuries-long debate? What’s at stake is the Gospel itself! Yes, Luther says the words are the main thing. But he also says this—going back to the first question: “What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.” Translation: the words of Christ are embedded in the very Body and Blood of Christ. First, the words embrace the bread and wine so that they also become the Body and Blood of Jesus. Second, the Body and Blood of Jesus actually deliver the forgiveness of sins. They actually impart the forgiveness, life, and salvation from Jesus. To say it another way: no Body and Blood, no forgiveness in the Sacrament! Take away the Body and Blood of Jesus—or deny that the Supper really is Christ’s Body and Blood—and you take away the Gospel!

It’s that very Gospel we need, that very Gospel we depend on for life, that very Gospel that strengthens our faith in God’s love.

And now we circle back to creation—or at least elements of creation. After all, it’s in the created order where God works for us and is present with us. From the beginning, God deals with us, communicates with us, is present with us only in and through His creation. From the beginning, we can only deal with God through our bodies—our eyes, ears, mouth, brain, etc.—and elements of the physical world. It’s how God works with us. And it goes to the heart of the Lord’s Supper.

Those who reject the actual presence of Jesus’ Body and Blood do so on two basic assumptions. First, they say, “God is spiritual, immaterial. He does not have a physical body. Nothing in creation can contain God.” So, they claim, we must deal with God through a spiritual/immaterial realm. The second assumption says this: “The physical world, and with it our bodies, is an impediment to a truly spiritual life.” Our spirits—that is, our disembodied consciousness—must transcend, or leave, our bodies and ascend above this world to where God lives. Think of transcendental meditation or contemplative prayer, by which the mind tries to detach itself from the body.

But all of this goes against real life. It also goes against what the Bible teaches. As humans, we are made of both body and soul/spirit. Our bodies connect us to the earth; our “spirits” draw us upward and connect us to God. And the Bible clearly shows us that our bodies and the physical creation are not impediments to life with God. In fact, they are the very vehicles for God’s presence and activity. The universe cannot contain God, and yet He is very much present in the petals of the smallest flower.

What picture does the Bible paint of our God? Scripture portrays our God as a very down-to-earth God, a God who gets His hands dirty in the work of everyday life. How does God do this work? Who comes to whom? It’s God who comes down from the heavens to us. He comes to meet us where we are, so to speak. And where are we? Here on earth! He comes here on earth where we can receive Him in our bodies. After all, we are enlivened bodies, that is, bodies given life by the breath of God.

Consider how God came down to earth to meet Adam and Eve in the garden in “the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), perhaps early morning or late afternoon or early evening. That sets the pattern we see throughout the Bible. God comes down to earth and meets with Moses in a burning bush. He comes down to Mt. Sinai. He comes down in a pillar of cloud and fire. And then, most importantly, God comes down and meets us in the real, visible, tangible flesh-and-blood body of Jesus Christ. God is this man Jesus; and this man Jesus is God Himself! And after the Ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes down upon the disciples and dwells in our hearts by faith. Then, on the Last Day, Jesus will come down to rule the new heavens and new earth forever.

The Christian story is never one of ascending to God, or of rising up above our bodies and this physical world to some spiritual, ethereal plane. Instead, we encounter God right here on earth, with our physical bodies. And now, with our mouths in the Lord’s Supper.

So tonight, we commemorate Jesus’ institution of His holy Supper. It’s the night when He was betrayed, the night before He goes to His death on the cross. He will leave His disciples, but He will not leave them alone. So He institutes and gives this Supper as His last will and testament. And it’s a last will and testament like no other. In this testament—this meal—Jesus bequeaths the entire history of Israel to His disciples and to us. He bequeaths to them and to us a covenant, a promise, sealed by the blood of countless sacrifices that pointed to Jesus. But it’s a new covenant. The old covenant in the Old Testament was sealed by the blood of sacrificial animals; this new covenant is sealed by the blood of the Son of God. The old covenant was constantly renewed with repeated sacrifices; this new covenant is sealed once and for all times with the blood of the sinless Lamb of God.

Just as the old covenant gathered God’s people into a nation, this new covenant unites God’s people in the very body of Jesus. As the Body and Blood of Jesus go into each of us, we share something in common. What’s that? The Body and Blood of Jesus! Not only does this meal unite us to Jesus and all of His blessings; it also binds us together into one body. That’s why we call it Communion—koinonia. This is the real fellowship—the genuine sharing in common of the Body and Blood of Jesus.

And what is the covenant, or promise? The Creator will be our God, our Father. In this covenant, God promises and seals His forgiveness for us. God comes and makes this promise to us. He even puts the promise into our hearts by putting it into our mouths.

It’s interesting that many people have no problem thinking that our spirits can disconnect from our bodies and rise above them to meet God in heaven, but they have a major problem accepting that the Son of God has come to us in a human body and even now comes in His Body and Blood in the Supper. It reveals a lack of confidence in God’s Word, the Word that actually does what God says it will.

Now we circle back to the words of Jesus as the main thing in the Sacrament. Who speaks these words? Jesus Christ Himself—the almighty and powerful Creator and Lord. He uttered a word, and entire galaxies and millions of stars came into being. Well, that same word that created you, me, and everything in this world now brings the Body and Blood of Jesus to us in, with, and under the bread and wine. Yes, God’s Word does what it says! Jesus first spoke these words in the Upper Room, and they still do their thing to this day as Jesus invites us to this feast.

When a person writes their last will and testament, they bequeath their goods and treasures to those they leave behind. Here in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus bequeaths to us all that He has to give us—His Body and His Blood, the very Body and Blood that accomplished our salvation in His death and resurrection. And with this Body and Blood, Jesus guarantees in advance a place for us at His table—the table of His banquet, a banquet to end all banquets in His new creation. And what a feast it will be! A feast of fellowship and joy that even now God is preparing for us. Amen.

Homily for Holy Thursday

"Life in the Blood"
Exodus 12:1-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; John 13:1-15, 34-35

There is a crimson, scarlet thread woven through all of Scripture. God told Moses, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Lev. 17:11). The writer to the Hebrews tells all of us: “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). In the shed blood of Jesus we have forgiveness. There’s life in that blood.

When a human being leaves a trail of blood, it usually leads back to him and pronounces him guilty of causing death. But when God Himself leaves a trail of blood through His Scriptures, it leads back to Him and proclaims Him our Giver of life.

Go back to the Garden of Eden. When Lent began, we remembered Adam and Eve and the fall into sin. Adam and Eve seek independence from God, but receive death instead. Remember: “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). But right on the heels of that pronouncement of death, God promises life. He will send a Savior who will crush the serpent’s head. Not only that, but God Himself sheds blood to proclaim His gift of life: “The LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). The first Gospel promise, then the first shedding of blood. Life in the blood.

Fast forward to about 1450 B.C. God’s chosen people are oppressed slaves in Egypt. God steps in to rescue and liberate them from their cruel bondage. God institutes a meal to go with the rescue. Kill a lamb. Roast it and eat it, along with the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs and the fruit puree. Take the blood of the lamb and paint it on the door frames. When God goes through the land to kill the first-born of all Egypt, He will pass over the houses painted with blood. There’s life and deliverance for those covered with the blood.

Nine months after the children of Israel come out of Egypt, God makes a covenant with His people. God chooses His people, and He promises to be their God. They respond by promising to be faithful to Him alone. Moses presides at the Covenant Liturgy. He builds an altar. He sets up pillars representing the people. He takes blood from the offerings. He pours half of it on the altar—that’s the SACRIFICE. He pours the other half on the people—that’s the COVERING. Then Moses and other elders of Israel go up onto Mt. Sinai. They actually see the God of Israel, and He is gracious to let them remain in His presence. “They beheld God, and ate and drank” (Ex. 24:11). There really is life—and love—in that blood.

All of that Old Testament blood sets us up for the New Testament blood. Now it’s the Feast of the Passover. Jesus knows that His “hour” has come; it’s time for Him to complete His mission and return to His Father. He shows His deep love for His disciples by washing their feet. He also loves them—and us—by fulfilling and transforming the Passover meal. He says, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk. 22:15). This would be the last Passover meal of the old testament; it would also be the first Passover meal of the new testament. That first blood in the Garden, that first Passover in Egypt, that first Covenant at Mt. Sinai—they all point us to Jesus. Now Jesus will be the ultimate, once-for-all sacrifice. Now Jesus will shed the final blood. Now Jesus Himself will be the highest and best Passover Lamb. Now Jesus gives the New Covenant. The life is in His blood.

1450 years before Jesus, the Israelites slew the lambs. Those covered with the lambs’ blood would be rescued. Those who ate the lamb would be sustained and nourished for their journey out of slavery. In A.D. 30, Jesus reveals Himself to be “the Lamb of  God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29). You who are covered with the blood of Jesus are rescued from your oppressive slavery in sin and death. You who eat Jesus, the Lamb roasted on the cross, are sustained and nourished for your journey through the wilderness of this world. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). St. John proclaims God’s life and love in the blood this way: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [atoning sacrifice] for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10).

So Jesus gives bread and says, “Take, eat; this is My Body which is given for you.” Then Jesus gives a common cup of wine and says, “Drink of it all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Now this is NOT the language of cardboard cut-out representations. Nor is it the language of squishy symbolism. No, this is language of a last will and testament. And, as we know, a last will and testament goes into effect after the person who makes it has died. And once a last will and testament has been put into effect, cannot be changed. Its provisions continue.

Jesus gives us His last will and testament of forgiveness and life in His blood. When He dies it goes into effect. After He dies, the provisions of His will—His forgiveness, His life, and His salvation—continue. In the Old Testament, God promised life and forgiveness in the shed blood of animals. In the New Testament, Jesus wins life and forgiveness by shedding His own blood in death. In the Old Testament, God’s people looked ahead to the final sacrifice that would give perfect forgiveness for all time. In the New Testament, Jesus’ Church receives all the benefits of His sacrifice. Here is Jesus’ last will and testament for you: “Find your forgiveness and your life in My shed blood; focus your life and faith on the common cup of My blood. When you are covered in this blood, you have life.”

We live in a time when people are looking for some kind of spirituality. Many think “spiritual” means the opposite of “material.” Eastern religions such as Hinduism view the “spiritual world” as pure, while the “material world” is evil. We also see this Gnostic heresy alive and well in our Western culture. However, in God’s view—and according to the Bible, the spiritual world and the material world are linked and joined together—like body and soul in a person, or like flame and heat in a bonfire. God actually gives spiritual life through material things. He gives forgiveness and strengthens faith by using bread and wine, body and blood. Every time you eat Christ’s Body and drink Christ’s Blood, you receive rich, eternal, spiritual benefits—God’s rescue from sin; Jesus’ life to sustain yours.

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16). When you eat Christ’s Body and drink His Blood, you share in life with Christ. You also share in life with each other. Yes, we are in the Body of Christ. Together we are the Body of Christ. We need each other. “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself” (Rom. 14:7). This is the precious proclamation of the common cup. We, you and I, are united and unified in faith and life in Christ. This also explains why, sometimes, we must have someone wait before they commune with us. If a person or a church body does not agree in the teachings of Jesus, we love them enough to say, “Let’s not commune until we share a common faith, a common public confession, in Christ’s forgiveness, life and salvation. Thus we show love for Christ and for one another by respecting His blood. After all, there’s life and love in His blood.

Now that you are cleansed and made whole by Christ’s blood—now that you receive life by His love—you get to live in thanksgiving. How so? “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:12-13). The best thing you can do to thank Jesus for His agonizing death and His eternal love is partake of His Body and Blood—keep His last will and testament. What better way to proclaim Christ and His loving life than to gather in His house for His Supper on His day?

The writer to the Hebrews says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). And Jesus says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6:54). Amen.