Exodus 24:3-11
Listen here.
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.
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