“The Miracles of Lent: The Last Supper”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. For our sermon series this Lenten Season we have been looking at “The
Miracles of Lent.” This evening on Maundy Thursday we consider a
minor miracle, a major miracle, and an ongoing miracle. The Gospel of Luke recounts the events of the first Maundy Thursday:
“Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be
sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and make preparations
for us to eat the Passover.’ ‘Where do you want us to prepare for it?’
they asked. He replied, ‘As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of
water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the
owner of the house, “The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat
the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room, all
furnished. Make preparations there.’ They left and found things just as
Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.” This is the minor miracle of Maundy Thursday. Jerusalem normally
had a population of about 50,000, but each year as pilgrims flocked to Jerusalem
to commemorate the ancient Passover feast, for one week the population swelled
five times to over 250,000. As the Lord tells Moses in this evening’s Old
Testament Reading, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to
come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.” Fifteen years ago when we first moved to South Dakota, I made the
mistake of thinking we might vacation in the Black Hills the first week of
August. When I checked on the Internet, I couldn’t figure out why every
single hotel room for a hundred miles or more was already booked many months in
advance. Then my wife, who’s a native of South Dakota, explained to me
that’s the week of the famous motorcycle rally in Sturgis. For one week,
the population of the state of South Dakota actually doubles, as nearly a
million motorcyclists pour in from all across the country. That’s how it was in Jerusalem during Passover week. The wealthy
found accommodations inside the walled city, but hundreds of thousands camped on
the hillsides all around Jerusalem. Tradition dictated that all these
pilgrims had to eat the Passover meal at least within sight of Jerusalem,
preferably within walls of the holy city. So, like Sturgis during rally
week, every square inch was jammed, and every room was taken long ago. So, there is a note of perplexity, even panic, when on the afternoon of
Maundy Thursday Jesus calmly tells the disciples “Go and make preparations for
us to eat the Passover” and they respond, “WHERE do you want us to prepare for
it?” “Are you crazy, Jesus? What do you mean, ‘Go and make
preparations for the Passover’? Don’t you know that every room is taken?
We’ll never find a place now! You should have planned better, and made
reservations for us a long time ago.” But, in a minor miracle, Jesus demonstrates his divine omniscience and
his omnipotence. Omniscience means that Jesus knows everything, as the
disciples told him a few hours later at the Last Supper, “Now we can see that
you know all things. . . This makes us believe that you came from God.” “Jesus sent Peter and John, saying. . . ‘As you enter the city, a man
carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters.’”
No one else could have possibly found an empty room in Jerusalem that night, but
by this minor miracle of divine omniscience Jesus knows exactly where to send
his disciples. Omnipotence means Jesus is all-powerful, as he declared, “All power in
heaven and on earth has been given to me.” “Say to the owner of the house,
‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my
disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. . . They
left and found things just as Jesus had told them.” The disciples were panicking, but Jesus had it all taken care of.
Like finding an empty room in Sturgis the first week of August, by this minor
miracle of divine omniscience and omnipotence, Jesus had arranged for everything
to be ready in the Upper Room for them to eat the Passover. That is the minor miracle of Maundy Thursday, Jesus miraculously
directing the disciples to the Upper Room for the Last Supper. The major
miracle of Maundy Thursday is our Lord’s institution of the Sacrament of Holy
Communion: “Take, eat; this is my body. . . Drink of it, all of you; this
is my blood.” Our Lord does not call upon his followers to explain this miracle, but
in simple faith to believe it, to receive this gift, and to accept his promise,
“This is my body. . . this is my blood.” The Formula of Concord of
the Lutheran Church puts it this way: “We believe, teach, and confess that with
the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ are received . . . the
words of Christ teach this clearly . . . in accord with the simple words
of Christ’s testament, we hold and believe in a true, though supernatural,
eating of Christ’s body and drinking of his blood, which we cannot comprehend
with our human sense or reason. Here we take our intellect captive in obedience
to Christ . . . and accept this mystery . . . by faith . . . as it is revealed
in the Word.” That is the major miracle of Maundy Thursday, the institution of the
Sacrament of Holy Communion. And with his command, “This do in remembrance
of me,” Jesus establishes also for us the ongoing miracle of Maundy Thursday.
St. Paul puts it this way in this evening’s Epistle Reading: “The cup of
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The
bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? . . . For
whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
until he comes.” The ongoing miracle of Maundy Thursday is that until the
Lord comes, whenever his followers eat this bread and drink this cup according
to his command, we receive from him his very body and blood, for the forgiveness
of sins. Martin Luther explains the benefits and blessings of this ongoing
miracle in the Large Catechism: “[Christ says,] ‘This is my body and blood,
given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins,’ which means that we
go to the sacrament because there we receive a great treasure . . . the
forgiveness of sins. . . Therefore, it is appropriately called the food of
the soul . . . There are so many hindrances and temptations of the devil and the
world that we often grow weary and faint, at times even stumble. The Lord’s
Supper is given as a daily food and sustenance so that our faith may refresh and
strengthen itself and not weaken in the struggle. . . In this sacrament
[Christ] offers us all the treasure he brought from heaven for us, to which he
most graciously invites us . . . when he says . . . ‘Come unto me, all you
who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’ . . . If you are
heavy-laden and feel your weakness, go joyfully to the sacrament and receive
refreshment, comfort, and strength.” On Maundy Thursday we remember a minor miracle, Jesus miraculously
directing the disciples to the Upper Room for the Last Supper; a major miracle,
the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion; and tonight we celebrate an
ongoing miracle, for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you receive
your Lord’s body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine, for the
forgiveness of sins, to strengthen you in the true faith until life everlasting. Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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