Maundy Thursday

What is the significance of Maundy Thursday? Simply put, it means this: “The old has passed away, the new has come!” The word Maundy is from a Latin word, which means “mandate” or “command.” On this night, Jesus gave a new mandate to love one another as he has loved us. He gave a new mandate to wash one another’s feet as he washed the disciples’ feet. He gave a new mandate to take, eat, and drink of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

You are present here tonight with the Lord in this sanctuary, just like the Apostles who were present with the Lord in the Upper Room. You are speaking the very same words of the Psalm the disciples spoke that Passover night.

“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, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. . . . I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116:12–14, 17).

You, along with some of our young ones for the first time, are about to receive the benefits of eating and drinking “the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine. . . . These words, ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,’ show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation” (Luther’s Small Catechism, pp. 30–31).

The old has passed away, the new has come:

Jesus Is the True Passover Lamb and the Great High Priest of the New Covenant.

Jesus is the True Passover Lamb

In the Gospel tonight from Luke 22, we read, “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed” (Luke 22:7). The old Passover lamb takes us back to the days of Moses in Exodus 12. The children of Israel were delivered from slavery in Egypt because the blood of a slaughtered lamb had been smeared over the doorposts of their homes.

This first Passover took place at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. After the blood had been placed over their doors, the lamb was to be roasted and eaten together by the families that evening. The angel of death passed over their homes and spared their firstborn sons because the blood of the lamb marked them as ones redeemed. The Jews today still celebrate Passover once a year.

Jesus, however, is the fulfillment of what the old Passover lamb typified. He took some of the unleavened bread and the wine used at Passover meal and mandated something new. Luke 22:19-20 “He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the supper, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you.”

We are here tonight under this roof to be served Divine gifts by the Lord himself. When the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, was crucified, his blood was smeared upon the cross. The righteous judgment of God passes over the cross and sees us marked by the blood of the innocent, slaughtered, true Passover Lamb. We are delivered from the slavery of sin, death, and hell.

Unfortunately, many in this world, which will ultimately pass away in destruction, have instilled great fear in the hearts of many regarding this blessed gift. Yet, Jesus promised forgiveness of all our sins.

Therefore, take, eat, drink, and believe. Christ’s body and blood are given and shed for you! You personally receive this gift through the means of this Sacrament, this Lord’s Supper, this Eucharist, this Lord’s Table, this Holy Communion. The Lord still earnestly desires that you eat this Passover with him!

Know, dear family, that the old has passed away, the new has come:

Jesus Is the True Passover Lamb and the Great High Priest of the New Covenant.

Jesus is the Great High Priest

Yes, Jesus is also the great High Priest. In this evening’s Epistle we read, Hebrews 10:19-22 “Brothers, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place through the blood of Jesus. It is a new and living way he opened for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh. We also have a great priest over the house of God. So let us approach with a sincere heart, in the full confidence of faith, because our hearts have been sprinkled to take away a bad conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

The Old Testament high priests could offer only the blood of earthly lambs, once per year, on their own behalf and on behalf of the people. The blood of the lamb was sprinkled over the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies of the earthly temple in Jerusalem. That was the place where one met God and where the high priest offered atonement for the sins of all the people in all Israel.

Jesus is the great High Priest who offers his own blood as the heavenly Lamb, once for all time, on our behalf and on behalf of all people. The blood of this Lamb was sprinkled over the mercy seat of the cross in the true Holy of Holies in the heavenly sanctuary of the new Jerusalem. That was the place where one met God and the great High Priest offered atonement for the sins of all the people in all the world.

A great Pastor and bishop of the Church St. John Chrysostom described this new and living way. “We have all things greater; since now the gates of heaven have been opened. . . . ‘The new and living way,’ . . . for the first was a way of death, leading to Hades, but this of life. . . . ‘Through the curtain . . . of his flesh.’ . . . And with good reason did he call the flesh ‘a curtain.’ For when it was lifted up on high, then the things in heaven appeared” (“On the Epistle to the Hebrews,” 19:2; Thomas G. Oden, New Testament X: Hebrews, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005], 159).

People of God — the old has passed away, the new has come:

Jesus Is the True Passover Lamb and the Great High Priest of the New Covenant.

Jesus is the New Covenant

Indeed, Christ Jesus is the new covenant. God’s gracious covenants throughout the Old Testament were all in view of the incarnation of the Son of God in human flesh. Thus in this evening’s Old Testament Reading we read, Jeremiah 31:31-32 “Yes, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.”

This new covenant in Jesus Christ is for all believers everywhere. As the Lord declared through Jeremiah 31:33-34 “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will each one teach his neighbor, or each one teach his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their guilt, and I will remember their sins no more.”

This gracious attitude of God the Father toward us is now written on our hearts. We are his people who know him, our sins are forgiven, and remembered no more. In Holy Baptism, we are his sons and daughters who are presented to the Lord “with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22).

Those of you who confess Jesus as Lord hear this—the old has passed away, the new has come!

Jesus Is the True Passover Lamb and the Great High Priest of the New Covenant.

In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ body is given and his blood is poured out for you. You eat and drink in the kingdom of God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. As you have been exhorted through Holly Scripture tonight, and as we continue to meet together during this Holy Week,“Let us hold on firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. Let us also consider carefully how to spur each other on to love and good works. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10 23-25).

There is a beautiful Maundy Thursday hymn “The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord” (LSB 634) offers us solace and holy contemplation this night: (tune: Baptismal Waters Cover Me)

He blotted out with His own blood

The judgment that against us stood;

For us He full atonement made,

And all our debt He fully paid.

His Word proclaims and we believe

That in this Supper we receive

His very body, as He said,

His very blood for sinners shed.

Help us sincerely to believe

That we may worthily receive

Your Supper and in You find rest.

Amen! They who believe are blest.

(LSB 634:2, 4, 8)

The old has passed away, the new has come:

Jesus Is the True Passover Lamb and the Great High Priest of the New Covenant.

The peace of God, which transcends all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds, in true faith in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.

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