Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord - Jn 20:1-18

 

    Easter

                                                                                                                        Jn 20:1-18

                                                                                                                        4/5/26

 

            It is John’s Gospel which informs us that Jesus’ trip to Jerusalem for the Passover which resulted in his Passion was not the only trip that he made to the city to celebrate the feast. In chapter two we learn about an earlier visit, and John tells us about how Jesus drove out those who were selling animals and the money changers.

When the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?,” Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  His opponents were completely confused by this.  It had taken forty six years to build the temple, and in fact it wasn’t even done yet. It would only be completed just a few years before its destruction in 70 A.D. How could Jesus raise it up in three days?

Then John tells us: “But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” This statement teaches us two things. First, Jesus said things during his ministry that his disciples did not understand. And second, it was the resurrection of Jesus that enabled them to understand the words and deeds of the Lord.  In fact it was only the resurrection that made it possible for them to understand Scripture as a whole.

We saw the same thing last Sunday in the reading for the procession with palms.  Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it in order to ride into Jerusalem. John explained that this was just as it had been written in Zechariah, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” Then he added, “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.”

And this emphasis continues on into our Gospel reading for Easter. This morning we hear “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” This morning we see that in the resurrection of Jesus he demonstrates his authority over death itself. He is the source of life which conquers death, and by this we can understand what his cross means for us.

            John’s Gospel tells us exactly who Jesus Christ is. He is the Son, the second person of the Trinity.  He is God who created the universe. John begins the Gospel by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  He tells us, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” And then the evangelist announces that the Son of God became man without ceasing to be God. He says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

            This Gospel also tells us exactly why the Son of God entered into the world in the incarnation. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John was certainly drawing upon the Old Testament as he said that Christ would be a sacrifice.  More specifically, he was almost certainly describing Jesus as the Passover lamb. The blood of the Passover lamb had caused God’s wrath to pass over the Israelites in Egypt. Now in his death, the blood of Jesus would cause God’s judgment to pass over sinners.

            John’s the Baptist’s words identify sin as our basic problem. Jesus says in this Gospel that everyone who sins is a slave of sin. He told his opponents that if they did not believe in him they would die in their sin.

            John the Baptist had designated Jesus as the One who would die as the sacrifice for sin. And Jesus had been clear about how this would happen. He had told Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” And during Holy Week Jesus declared, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John tells that Jesus said this to show what kind of death he was going to die – that he would die on the cross.

            The Gospel of John tells us that faith in Jesus is the means to life. It is through faith in Christ that we escape the wrath of God against sin.  We hear, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” And then later Jesus announced, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

In fact, Jesus had said that he was the means to resurrection life. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

On Good Friday, Jesus had been lifted up on the cross. He had died. Then he had been buried. And on Sunday, as a new week began, it was apparent that all of that talk about life was just nonsense. Everything that Jesus had said and done had come to nothing.  He had cried out “It is finished” as he died. And everything was all finished. It ended as the Romans killed Jesus on the cross.

In our Gospel lesson we learn that very early on the first day of week, Mary Madalene went to the tomb. We know from the other Gospels that she went to complete the burial arrangements for Jesus. She went in a final act of devotion for her Lord who had been killed.

But when she arrived at the tomb, she saw that the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb had been taken away. Her immediate reaction was to run and tell Jesus’ disciples. She reported to Simon Peter, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

This startling news prompted Peter and another disciple – presumably John – to run to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple was faster and got there first.  He didn’t enter the tomb, but stooping he looked in and saw the linen burial cloths lying in the tomb.  When Peter arrived, he entered the tomb, and there he saw not only the linen cloths, but also the cloth that had been placed over Jesus’ face. It was not with the burial clothes, but had been folded up and set apart by itself.

The tomb was empty. The cloths in which Jesus body had been wrapped were lying there. The face cloth had been folded up and put in its own place.  John tells us that when he saw this evidence, he believed that Jesus had risen. However, he didn’t understand that this was going to happen for as yet the disciples did not understand the Scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead.

The two disciples went back to their homes. By this point Mary had returned and stood weeping outside the tomb. She stooped to look inside the tomb, and there she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She replied, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize that it was Jesus.  The Lord asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

Mary thought that this was the gardener, and she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Then the Lord said to her, “Mary.”  In that instant Mary recognized that it was Jesus risen from the dead who stood before her.  She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!,” which means Teacher.

In that moment Mary had obviously taken hold of Jesus because he said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Then Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and reported what Jesus had said.

Jesus had promised life – eternal life – to all who believe in him. Good Friday had ended in death. It had ended with Jesus’s body on the cross and buried in a tomb.  But on the morning of Easter the tomb was empty. And in the encounter with Jesus, Mary learned that Christ had risen from the dead. It was the same thing that the other disciples of Jesus would learn by the end of the day when the Lord appeared in the midst of the room where they were gathered.

Sin brings death. God told Adam in the beginning that it would work that way. He said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  And death destroys life as God created it to be. God made us as people who are body and soul joined in a unity. Genesis tells us, “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Death tears apart this unity – it destroys what God created as it leaves a lifeless body to be buried.

When Jesus cried, “It is finished” he announced that he had accomplished the sacrifice that provided forgiveness before God. But this forgiveness would have had no meaning for us if Jesus had not also overcome death in his resurrection.  Only in this way could we be freed from the consequence of sin. Only in this way could Jesus give us eternal life as God intends it.

Jesus had said that he would do this. He announced, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” And then our Lord went on to say, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus demonstrated his authority as the Son of God when he took up his life again in the resurrection of Easter.  This resurrection was not merely a return to life in which a person would later die again such as occurred when Jesus raised Lazarus. Instead, the resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the transformation that will occur on the Last Day. It was the beginning of the resurrection that will be ours when the Lord returns in glory.

It was the resurrection of Jesus that allowed the disciples to understand who Jesus really is, and what had done for us. Only the resurrection could reveal the truth of Jesus’ words: “It is finished.” Because of the resurrection we can now understand what his death really means for us.

Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection there is now eternal life for all who believe in Christ. This is something that we already possess now, just as we have forgiveness now.  It is something that we continue to have even if we experience bodily death, because death now means that we are with the risen Lord. And this eternal life will continue on in the manner for which God created us in the beginning. On the Last Day the Lord Jesus will raise and transform our bodies so that we can never die again. We will enjoy life in body and soul with God, just as Adam and Eve did before the Fall.

Jesus captured this truth in words that he spoke to Martha just before he raised Lazarus from the dead. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

This gift of eternal life both now and in the resurrection is something that the risen Lord Jesus gives to us this morning. He does it in the Sacrament of the Altar. While he said to Mary, “Don’t cling to me,” the ascended Lord now says, “Take and eat. Drink of it all of you” as he gives his true body and blood into us.

Through his body and blood Jesus gives us life – life that gives fellowship with God and life that will raise us from the dead. Our Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for Good Friday - 2 Cor 5:14-21

                                                                                                        Good Friday

                                                                                                        2 Cor 5:14-21

                                                                                                        4/3/26

 

 

Paul says in our text, “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.” To regard Christ according to the flesh is to view him in the ordinary ways of the world. It is to evaluate him only on the basis of the events of Good Friday that we heard in the reading of the Passion of Our Lord.

To regard Christ according to the flesh is to see only the Roman practice of crucifixion. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion. They took the practice from others. But Rome took the cross and made it into a means of institutional terror and control.

Human ingenuity has devised a number of ways by which a person can be executed. Man has invented stoning, the gallows, burning at the stake, the guillotine, the firing squad, the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection. But what differentiates crucifixion from so many other methods of execution is the amount of time that was needed for it to kill a person. These other ways of execution kill a person within at most ten or fifteen minutes. But crucifixion took a day, or more often several days.

For the Romans, this was the great thing about crucifixion. It was a means of prolonged public suffering and humiliation. First the victim was stripped naked and scourged with a whip studded with pieces of bone or lead. This agonizing torture shredded the flesh and turned the individual into a bloody mess. Then the person was nailed or tied to the cross in such a way that the legs could barely support the body.

As we learn in the Gospels about the crucifixion of Jesus, the Romans did this in a very public place where many people would see it as they passed by. The crucified person was put on display, hanging there naked, as he suffered. Death was usually a process of slow asphyxiation as the person’s weight pulled down on their chest and it became more and more difficult for a person to raise himself enough to take a breath. Crucifixion was long, slow, and terrible as the person was put on display in a humiliating death.

And that was the point. The Romans used crucifixion to terrorize populations. The bodies of the crucified were normally left on the cross to be eaten by the birds. All of it was meant to send the message: Do not mess with us, or we will do this to you. In the face of any kind of organized uprising it was not uncommon for the Romans to crucify hundreds or even thousands of people lining the road for miles.

Paul told the Corinthians, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” If one regarded Christ according to the flesh – if a person viewed him according to the ordinary ways of the world – this was absurd. It was moronic. Jesus was a criminal who had been executed by crucifixion. He had died in the most humiliating and shameful death known to the Greco-Roman world. His death was a picture of powerlessness.  It was pointless.

Certainly, Paul had once viewed it that way. But he says in our text, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.” The apostle tells us that we can’t regard Jesus Christ according to the flesh. We can’t view him in the ordinary ways of the world.

Instead the apostle reveals that through the crucifixion of Jesus, God was acting for the sake of the world – for your sake. He says, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.” Paul says that Christ on the cross was the means by which God reconciled us to himself.

The language of “reconciliation” invites the idea that there is some kind of division between two parties – that there is some source of contention or disagreement.  But when Paul uses this language elsewhere, he is clear that the problem went far beyond that. He told the Romans, “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”

The apostle says that we were enemies of God.  We know that this is not the way we were created. Instead God created us in his image for perfect fellowship with him. But through the disobedience of Adam sin invaded our existence and we lost the image of God. This sin warped and twisted us into something that is not very good. We are now people who find sinning to be easy. It is easy to put my wants and desires ahead of God. It is easy to put my wants and desires ahead of my family, friends, and neighbors.

Each and every sin is not simply the breaking of some abstract law code. It is sin committed against God.  AS David said in Psalm 51, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

Our sin is the rejection of God the Creator.  In our sin we set ourselves against God, because we are saying that we are going to be god in our own lives. We make ourselves the enemies of God.

God is the holy God in whose presence sinners who sin cannot exist.  Their sin evokes his wrath and judgment.  Paul told the Ephesians that as sinful descendants of Adam who are opposed to God we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” We were storing up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.  We were people who would receive God’s eternal damnation.

God had created us for fellowship with him. But even in the rebellion of sin as we were enemies of God, he did not cease to love us. Paul told the Romans, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  In the incarnation God sent his Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He sent Christ as the means by which he would reconcile us to himself.

Paul says in our text, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” We were enemies of God because of our sin. God acted in Christ to reconcile us to himself by not counting our trespasses against us.

But how could God do that? God is the just and holy God. We learn in Scripture that, “He will render to each one according to his works.” To be justified – to be declared innocent by God – you have to live in righteous ways. Paul told the Romans, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” God could not be true to his own nature as the just and holy God if he simply ignored your sin.

And so God judged our sin on Good Friday in Christ. Paul says at the beginning of our text, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” Jesus’ death on Good Friday, was the death of the One who is true God and true man. It was a death on behalf of us all.  It was a death through which the apostle says that we all died.

Jesus Christ had no sin. But he came to be the Servant of the Lord whom we hear about in our Old Testament reading. Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In our text, Paul expresses this in even stronger language as he writes: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God so closely identified Jesus with our sin, that Paul can say the sinless One was made to be sin. In God’s saving work Jesus became The Sinner in our place – the One who was counted as sinful because of our sin. And then the just God did to Jesus what he will do to sinners on the Last Day.  He poured out his wrath. Paul told the Romans that “by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Jesus cried out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” as he received God’s judgment in our place.

On Good Friday, the just God justly judged your sin when Christ died on the cross. Now through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are justified before God. As Paul told the Romans, he did this, “so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Paul tells us in our text, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”

In yourself you are still a sinner who sins. But through faith in Christ you have the status before God of being a holy one – a saint. This status has nothing to do with your actions. Instead it is received as God’s gift through faith in Christ.  Paul told the Romans, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’”

Because we know the Gospel we no longer regard Christ according to the flesh. We don’t view his death in the ordinary ways of the world. Instead we know that it was God acting to reconcile us to himself as he justly judged our sin in Christ.

On Good Friday we focus on what the death of Jesus Christ means for us. Because of Christ’s death we are not justified before God through faith in the Lord - we are forgiven. However the Gospel is not only about Christ’s death, and it’s not only about forgiveness. Tomorrow night we will begin our focus on why Paul says in our text: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for Maundy Thursday - 1 Cor 11:23-32

 

   Maundy Thursday

                                                                                                1 Cor 11:23-32

                                                                                                4/2/26

 

 

“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.’” These are the words in our epistle lesson for tonight from 1 Corinthians eleven.  Although we hear them using the translation “testament” in the Words of Institution of the liturgy, more literally the word used means “covenant.” In the word “covenant” we receive important insight into what Christ has done for us, and what he gives us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Yahweh had taken Israel into a covenant with himself at Mt Sinai. He had chosen them as his people and brought them out of slavery in Egypt in the Exodus. At Sinai God gave Israel his Torah – his Law. This was a description of how Israel was to live in this relationship that God had given. God’s word repeatedly emphasized that keeping this law would bring blessing, but breaking it would bring a curse.

At Mt. Sinai Moses read the Book of the Covenant in the hearing of the people. They replied, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Then Moses took blood from sacrificed oxen and threw it on the people as he said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” This act meant that they were now part of the covenant with God.

The Torah offered the way of life with God. But in practice Israel soon demonstrated that while the law itself had this ability, the people did not have the power to carry it out. Instead of being a way of life, the Torah brought judgment upon Israel. The nation worshipped false gods.  It took advantage of the poor. It broke the law again and again. The result was God’s judgment.  In 722 B.C. he used the Assyrians to conquer the northern kingdom and take them into exile, never to return. In 587 B.C. he used the Babylonians to take Judah into exile and destroy the temple. 

During that time as Judah was about to be taken into exile, the prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”

Yahweh said through Jeremiah that he would make a new covenant – one that was different from the covenant that he made at Mt Sinai. He went on to say through the prophet, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” God said that he would write his law on the hearts of his people. Then he added, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Around the same time, Yahweh also revealed through Ezekiel that he would do something new.  He said, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” God said he would bring about a change in the people, one that would make them new. And then he explained how he would do this as he said, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

The Torah – the law in itself was holy and good. It offered the way of life with God, but the people did not have the power in themselves to reach this goal. Instead, in their breaking of the law they brought the law’s curse upon themselves.   Paul told the Galatians, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” And so Paul concluded that the law can’t give life. He went on to say, “For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.”

The apostle stated clearly why the law could not give life. The problem was not the law. Instead we are the problem. He told the Romans, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” He explained how as fallen people sin remains a power that controls us. This sin takes hold of the law and uses it to prompt more sin. He wrote in Romans chapter seven, “For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.”

God had said he would make a new covenant. He said that he would put his Spirit within his people. This new covenant arrived in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who established the new covenant, but in doing so he was the fulfillment of the covenant God made with Israel. That covenant contained the sacrifices by which God gave forgiveness and enabled the people to live in his presence. Through them atonement was made for sin.

God sent his Son, Jesus Christ as the once and for all sacrifice for sin. Through the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God he judged your sin so that now you can be justified before him. Paul told the Romans, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” He wrote later, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”

Jesus Christ was conceived by the work of the Spirit.  He was anointed with the Spirit at his baptism. The Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul told the Romans that Jesus Christ “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” And then as the risen and ascended Lord, Jesus poured forth the Spirit – the Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ.  Just as Ezekiel had prophesied, God has put his Spirit within us in these last days through the water of baptism.

The new covenant gives life because the Spirit is at work through the Gospel. Paul told the Corinthians, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The letter of the law kills and brings judgment. But the Spirit of  Christ gives life as he works faith in Jesus’ saving death and resurrection.

The Passover meal was a remembrance of the event by which God freed Israel from slavery to bring them into the covenant with himself. The Last Supper was a Passover meal. But Jesus took it and transformed it into something which is now done in remembrance of how Jesus freed us from the slavery of sin and death to bring us into the new covenant with God.

The Words of Institution quoted by Paul say that it was “on the night when he was betrayed.” It is true, of course, that this was the evening when Judas betrayed Jesus into the hands of the Jewish religious leaders. But it was far more than that, for this event was part of God’s plan to save us.  Paul used the exact same word when he told the Romans that Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Jesus took bread and said, “This is my body which is for you,” or more literally, “which is on behalf of you.” The Lord said that he was giving them his body to eat – his body which was about to be offered on the cross on behalf of you. He took the cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Our Lord declared that the cup was the new covenant because the cup held his blood shed to establish the new covenant.

In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus uses bread and wine to give us his true body and blood. Paul had just said to the Corinthians in the previous chapter, “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?”

These are questions which in Greek demand a positive answer. Paul assumes that they agree with him that yes, the wine in the cup is a participation – it is a communion in the blood Christ. He knows that they agree with him that yes, the bread is a participation – it is a communion in the body of Christ.

In the Sacrament Jesus takes the very price he paid for your forgiveness and gives it to you. He gives you his true body and blood which was given and shed to establish the new covenant. And in so doing, he confirms that you are included in that covenant.  Each time you receive the Sacrament Jesus is saying that you are part of the forgiven people of God. You are included among those who are receiving his saving work – a saving work that will reach its consummation when you share in his resurrection on the Last Day.

Christ leaves no doubt that this new covenant is for you, because he places his body and blood into your mouth. Just as the blood of the covenant splattered on the bodies of the Israelites at Mt Sinai meant that they were in the covenant, so the body and blood of Jesus given into your body mean that you are in the new covenant. You have forgiveness and salvation that overcomes death itself.

God said through Jeremiah, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.” He made the first covenant with Israel alone. But true to his promise to Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed, God worked through the covenant with Israel to bring salvation to all. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the first covenant. By his death and resurrection he has established the new covenant which gives forgiveness and life to all people – to Jew and Gentile alike.

Christ instituted the Sacrament to be done in remembrance of him. As Paul says in our text, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  But this remembering is more than just a mental action on our part.  It is the reception of the crucified and risen Lord who comes to us in his body and blood. It is Christ putting his body and blood into you so that you may know with certainty that you share in the saving new covenant.