Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord - 1 Cor 15:1-11

 

                                                                                    Easter

                                                                                    1 Cor 15:1-11

                                                                                    4/4/21

 

            St. Paul faced some real difficulties when he was challenged by false teachers.  The first was Paul’s background.  Paul freely admits in our text, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”  Paul had not been part of the original group of apostles and followers of Jesus. Instead, he had been an opponent of Jesus Christ.  He told the Galatians, “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”

            The second was related to the source of Paul’s knowledge of the Gospel.  On the one hand, Paul was absolutely clear that he knew the Gospel because the risen Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to him and revealed it.  Paul told the Galatians, “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” The risen Lord had appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.  In this revelation Paul learned that God had vindicated Jesus who had been crucified.  He had come to understand the cross was actually the means by which Jesus Christ had won the forgiveness of sins. And Paul had been given the insight that this forgiveness and salvation was God’s gift for all people – Jew and Gentile alike.

            Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ called by God. As he says in the first verse of this letter: “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.”  However, while this was all true, Paul also freely admitted that he had not been one of the original twelve apostles.  He had not been there during Jesus’ ministry.  He had not been there on Easter. While the risen Lord had revealed the Gospel to Paul in his Damascus road experience, the Gospel had existed – it has been believed, confessed, and proclaimed - long before Paul became a believer.

            That is what we hear Paul saying in the epistle lesson for Easter.  It is a great irony the we have two of the most important texts in the Bible about the resurrection and the Sacrament of the Altar because the Christians at Corinth were causing problems.  We heard Paul’s words about the Sacrament on Maundy Thursday. The apostle had to write those words because of the way that the wealthy Corinthians were abusing the setting in the which the Sacrament was celebrated as they mistreated those who were poor.

            We have this great chapter about the resurrection – 1 Corinthians chapter 15 – because some people at Corinth were denying the resurrection of the dead. They were denying the resurrection of the body.  They were doing this because apparently they were taking the Christian teaching about how Christ had brought the end times too far.  In chapter ten Paul had written, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”  Paul and the New Testament church were very clear in teaching that in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus the last days had arrived.

            Some of the Corinthians heard this proclamation of the “now” of God’s salvation in Christ, and ignored the “not yet.”  They thought that as those who had received the Holy Spirit, they were already “spiritual people” who needed nothing more. In fact, they denied that there was a resurrection of the dead. Paul asks incredulously in the verse right after our text, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  In the Greco-Roman setting of Corinth and the Mediterranean world this would always a great danger.  Here, Greek philosophy had established the belief that while the spiritual - the soul -was good, the material world was bad.  The body was described as a “prison” from which the soul needed to be freed.

            In dealing with this problem, Paul takes the Corinthians back to what he originally proclaimed to them when he arrived and spoke the Gospel. In doing so, he also affirms that this was not something unique to him.  Instead, it was something shared by the whole church.  It was something that had been shared with him.

            Paul begins our text by laying out what is at stake – it is salvation itself.  He writes, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.”  This is something we must never forget. The Gospel – the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – is not something that people can just either accept or deny as what is “true for them.”  It is the truth that determines whether a person is forgiven and has salvation with God, or whether a person will be damned by God’s eternal judgment. 

            Paul goes on to say, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.”  This language of “receiving” and “handing on” is the language of tradition in the true biblical sense of the word.  It is about receiving and handing on what the apostles of Jesus Christ have delivered. And here, Paul gladly placed himself in the position of having received and passed on.  He affirms that what he had taught is what the whole church had taught from the beginning. There was nothing new about it.

            And the Gospel is this: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Paul says that “Christ died for our sins.”  Sins are identified here as the fundamental spiritual problem.  God is the holy God. He is the One created this world and us.  He ordered all things to work according to his will.  But since the Fall when sin entered into the world through Adam, we have all been people who are, as Martin Luther described it, “curved in on ourselves.”  Our fallen inclination is to turn away from God and serve ourselves.  Because this is our attitude toward God, it is also the way we treat our neighbor.  We do what we want, in spite of the fact God has said it breaks his will – his law.  We do what we want, no matter whether it hurts our neighbor.  Sometimes we do this, even when we know this is wrong and don’t want to do it.

            These sins bring God’s wrath and judgment.  But Paul says that “Christ died for our sins.”  The background for this statement is clearly what we heard in the Old Testament lesson on Good Friday: Isaiah chapter 53. There Isaiah described the suffering Servant and said, “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.”  Jesus Christ is the One upon whom God laid our sin. He took our sin to be punished and judged in our place. As the prophet writes: “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” 

            Jesus Christ died on the cross to take away our sins – to win forgiveness for us. But death that simply ended in death would have been no victory. Paul told the Romans that the wages of sin is death. For God to bring salvation to us, he needed to reverse the death brought upon us by Adam. 

            Jesus died and was buried. But then Pauls adds, “that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. As was his plan all along, Jesus was the second Adam through whom God has given us not only forgiveness, but also the transformation of our bodies so that they will never die again.

            On Good Friday, as Jesus died the shameful death of the cross and then was hastily buried in a tomb, it looked like Jesus was a failure who had been rejected by God. The resurrection of Jesus Christ changed everything. Only the resurrection of Jesus could change the way his followers viewed him and what had happened on Good Friday.

            And that is why Paul goes on to say, “and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” 

            The risen Lord Jesus had appeared to many different people, many different times, in many different places. Just from the list here we learn that he appeared first to Cephas – a fact reported in the Gospel of Luke. He appeared to the other apostles. Paul says that he was seen by a group of more than five hundred Christians at one time – and then he adds that most of these people were still living and could bear witness to this.  He had appeared to James, who didn’t believe in Jesus during his ministry – and now James was a leader in the Church. Jesus had appeared to others who now had been sent as witnesses to the Gospel. And of course, the risen Lord had appeared to Paul.

            Jesus had revealed himself in ways that were unmistakeable. As Luke tells us in the Book of Acts, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” This was crucial, because as Paul goes on to say just after our text, if Jesus has not risen from the dead then the entire Christian message is the worst lie ever foisted upon humanity.

            Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, his preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain.  What the apostles preached would be a lie about God.  We would still be in our sins and those who died believing in Christ would have perished.   Paul concludes the thought by saying, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

            That’s what’s at stake in the resurrection.  Paul knew it. The apostles knew it. All the early Christians knew it.  And the reason they went forth to work, suffer, and die to proclaim the Gospel was because of what Paul says in verse twenty: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 

            Jesus lives!  He has risen!  Because he has, we are forgiven.  Because he has, death has been defeated.  If we die before Christ returns we will be with Christ, which Paul told the Philippians “is better by far.”  Death cannot separate us from Christ.  And because Jesus has risen from the dead, we know that we will too.  He is the firstfruits.  He is the first part that guarantees the rest. And so Paul says later in this chapter: “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” 

            We live in the confidence that “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”  Because of this we are the forgiven children of God who already possess eternal life with God – life that does not end, even if we die.  Because of this we pray, “Come Lord Jesus” for as Paul told the Philippians, when he does he “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” 

 

 

 

 

           

              

               

 

 

           

 

 

 

Holy Saturday

 

Today is Holy Saturday, the day in which Jesus Christ’s body was resting in the tomb.  Tonight is the Third Service of the Triduum – the Vigil of Easter. The Triduum consists of the services that run over the course of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.   In the Triduum we pass through the three days of Christ’s Passover and remember that through Holy Baptism we have shared in Christ’s saving death and will also share in His resurrection on the Last Day. Tonight’s service focuses on how we have been buried with Christ into His saving death and resurrection.  Following the Jewish reckoning of time, a new day in the liturgical practice of the Church begins at sundown.  Thus the Vigil of Easter is also the first service of Resurrection of Our Lord.

Scripture reading:

            When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

            The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.  (Matthew 27:57-66)

Collect of the Day:

O God, creator of heaven and earth, grant that as the crucified body of Your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with Him the coming of the third day, and rise with Him to newness of life, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

Sermon for Good Friday - Jn 18:1-19:42

 

                                                                                                Good Friday

                                                                                                Jn 18:1-19:42

                                                                                                4/2/21

 

            Ecce homo.  “Behold the man!”  Ecco homo is the Latin translation of our text in John chapter 19 as Pontius Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews after our Lord had been scourged, and adorned with a crown of thorns and a purple robe.

            During the fifteenth and sixteen centuries this scene of Jesus being presented to the crowed became a prominent artistic theme in western Europe and it is identified by the name “Ecce homo.” This artistic trend accompanied a strong focus on the passion of our Lord and his sufferings that developed during this time. All the great artists of the period provided a painting of this scene such as Tintoretto, Titian, Rubens and Dürer.

            Ecce homo.  “Behold the man!”  There are few events in the passion of our Lord that more clearly capture the paradox of Jesus’ suffering and death for us.  Jesus appears in utter humiliation and weakness. And yet in this way, the saving glory of Christ is revealed.

            The account of our Lord’s Passion in the Gospel of John allows us to see quite clearly the dynamics that were at work as the Jewish leaders sought to put Jesus to death.  Ultimately, their reason for wanting to kill Jesus was a religious one. We hear them tell Pilate in our text, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 

            In the course of Jesus’ ministry this assertion involved two different aspects. First, “Son of God” identified the one who was the Messiah – the Christ.  In John’s Gospel there is continual debate about whether Jesus can be the Christ. Second, Jesus stated that his relation to the Father went beyond what any human being could claim.  He said to his opponents at the beginning of Holy Week, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

            But while their motivation was religious, the Jewish leaders had to use political arguments in order to get Jesus killed. The Romans allowed the Jews to run many of their own affairs. However, they did not allow the Jews to execute people. This right belonged only to the Romans. 

            It is for this reason that the Jews show up at Pilates’s headquarters. John tells us, “They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.”  Instead, Pilate was forced to go outside o meet them as he asked, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”  The Jewish leaders responded with the evasive answer, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” So Pilate told them to judge him by their own law. And then the Jews had to admit, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.”

            The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead.  And if they were going do it legally, the Romans would have to do it for them.  But this was about more than just the workings of Jewish life under Roman rule.  John tells us, “This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”  Jesus had said that he would die by crucifixion.  At the beginning of Holy Week he announced, “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 us, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.” Our Lord said that he would die by crucifixion – the most humiliating and shameful death known in the world of that time.  He had come to defeat the devil, but he would do so in way that did not look like victory.

            Pilate soon realized that the Jewish leaders were using him. When he asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”, Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 

            The Roman governor went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him.” As far as Pilate was concerned, Jesus was a delusional fool who certainly offended the Jewish leaders, but this was no justification for Pilate to execute him. So the governor tried to find a way out of the situation by offering to release Jesus as part of the Passover custom. But instead of Jesus, the Jewish leaders and those with them shouted that they wanted the robber Barabbas instead.

            So Pilate went back inside and gave Jesus over to the Roman soldiers. The flogged Jesus – they whipped him. Then they had some fun as they twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him. They dressed him up like foolish looking king and mocked him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!,” as they struck him with their hands.

            Then Pilate went out again and said to the Jews, "See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him." He brought Jesus out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and said to them: "Behold the man!"

            Ecce home. Behold the man! Pilate set before them a joke.  It’s very unlikely that Pilate was trying to gain sympathy from the Jews.  Instead he was trying to illustrate the absurdity of the idea that Jesus posed some kind of threat. Indirectly, he was mocking the Jews and the fact that they were so concerned about this man Jesus.

            Ecce home.  Behold the man!  Of course, this man is not just a mere man.  He is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity.  He is the One of whom John wrote in the first chapter, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”  He is true God and true man, for John tells us, “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.”

            The Son of God had entered into the world in the incarnation.  He did this because of the darkness of Satan and sin.  Our Lord said, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” The darkness was the slavery of sin and death which ruled us.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” He had come as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He had come to give us life – eternal life with God that cannot be stopped by death.  Jesus declared, “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.”

            Jesus Christ had come to do all these things. He had been sent by the Father And yet: Ecce homo.  Behold the man!  Jesus stands there mocked and humiliated.  He stands there in weakness and shame.  And this pathetic scene is just the preparation for what awaits.  The Jewish leaders maneuvered Pilate into a corner by working the political angle. We hear them say in our text, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” Denying the true King of all sent by God, they declared, “We have no king but Caesar.”  Outmaneuvered by the Jewish leaders, Pilate had Jesus crucified.           

    Stripped of his clothing and nailed to a cross, Jesus was lifted up in weakness and shame. Yet this weakness and shame was actually the revelation of God’s incredible love for us.  It was the revelation of God’s saving glory in Christ.  Jesus said at the beginning of Holy Week, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

            Jesus was on the cross. But he was there because this was the will of the Father to save us. On the previous evening Jesus told the disciples, “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”  Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was the will of the Father.  It was the will of the Father for the world.  It was the will of the Father for you.  John chapter three says, “For God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

            The shame and weakness of the cross was the revelation of God’s saving glory in Christ, because it was the means by which he took away our sins and gave us forgiveness. As Jesus was about to die he said, “It is finished.”  By his death our Lord had completed the mission given to him by the Father.  He had fulfilled the Father’s will. In Revelation the apostle John tells of how he heard Christ acclaimed by those around the throne of God as they said, “you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

            Jesus’ death in our place has freed us from the slavery of sin.  Our Lord laid down his life in the midst of the shame and weakness of the cross because this was the Father’s will to reveal his love for us. This was the way that Christ’s glory was revealed.

            But it is also not the end. Tonight we focus upon Jesus’ death.  We hear Jesus cry, “It is finished,” and know that he has completed the work of freeing us from sin.  However, Jesus had also said, “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.” At the end of our text we hear of how Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus asked for the body of Jesus and buried it in a tomb. But Jesus had come to bring life – eternal life – and his body would not remain there.  

 

 

             

           

           

           

 

           

 

 

 

 

           

 

           

                  

 

   

           

           

    

    

 

Good Friday

 

Today is Good Friday, the day we remember Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for our sins.  Our Lord was on the cross from 9:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m., and from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. there was darkness over the land.  Today the Second Service of the Triduum will take place.  The Triduum consists of the services that run over the course of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.   In the Triduum we pass through the three days of Christ’s Passover and remember that through Holy Baptism we have shared in Christ’s saving death and will also share in His resurrection on the Last Day. Today’s service focuses on the suffering and death of our Lord on the cross.  The Gospel lesson for Good Friday is the Passion of our Lord according to St. John (John 18:1-19:42).

Scripture reading:

            When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

            So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.

            Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.

            The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

            Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.

            Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

            So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

            After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

            Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

            From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

            So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

            When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,

            “They divided my garments among them,

                        and for my clothing they cast lots.”

            So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

            After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

            Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

            After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. (John 18:1-19:42)

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, graciously behold this Your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sinful men to suffer death upon the cross; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever.

 

 

Sermon for Maundy Thursday - Ex. 12:1-14

 

                                                                                    Maundy Thursday

                                                                                    Ex 12:1-14

                                                                                    4/1/21

 

            One of the places I want to visit someday is Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  There, next to one another are the USS Arizona Memorial and the battleship USS Missouri.  In perfect symmetry you have the battleship USS Arizona that was sunk on the day World War II began for the United States in 1941, and the USS Missouri where the Japanese surrender documents were signed that ended the war in 1945.

            The USS Arizona Memorial has an interesting history.  The ship was sunk in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 with the loss of 1,177 sailors and Marines. Devastated by the attack, unlike most of the other battleships sunk, she could not be raised and restored for service.  She remained sunken and easily visible in the shallow water.

            It was, however, more than twenty years before the memorial was built. Although the creation of the memorial had been approved in 1958, by 1960 only half of the $500,000 dollars needed for construction had been raised.  In 1961 Elvis Presley did a benefit concert that raised $64,000 dollars.  Presley also made his own personal donation. The publicity surrounding the concert helped call attention to the project, and the rest of the money was raised so that the memorial could be completed in 1962.

            A memorial is a place that causes us to remember an event and the people who were involved in it. Like the USS Arizona Memorial, memorials often are solemn places because they were built to remember people who have died in an event.  In the case of the Arizona Memorial this is especially poignant because 1,102 Americans are entombed in the sunken ship.

            Our text for Maundy Thursday teaches us that the event we are celebrating tonight was grounded in the setting of a memorial. Our Lord’s last supper with his disciples took place in the setting of a Passover meal which was held each year as a memorial of how God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt.  As Jesus celebrated this memorial, he instituted a new and even more significant memorial for what would happen the next day.

            The first part of the Book of Exodus says, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”  Because of Joseph’s position of power in Egypt and the famine that had come upon the region, Jacob and his family had gone to live in Egypt. There God blessed and them and over time they became a numerous people. But as the years passed, Joseph’s role in helping to save Egypt was forgotten.  Eventually the Egyptian leader Pharaoh saw the Israelites as a potential threat.  He used them for slave labor and sought to control them by killing the male children.

            God called Moses to be his instrument by which he would rescue Israel from slavery. Moses announced nine terrible plagues that then fell upon the Egyptians.  However, Pharaoh refused to allow the Israelites to leave.  So finally, Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.”  However, Yahweh announced through Moses that he would spare and protect Israel.

            We hear in our text that in preparation for this event, Yahweh told the Israelites to prepare a meal. They were to take a lamb without blemish and kill it at twilight.  God told them to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they ate it.  They were to eat the meal their belt fastened, their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hand. They were to eat it in haste, ready to leave.

            The reason for this was very clear.  Yahweh said, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

            Israel was to celebrate the Passover meal that night as Yahweh was about to rescue them.  But this was not to be a one time event.  Instead he told them, “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” The Israelites were to continue to celebrate this meal in the promised land. When their children asked what it meant they were to say, “It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.”

            Jesus was a faithful descendant of Israel.  The Gospel of John shows us that he regularly came to Jerusalem as a Passover pilgrim.  He had returned to Jerusalem for the Passover during Holy Week.  But this trip was different because it was his last trip. On the way there he had told his disciples that the Jewish leaders would hand him over to the Gentiles to be crucified, but that he would rise on the third day.

            Our Lord was celebrating a meal with his disciples that was a memorial – a remembrance – of how God had redeemed his people from slavery.  Yet the event in the Old Testament that the meal celebrated pointed forward to what Jesus would do the next day for you. 

            The Son of God had come into the world to redeem you from slavery – to free you from the slavery of sin, death and Satan.  Conceived as fallen people, your lives daily are ones in which you break God’s law.  Because of this what we just confessed is true – we deserve God’s present and eternal punishment.

            We deserve this. But Jesus Christ died on the cross in our place as he shed his blood.  He received the wrath of God against our sin. Now, just like the blood that marked the houses of the Israelites on the night of the Passover, his blood causes God’s judgment to pass over us.  God who redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt, has redeemed us by the death of Jesus Christ.

            At the Last Supper, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. But during that meal he did something completely new – something that was, quite frankly shocking, as he took the Passover and made it his own. He took the bread of the meal, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples saying, “Take, eat, is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance me.”  Our Lord said that he was giving to them his body to eat – the body given for them. They were to do this in remembrance of him. 

            Later on, after supper, he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying, “Take and drink. This cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”  Our Lord said that he was giving them his blood to drink – the blood shed for them for the forgiveness of sins. This too, they were to do in remembrance of him.

            At 9:00 a.m. the next morning, Jesus would be suffering as a slow death as he hung on a cross. At 3:00 p.m. he would breathe his last and die. Those events explained what Jesus said at the Passover meal.  Our Lord gave his body into death on the cross in order to free us from sin.  He shed his blood as he died to give us forgiveness.

            At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Altar.  His words are plain, straightforward … and shocking.  Jesus took the memorial of the Passover and turned it into a memorial of his death, because he was the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. 

            However, human memorials are about remembering events in the past that involved people who are no longer there.  Jesus’ memorial is completely different.  He said that he was giving the disciples his body given for them.  Our Lord is the Son of God who has no limitations. He does what he says. If you want to say that can’t or wouldn’t – well, that is your problem.  Then Jesus said that he was giving them his blood shed for them.  These words confirm that our Lord was doing something new and unheard of, because Jews were strictly forbidden from drinking blood. The very idea of it was shocking.  But that is precisely what Jesus said he was giving to them.

            Our Lord said to “Do this in remembrance of me.”  Tonight, just as the Church has for two thousand years, we again obey his words and receive his gift.  In the memorial of the Sacrament, Jesus is not absent. Instead, he is present in his true body and blood. And the Sacrament is not simply about our remembering what Jesus did.  Instead through his body and blood Jesus gives to us here and now what he accomplished on the cross.  It is his body and blood, given and shed for you. His body given on the cross.  His blood shed on the cross.  That is what he puts into your mouth as he applies what he won for you – forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.

            In the epistle lesson tonight, the apostle Paul writes, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”  In the celebration of the Sacrament we proclaim our Lord’s death. This occurs in the Words of Institution.  It occurs in the words of distribution. It occurs as we gather to receive the body and blood of our the Lord, given and shed for us on the cross.

            We proclaim the Lord’s death.  But it is the risen Lord who is able to do this.  It is the risen, ascended and exalted Lord whose word causes bread and wine to be his true body and blood – the means by which he gives us forgiveness and strengthens the new man. This our Lord does until he comes on the Last Day.  And when he does, he will transform this meal one last time into the feast of salvation that has no end.

                 

           

      

 

           

 

 

 

           

           

              

 

                                                                                   

 

Maundy Thursday

 

Today is Maundy Thursday.  The season of Lent concludes, and today the First Service of the Triduum takes place. The Triduum consists of the services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.   In the Triduum we pass through the three days of Christ’s Passover and remember that through Holy Baptism we have shared in Christ’s saving death and will also share in His resurrection on the Last Day. Today’s service focuses on the events of the Last Supper in general, and specifically on the institution of the Sacrament of the Altar in which Christ gives us His very body and blood to eat and drink.

Scripture reading:

            Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

            When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 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. (John 13:1-15) 

Collect of the Day:

O Lord, in this wondrous Sacrament You have left us a remembrance of Your passion. Grant that we may so receive the sacred mystery of Your body and blood that the fruits of Your redemption may continually be manifested in us; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.