Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew 26:17-30

Betrayal

This feast is instituted in and around betrayal.

Though it doesn’t happen at this very moment, it is promised to come and is hanging heavy over this event.

The idea that someone could betray someone else with whom they are eating a meal was unthinkable in Jesus’ world.

The idea that someone could betray someone else with whom they eat this meal should be unthinkable in our world.

Yet Jesus is still dining with the one who will soon betray him.

And in that reality the meaning of this meal really is quite obvious: Everyone is welcome at the table of our Lord!

We often underestimate the importance of table fellowship in the Bible.

But in the ancient world, to share the table with another person was making a social statement about yourself and about your guest.

The Pharisees are often described as confused by Jesus’ association with the “unclean” of their society.

He even shared meals with Tax-collectors and other “sinners!”

Jesus understood what it meant socially to sit down and eat a meal with someone, therefore when he chose to eat with someone that was a part of the “underclass” he was crossing a social boundary in order to meet a spiritual need.

SHOULDN’T WE BE WILLING TO DO THE SAME?

While this new covenant is founded in, around, and through a moment of betrayal, betrayal does not set the terms of engagement for this covenant.

One who has sinned is not banished from the table.

Moral failure does not keep one away…in fact, that’s what they Pharisees believed.

Jesus proclaimed and lived an example of the opposite.

Everyone is welcome at the table of our Lord!

We too, as participants of this feast need to realize that even though our words, actions, and our thoughts often betray Jesus and his will for us, he still welcomes us at the Table.

And the grace found at the Table should turn us toward repentance, and return us to a right relationship, a more faithful future with our Savior.

Father God, the God of promise, you made a covenant with your people in Israel, which you renewed at Jesus’ last supper.

Renew your covenant with us daily, so that we might learn to live in your light and peace.

May the bread remind us of his body that was hung upon the cross, and may the cup remind us of his blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

The Lord’s Supper