Maundy Thursday2005
Maundy Thursday, March 24, 2005
after Rev. K. F. Korby
“In Remembrance”
Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the “bread of remembrance.” This bread of remembrance is our eternal healing for life and joy. He, our bread of life from heaven, is the Word made flesh. Now, by his Word, he joins his flesh with bread to feed us. This bread of remembrance is for our healing of the dread nightmares of our sin, the fearful threats of death and condemnation.
“Do this in remembrance of me,” said Jesus on the night he was betrayed. He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This is the new testament in my blood, shed for the forgiveness of your sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes (1 Corinthians 11). This remembering starts with God: He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He has commanded his covenant forever. Remembering begins with God. The words of his last will and testament are for our hearing for faith, for trusting what he says because it is what he does and gives. The gracious vitality of the Lord’s Supper to revive our life, strengthen our courage, inflame our love, and make lively our hope comes from the death of the Lord, who made his new will and testament on the night he was betrayed. The heavenly healing, the merciful medicine for our mortality, comes to us not by what our senses see, but by what is received by faith. Faith listens and receives and clings to what is given in his saying. Faith instructs our senses. From him in his words we learn that the heavenly energy in this Supper does not derive from the congregation. It is given to the congregation. The blessings do not derive from the faith of the recipients. Faith receives the blessings and grace he puts into the Sacrament. This Supper is the Lord’s: in it he gives what he says.
How do we learn to remember? We are instructed to “examine” ourselves and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup. What do we examine? We examine what we hear and what we believe. He is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, for the words ‘for you’ require all hearts to believe.”
The Word of God caused his wonderful works to be remembered. That Word is the beginning of our remembering. This man, the Christ, is bread of remembrance, the one who died for me and shed his blood for me. You listen to the words of the Holy Gospel; you listen to the words of the Holy Sacrament. There he gives to you his body and blood, which were offered for you. The sacrifice has been made and is acceptable to God. In this Supper he serves us with the benefits of that sacrifice.
“Do this in remembrance of me.” To remember him is to love him and hear his words. All who eat and drink are called to trust his body and blood for healing, for salvation. What he gives in love, faithful receivers desire to receive in love. They are beloved; they trust his love for their bread of remembrance and healing. The Lord is praised and honored when what he gives is received, when what he says is believed. He wants to rescue sinners from sin with his forgiveness of sins; he wants to love sinners to life by his love for them; he wants to heal the terror and despair of hearts caught in the memories and consequences of their sin.
You see, then, this Supper calls to hungry and thirsty souls, to those who are burdened by their sin and the hammering of God’s Law on their sin. Hence, “to remember” Jesus is to preach and teach to stir up the appetite, so that we all hunger and thirst for the Sacrament.
This Supper is for healing, for teaching, for refreshing hard-pressed Christians, people crying out to God for mercy and salvation. They long for what Christ the Lord gives them in this Supper, as he said in his will and testament. To do this in remembrance of Christ calls for you to trust that his suffering, his stripes and wounds, his agony of pain, his patient and silent enduring of the mockery, are for you. His wounds are your peace and healing. The love he pours into your mouth, mind, and soul is his service to you to cleanse you. You remember him when you yearn for this cleansing, when you trust his cleansing as yours.
Honor Christ, then, in coming to eat and drink. Praise and glorify him in his work for you and his gift to you. Rejoice in his coming to you, to dwell in you. He overthrows sin and the works of the devil. Trusting him is your health. He teaches you how to love God and your neighbor. For to cling to the love he gives you is to follow him in loving each other.