Exodus 12:1-14/1 Corinthians 11:23-32/St John 13:1-15, 34-35
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Everything that Jesus does, He does in love for you, in order to give you Life with God the Father in Himself. So too the love that He commands you to have for one another is the same Love that He has and exercises for each and all of you.
He has come from the Father into the flesh. He tabernacles with His Church in the Flesh in order to reveal the Father to you in His own Body flesh and blood. And as He has come from the Father so does He return to the Father - in His flesh through His blood by His Cross and Passion in order to bring you in flesh and blood with and in Himself to the bosom of the Father.
For He is your merciful and great High Priest who by His sacrificial death enters into the Most Holy Place on your behalf. Which is to say, He enters into the presence of the Father in order to establish a permanent place for you there. And so He has done. In His crucified and risen flesh which He gives to you, that you may partake of Him, have fellowship in Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
This is the New Covenant that He has established between God and man. It is the bond and union, the Holy Communion, between God and man. In Christ there is now harmony with God forevermore. For Christ has reconciled the world to God the Father in Himself; in His own flesh and blood, crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification. In this New Covenant of Christ you are bound to God in peace as He has bound Himself to you in love.
So does Christ Jesus call you to receive and enter into this New Covenant, not by your works or power, but by and through the very promise of His Gospel. For He calls you by the Gospel, which is the way and the means by which you enter into fellowship with Him. He does this, and it is what He is doing, in the preaching of His Holy Gospel. This is what He has done for you and given to you in Holy Baptism. And what He continues to do and give in Holy Absolution. By the holy bath of Baptism you are already clean and daily, by the Gospel of forgiveness, the Lord Jesus washes your feet that you may have your place with Him.
For the Gospel bestows the very thing it promises, though hidden in the mystery of the Cross. What the Gospel promises - forgiveness of all your sins, rescue from your enemies, redemption from death - it gives not in spite of the Cross, but from the Cross, on account of the Sacrifice. For the Blood of the Lamb has atoned for your sins and reconciled you to God. Therefore the devil has no rightful claim on you, no right to accuse you, or tyrannize you. Death cannot have you anymore or hold you forever. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, as in the Gospel, there is resurrection, life, and salvation.
For by the Gospel of the Cross of Christ the Lord has executed judgment against all the gods of Egypt, against all the principalities and powers of this present age, against the devil, the world, and the fallen flesh of the old Adam. And by His Gospel, in love, so does He spare you from their demise. He brings you out of Egypt by the might of His Cross and His outstretched hands, pierced for you.
Therefore do not turn to those false gods and enemies for life or help. They cannot do anything by enslave you in sin and try to bring you again to death and the grave. Do not forsake the Lord your God or forget His Holy Covenant; but daily repent of your sins, return to the sure promise of the Gospel and cling to it. Even in this the Lord disciplines you in love so that you may not be condemned with the idolatrous and unbelieving Egyptians, but rescued and redeemed for life with Him.
He uses His Word of Law and the sufferings of your mortal flesh in this fallen world. He calls you to repentant faith and restores you to Himself, in love, by the preaching of the promise. Its not by your own reason or strength, it never is, but by the preaching of His promise that you in fact receive and believe the very promise of the Gospel. His preaching opens your ears to hear. His giving opens your hand and mouth to receive. His kneeling to wash your feet cleanses you of all unrighteousness and so enables you to stand.
Do not brag or boast as Simon Peter did and then fall down hard and fast. But hear and heed the Word of Christ which alone saves you. For this is how He cleanses you inside and out, in body and soul, with the forgiveness of sins. By His Gospel you are completely clean.
This is what the Divine Service of His Word and Sacrament is actually all about. What it is. It is the Lord Jesus coming and doing, speaking and giving, all in love by grace. By the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins He returns you to the cleansing waters of your Baptism. And then He brings you to His Table, to feed you with His Body and Blood, so that in Him, in His flesh, you live and abide in Holy Communion with the Blessed Trinity.
I know it doesn’t look that way. You cannot by your intellect or eyesight discern the Lord’s Body. Your wisdom and senses fail you here. But you discern the Lord’s Body hidden under the Cross in humble bread and wine by the very Word that He speaks; by its proclamation and catechesis.
His Word not only reveals His Body and Blood, it actually makes the bread to be His Body and the win to be His Blood. That strong and simple word “is” at the heart of the Consecration does what it says and gives what it promises. He speaks and it is so. This is My Body. Therefore eat. This is My Blood - and the Cup of the New Covenant - therefore, Drink of it, all of you. There simply is no Lord’s Supper without the Lord’s Word, which makes the supper what it is and which gives the Supper to you, His Christian, to eat and to drink.
This Word of the Lord, His Consecration, is pure Gospel, for you, His Church, whom He calls and gathers to Himself in love that He may bestow His preached Word, catechesis in the faith, and thereby proclaim His death, along with all the saints and angels, unto He comes again. By His Word do you receive. By His Word you discern, in faith, that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood. And by His Word do you believe that this Most Holy Food and Drink are given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins; for the forgiveness of all your fears and failing, your betrayals and denials, arrogance and envy, despair and other great shame and vice.
So also are you given, by this same forgiveness, to remember Him, not only in heart and mind, but also with ears and hand and mouth, in body and soul.
And as you remember Him by His Word and Gospel, so does He remember you in love, by giving you this meal. For here He is truly Host and Waiter and Meal. He is also the Sacrifice Itself, the Meat and Drink received and shared in the fellowship of the Church with her Lord Jesus Christ and with His God and Father and the Holy Spirit.
You remember Him, He remembers you in love, not only in the Sacrament, but also, then, in fervent love toward one another, even as He has loved you. It is the New Covenant of Christ that undergirds and informs the New Commandment. Not that love is something new, for the entire Law of God is summarized with this one word. But Christ has fulfilled the Law and has made all things new. So that “Love” is redefined - not in the worldly sense - by is realized for what it truly is in the very Cross of Christ, by His sacrifice in His flesh and blood for the atonement of the world, and in His Holy Sacrament.
And His love for you is not left behind. Its not in the past and something you have to remember. Its constant and continuous. Consider that He loves you and serves you unto the end with His forgiveness, life, and salvation. Thus does He lead you to His Holy Altar in faith and so do you follow after Him in service unto one another in love.
For what He receives from and has with His father He hands over to you by the Ministry of the Gospel. This is the “Holy Tradition” of which St Paul writes: what he has received he also hands over to the Church. And that holy “handing over” of Christ doesn’t begin with Judas the betrayer, but with God the Father handing over His only begotten Son in the flesh. And the Son goes as it has been written of Him. The true Tradition of the Church is nothing less than the written Word and Gospel of Christ - the entire Scripture - and the New Testament in His Blood.
So the Tradition continues with the Son handing Himself over to His own beloved disciples even as He hands Himself over to the Father by His willing Self-Sacrifice as the Lamb of God.
“Do this” Jesus says “in remembrance of Me.” Which is not only to love another as He has loved you, but what He has done for His disciples they are to do for His Church: To take bread and wine, to bless and give thanks to the Father, to consecrate with His Word, in His Name and stead, to distribute His Body and Blood to His Christians. Thus does the “handing over” of the Son by the Father reach you, here and now. To your ears and mouth and body. So that everything Christ Jesus received form His Father is also now yours in Him. And as the Father remembers Him and raised Him from the dead, and receives Him back to Himself in peace, so does the Father remember you in Christ His beloved. That is what He has done for you, in love, and gives to you, in love, here in His Holy Sacrament.
This is the meaning and purpose of this New Covenant, which Christ has established in Himself, in His flesh and blood, so that you have life with God in body and soul. Already here and now by grace in the Holy Communion, and also in the resurrection of your body at the last to life everlasting. This is the promise and pledge bequeathed to you in the Supper; the eternal inheritance of the Father for His Son, who loves you to the end.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Everything that Jesus does, He does in love for you, in order to give you Life with God the Father in Himself. So too the love that He commands you to have for one another is the same Love that He has and exercises for each and all of you.
He has come from the Father into the flesh. He tabernacles with His Church in the Flesh in order to reveal the Father to you in His own Body flesh and blood. And as He has come from the Father so does He return to the Father - in His flesh through His blood by His Cross and Passion in order to bring you in flesh and blood with and in Himself to the bosom of the Father.
For He is your merciful and great High Priest who by His sacrificial death enters into the Most Holy Place on your behalf. Which is to say, He enters into the presence of the Father in order to establish a permanent place for you there. And so He has done. In His crucified and risen flesh which He gives to you, that you may partake of Him, have fellowship in Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
This is the New Covenant that He has established between God and man. It is the bond and union, the Holy Communion, between God and man. In Christ there is now harmony with God forevermore. For Christ has reconciled the world to God the Father in Himself; in His own flesh and blood, crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification. In this New Covenant of Christ you are bound to God in peace as He has bound Himself to you in love.
So does Christ Jesus call you to receive and enter into this New Covenant, not by your works or power, but by and through the very promise of His Gospel. For He calls you by the Gospel, which is the way and the means by which you enter into fellowship with Him. He does this, and it is what He is doing, in the preaching of His Holy Gospel. This is what He has done for you and given to you in Holy Baptism. And what He continues to do and give in Holy Absolution. By the holy bath of Baptism you are already clean and daily, by the Gospel of forgiveness, the Lord Jesus washes your feet that you may have your place with Him.
For the Gospel bestows the very thing it promises, though hidden in the mystery of the Cross. What the Gospel promises - forgiveness of all your sins, rescue from your enemies, redemption from death - it gives not in spite of the Cross, but from the Cross, on account of the Sacrifice. For the Blood of the Lamb has atoned for your sins and reconciled you to God. Therefore the devil has no rightful claim on you, no right to accuse you, or tyrannize you. Death cannot have you anymore or hold you forever. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, as in the Gospel, there is resurrection, life, and salvation.
For by the Gospel of the Cross of Christ the Lord has executed judgment against all the gods of Egypt, against all the principalities and powers of this present age, against the devil, the world, and the fallen flesh of the old Adam. And by His Gospel, in love, so does He spare you from their demise. He brings you out of Egypt by the might of His Cross and His outstretched hands, pierced for you.
Therefore do not turn to those false gods and enemies for life or help. They cannot do anything by enslave you in sin and try to bring you again to death and the grave. Do not forsake the Lord your God or forget His Holy Covenant; but daily repent of your sins, return to the sure promise of the Gospel and cling to it. Even in this the Lord disciplines you in love so that you may not be condemned with the idolatrous and unbelieving Egyptians, but rescued and redeemed for life with Him.
He uses His Word of Law and the sufferings of your mortal flesh in this fallen world. He calls you to repentant faith and restores you to Himself, in love, by the preaching of the promise. Its not by your own reason or strength, it never is, but by the preaching of His promise that you in fact receive and believe the very promise of the Gospel. His preaching opens your ears to hear. His giving opens your hand and mouth to receive. His kneeling to wash your feet cleanses you of all unrighteousness and so enables you to stand.
Do not brag or boast as Simon Peter did and then fall down hard and fast. But hear and heed the Word of Christ which alone saves you. For this is how He cleanses you inside and out, in body and soul, with the forgiveness of sins. By His Gospel you are completely clean.
This is what the Divine Service of His Word and Sacrament is actually all about. What it is. It is the Lord Jesus coming and doing, speaking and giving, all in love by grace. By the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins He returns you to the cleansing waters of your Baptism. And then He brings you to His Table, to feed you with His Body and Blood, so that in Him, in His flesh, you live and abide in Holy Communion with the Blessed Trinity.
I know it doesn’t look that way. You cannot by your intellect or eyesight discern the Lord’s Body. Your wisdom and senses fail you here. But you discern the Lord’s Body hidden under the Cross in humble bread and wine by the very Word that He speaks; by its proclamation and catechesis.
His Word not only reveals His Body and Blood, it actually makes the bread to be His Body and the win to be His Blood. That strong and simple word “is” at the heart of the Consecration does what it says and gives what it promises. He speaks and it is so. This is My Body. Therefore eat. This is My Blood - and the Cup of the New Covenant - therefore, Drink of it, all of you. There simply is no Lord’s Supper without the Lord’s Word, which makes the supper what it is and which gives the Supper to you, His Christian, to eat and to drink.
This Word of the Lord, His Consecration, is pure Gospel, for you, His Church, whom He calls and gathers to Himself in love that He may bestow His preached Word, catechesis in the faith, and thereby proclaim His death, along with all the saints and angels, unto He comes again. By His Word do you receive. By His Word you discern, in faith, that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood. And by His Word do you believe that this Most Holy Food and Drink are given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins; for the forgiveness of all your fears and failing, your betrayals and denials, arrogance and envy, despair and other great shame and vice.
So also are you given, by this same forgiveness, to remember Him, not only in heart and mind, but also with ears and hand and mouth, in body and soul.
And as you remember Him by His Word and Gospel, so does He remember you in love, by giving you this meal. For here He is truly Host and Waiter and Meal. He is also the Sacrifice Itself, the Meat and Drink received and shared in the fellowship of the Church with her Lord Jesus Christ and with His God and Father and the Holy Spirit.
You remember Him, He remembers you in love, not only in the Sacrament, but also, then, in fervent love toward one another, even as He has loved you. It is the New Covenant of Christ that undergirds and informs the New Commandment. Not that love is something new, for the entire Law of God is summarized with this one word. But Christ has fulfilled the Law and has made all things new. So that “Love” is redefined - not in the worldly sense - by is realized for what it truly is in the very Cross of Christ, by His sacrifice in His flesh and blood for the atonement of the world, and in His Holy Sacrament.
And His love for you is not left behind. Its not in the past and something you have to remember. Its constant and continuous. Consider that He loves you and serves you unto the end with His forgiveness, life, and salvation. Thus does He lead you to His Holy Altar in faith and so do you follow after Him in service unto one another in love.
For what He receives from and has with His father He hands over to you by the Ministry of the Gospel. This is the “Holy Tradition” of which St Paul writes: what he has received he also hands over to the Church. And that holy “handing over” of Christ doesn’t begin with Judas the betrayer, but with God the Father handing over His only begotten Son in the flesh. And the Son goes as it has been written of Him. The true Tradition of the Church is nothing less than the written Word and Gospel of Christ - the entire Scripture - and the New Testament in His Blood.
So the Tradition continues with the Son handing Himself over to His own beloved disciples even as He hands Himself over to the Father by His willing Self-Sacrifice as the Lamb of God.
“Do this” Jesus says “in remembrance of Me.” Which is not only to love another as He has loved you, but what He has done for His disciples they are to do for His Church: To take bread and wine, to bless and give thanks to the Father, to consecrate with His Word, in His Name and stead, to distribute His Body and Blood to His Christians. Thus does the “handing over” of the Son by the Father reach you, here and now. To your ears and mouth and body. So that everything Christ Jesus received form His Father is also now yours in Him. And as the Father remembers Him and raised Him from the dead, and receives Him back to Himself in peace, so does the Father remember you in Christ His beloved. That is what He has done for you, in love, and gives to you, in love, here in His Holy Sacrament.
This is the meaning and purpose of this New Covenant, which Christ has established in Himself, in His flesh and blood, so that you have life with God in body and soul. Already here and now by grace in the Holy Communion, and also in the resurrection of your body at the last to life everlasting. This is the promise and pledge bequeathed to you in the Supper; the eternal inheritance of the Father for His Son, who loves you to the end.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
RSS Feed