Maundy Thursday 2021
Exod. 24:3-11; 1 Cor. 10:14-22; Mark 14:12-25

Aren’t you glad that you did not live in Old Testament times, or that we do not worship like the people did under Moses? Imagine seeing me slaughter an animal and then throw its blood on the altar and then on you. Boy, violence like that would draw a crowd; probably of cops!

Did you know that there’s a lot of violence going on in this world that you can’t see? Atoms are smashing into each other. Gamma rays and radio waves are passing through your body, some-times knocking out electrons as they do. And Demodex mites (arachnids that are similar to ticks) are living on your face, happily spending most of their time tucked inside your skin’s pores and feasting on the oil you create; but when you sleep, crawling out to mate and then heading back to lay their eggs. Don’t you just wish you could see them?

The Scriptures this night reveal to us a world which is very real and very present among us, but which we cannot see… a spiritual world that impacts us all. It especially impacts us in worship. Worship is where the seen and the unseen, the spiritual and the physical, come together, for in worship we gather before God: the Creator of all things upon whom all things depend.

On this night Jesus took worship into His hands – literally – and changed it. He and His disciples were celebrating the Passover. The night, and the meal they shared, called the Seder (a Hebrew word meaning, “order”), had an order, a ritual, to it. Israel’s patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants settling in Egypt under Joseph, were recalled. Then followed the account of their slavery and suffering in Egypt; God’s judgment of Egypt through the ten plagues; and the great miracle of His mighty deliverance at the Red Sea. Finally, His leading them to the Promised Land, and His sustaining them as they journeyed with manna, the bread from heaven, was recalled. It was a familiar ritual, a familiar worship… until Jesus changed it. He led His disciples to see what they had not seen, and changed worship for them and for us all.

There are rituals in worship that are very familiar to us. We expect certain words to be spoken and sung… certain Scriptures to be read… certain rites performed. There’s a ritual to when we sit and stand… when we speak and when we listen. Most of you even have your ritual place you sit. It’s all very familiar… and so can become very ordinary and very routine. If the eternal Lord and Savior joins in your worship, however, it is far from ordinary or routine.

And our Lord is present. He has gathered us in His presence. He has always done so, as we see so vividly pictured in Exodus 24. “Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up [Mt Sinai to worship],” we are told. “And they saw the God of Israel… And He did not lay His hand on them.” Why would God lay a hand on them? Why would He hurt or kill them? Because they were sinful, and God is a holy fire. This was how Moses first saw God: as an ever-burning Fire, burning in a bush and yet not consuming it. Why did this consuming Fire not consume Moses and the leaders of Israel as they gathered before Him? For, He surely saw them and knew them. He knew how quickly they would break their promise to do all that He had spoken. He did not come to them as a consuming Fire, however. The blood of a sacrifice that sealed His covenant with them was upon them. It covered them and their sin. They therefore saw Him, not as a consuming Fire but as a Man. They saw Him in heaven, which was opened before their eyes. And they ate and drank with Him in peace and joy.

On this night Jesus opened the eyes of His disciples – and through them, our eyes – to see this… to see God among us, not as a blazing, consuming, and fearful Fire, but as a Man… as Him, who would lay down His life for us and by His blood cover our sins. “Take; this is My body… This is My blood, which is poured out for many.” As God ate and drink with Israel’s leaders, even though He knew they would soon break their promise of faithfulness and turn away from Him, so Jesus ate with and gave Himself to His disciples, even though He knew they would soon break their promises of faithfulness and deny and betray Him. He also invites you and me to eat and drink with Him and of Him, even though He knows our unfaithfulness.

See this! This is no mere ritual enacted before you… no mere meal of remembrance that we share. It is a meal founded upon violence: the violent suffering and death of Jesus, who offered Himself up as a sacrifice to cover your sins and save you from the fiery judgment of God upon your sin. Believe this and bow before your Savior with humble and heartfelt thanks! Believe this and depart from worship with the sincere desire to honor God by how you live. To not do so – to think that you have the right to this meal; or to approach it with little thought, as you do your bowl of cereal in the morning; or to go home and live as if nothing has changed and you can do as you wish – is idolatry: the false worship of a false god… a worship that God hates and rejects as evil. This is how God sees this. This is what He opens our eyes to see.

We live in two worlds: the one we can see and the one we can’t see… the one that is physical and the one that is spiritual. They are not disconnected, however, but are one in Jesus: the true God who became man; the God/Man whose sacrifice covers our sin, and whose union with us unites us to God. Eating and drinking with Him and of Him, you are brought into the kingdom of God. You are raised from sin and death to life and righteousness.

Let us, then, this night and always, approach this worship and meal… approach our Lord and His holy flesh... with humble thanks and pray: Grant, O Lord Jesus, that we may so receive the sacred mystery of Your body and blood that the fruits of Your redemption may continually be manifest in us; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.