“Why do I have to sweep?”
“Because I said so.”
If little sister has spoken the “Because I said so,” you might as well be a train that’s about to run over and flatten a penny. There’s no chance you’re going to submit to her authority is there? But if the “Because I said so” came from Dad’s lips, you’re a train that has just run out of track. You can argue that it’s really little sister’s turn to sweep but if Dad insists you do it, you have no option but to obey or risk becoming a trainwreck. Dad’s because-I-said-so authority trumps all objections.
Over the last four weeks we have been studying the sacrament of Holy Communion and have learned that with the bread and wine Jesus gives us his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. We’ve also learned how many Christians object to this truth. They ask, “How can eating and drinking bread and wine do such great things?” In answer the 16th Century reformer, Martin Luther, wrote: “It is certainly not the eating and drinking that does such things, but the words, ‘given’ and ‘poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins’…” Perhaps we could paraphrase Luther’s response like this: we know that in Holy Communion we receive Jesus’ body and blood for the forgiveness of sins…because I AM said so. When the Son of God speaks, who are we to argue with him? Why would we want to argue with him? That’s the point our sermon text makes this morning. Listen now to the words of Hebrews 10:19-23. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
The author of our text was writing to Jewish Christians who were thinking of leaving the Christian faith to go back to Old Testament-ordained rituals. But that’s like wishing you could go back to the days of family travel by covered wagon instead of zipping around the country in the climate-controlled comfort of a minivan. Spending a week to get down to Calgary might be kind of fun in summer but not in the dead of winter – especially when your grandchildren expect frequent visits! No, I don’t suppose any of us would trade our cars and vans for horse-drawn wagons.
And so it was shortsighted of these Jewish Christians to want to leave Jesus and go back to Old Testament rituals – even if they were dramatic. Take the Day of Atonement for example. On this day the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept (though by New Testament times the Ark had been lost). The Holy of Holies was a cube-like room in the temple that God called both his footstool and throne on earth. No one but the High Priest was allowed to enter this room and he could only do so once year and only after having sacrificed a bull for his own sins. But compare that with the kind of access to God our text says Christians now enjoy: “…we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Hebrews 10:19, 20).
In Old Testament times it was only the High Priest who could stand in God’s inner sanctuary. Now anyone may approach God in his throne room. We get there “through the curtain, that is, [Christ’s] body.” Just as there was only one way for the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies – through a curtain in the tabernacle, so there is only one way to approach God – through Jesus. Heaven isn’t a nightclub you can sneak into through the back door. No, you have to go through the front door, past a bouncer who is checking I.D.s.
What does this all have to do with Holy Communion? With the bread of Holy Communion we receive the body of Christ, which our text just pointed out is the way to God. As I’ve said in previous sermons, that bit of Communion bread doesn’t seem like much. It’s small and virtually tasteless. But receiving that wafer is like getting a backstage pass. While you might not eat a backstage pass you would hang it around your neck to show security that you not only have the right to get into the club but also to go backstage and talk with the performers. And so when we eat the bread of Communion we’re taking Jesus’ body into our body. We hold him over our heart as visible, tangible proof that we belong in God’s inner sanctuary.
Now bouncers are trained to spot fake I.D.s and backstage passes. They’ll examine the documents to find out who the issuing authority is. It works the same way with Holy Communion. We can be certain that Holy Communion opens the door of heaven to us because of the reliability of the issuing authority. Our text said: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
Yes, be certain that in Holy Communion you receive Jesus’ body and blood with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins not because I AM said so. I AM is, of course, the name the Son of God used to introduce himself to Moses at the burning bush. And in speaking to the Pharisees Jesus used that title to describe himself. In John 8 Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”(Abraham lived 2,100 years before Jesus was born.) 58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:56-58)
What does the title, I AM, tell us about Jesus? It tells us that he is absolutely constant. The Son of God does not go back on his promises because he is reliable and because nothing is impossible for him. So when people say that Jesus’ body and blood cannot be present in Holy Communion, I’ll readily admit that this is difficult to understand but is it really difficult to believe? No. Not when you consider that the great I AM is the source of these words. Nothing is impossible for the Lord Jesus. If he has promised to make his body and blood present in Holy Communion then he will do it…because he said so.
When we doubt God’s Word we not only call him a liar, we make a mess of things for ourselves. Isn’t that what happened with Abraham? God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations even though Abraham was already 75 years old and his wife, Sarah, was 65 years old and they had no children. It seems that at first Abraham and Sarah believed God’s promise but after years of waiting for a child they started to wonder if there wasn’t some other way in which they were to understand God’s promise. Maybe what God meant was that Abraham was to have a son with another woman. Even though God had clearly said that this son would be born of Sarah the two took matters into their own hands. Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham and he slept with her. Hagar conceived alright and gave birth to a son but this had not been God’s plan. Hagar’s son, Ishmael, would later cause problems for Sarah’s son, Isaac. Abraham and Sarah would have saved themselves a lot of grief if they had only continued to take God at his word even though the promise that they would have a child seemed like impossible nonsense.
Likewise dear Friends, it may seem like impossible nonsense that Jesus’ body and blood is present in Holy Communion but take Jesus’ words at face value. When Jesus gave bread to his disciples and said, “This is my body” that’s what he meant. And when he distributed the wine and said, “This is my blood” he really gave the disciples the blood that he would shed on the cross. Don’t ask how Jesus can do this. I don’t know how he does it but I know why he does it. He does it so that I may be even more certain of his love and forgiveness. The author of our text put it this way: “…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience…” (Hebrews 10:22a). While the author may not have specifically had Holy Communion in mind (and in fact the next phrase “having our bodies washed with pure water” seems to indicate he was thinking about baptism), this verse does remind us that when we drink the wine of Communion we are receiving a cleansing sprinkling of Jesus’ blood. Like the spreading of a white linen tablecloth over a grungy picnic table to hide the stains, Jesus spreads his blood over my sins through the wine that I drink in Holy Communion so that I am crisp and clean in God’s sight and therefore ready to stand at his side in his throne room. Do you see how wonderful Holy Communion is? It not only gives us a backstage pass to God’s inner sanctuary, it dresses us for the occasion!
“Because I said so!” I’m sure my daughters don’t like it when I say that. It means that my mind is made up. Of course if I always knew what was best for my girls, they wouldn’t dread those words so much. Thankfully Jesus does know what is best for us. And so when he tells us to eat and to drink bread and wine in Holy Communion for the forgiveness of sin, we’ll gladly do this confident that we’re also receiving Jesus’ body and blood. Believe it, not because I say so, but because I AM said so. Amen.
