Maundy Thursday
Text: Luke 22:14-23
Greetings:
The Lord is good and his love endures forever. I greet you all in the name of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.
Introduction:
Jesus has systematically prepared His last dinner with His disciples, during that time He gave them a new command, established a new covenant, and a instituted a new commemorative event. This dinner is known as the Lord's Supper.
Nowadays, we have dinner banquets to make known the engagement function, starting a new business, housewarming, and a wedding reception, and many other things. Some have the bachelors party.
Jesus had dinner with three new ideas. To teach the humility with the washing of the feet of his disciples who were his guests to his banquet. Secondly giving them a new command to love one another, a new covenant to keep up till he returns, and to observe it till he returns as a new commemoration.
The last supper is instituted on the Thursday Night according to the reference available to us in the four gospels (Matthew 26:17-29, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:7-20, John 13:1-38). Early church observed it on daily basis (Acts 2:42,46), and Paul refers to it in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:20-26).
Jesus had his last supper with his disciples on a Thursday before He had gone to Mount of Olives (Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26, Luke 22:39), Kidron Valley (John 18:1), garden Gethsemane (Mark 14:32) for prayer and preparation for His death on the cross.
So, I would like to leave with you these three lessons:
the Lord’s commandment,
the Lord’s covenant and
the Lord’s sacrificial commemoration.
1. The Lord’s commandment
The word Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum. Maundy means commandment. It is called as a Commandment Thursday. “Mandatum novum do vobis” “a new commandment I give to you” (John 13:34). It is also known as Green Thursday in Germany to refer the practice of giving penitents a green branch as a token for completing their Lenten penance, and also known as Sheer Thursday (Holy Thursday), which refers to the ceremonial washing of altars on this day (ref: Britannica).
The following texts remind the mandate of God, such as Exodus 12:1-10, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17. The mandate is to love and to serve, “a new commandment I give to you” (John 13:34). Christ's "mandate" is obeyed.
Tertullian, a pastor in the third century AD, a first man who used the word “Trinity” to describe the nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Tertullian was an apologist, he devoted himself to defining and defending the Christian faith against its critics. He said that mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to Christ and to the church. Today, the world is divided very strongly based on language, religion, nationality, differences of condition, and difference of genders. But Jesus says to us love one another.
This command is not to love all but love one another. Love among the disciples, followers of Christ. The necessity of love among those who were to carry on Christ’s work had that night become apparent. (Expositor’s Greek Testament). The commandment to love your neighbour as your self (Leviticus 19:8) was a part of the Mosaic Law. But now christ commands to love one another. The most excellent way of love is set forth in 1 Corinthians 13 by Paul.
The Law of Moses is of moral idealism, but Jesus commands for divine perfection: LOVE as I have loved. That love inclusive of forgiving one another, caring one another, and supporting one another. No one can love as Christ loved in the power of their own sinful flesh. No one can love as Jesus loved by their own imperfect human effort but by the grace of God.
Gladys Staines could forgive with the power of Christ and loved even her enemies who killed her dear husband and children. Mother Theresa could love because of her love for Christ. The real charity flows with the charity of Christ.
John says in 1 John 4:7 that believing community must love one another. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers (1 John 3:14). By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother (1 John 3:10).
2. The Lord’s covenant
Jesus announced the institution of a new covenant. No mere man could ever institute a new covenant between God and man, but Jesus is the God-man. He has the authority to establish a new covenant, sealed with blood, even as the old covenant was sealed with blood (Exodus 24:8).
The new covenant concerns an inner transformation that cleanses us from all sin. God will put His law in their minds, and write it on their hearts. For He will forgive their iniquity, and their sin He will remember them no more (Jeremiah31:33-34). This covenant is all about a new, and close relationship with God. We can say that the blood of Jesus made the new covenant possible, and it also made it sure and reliable.
The breaking of Christ's body as a sacrifice is here commemorated by the breaking of bread which is the bread of God (Leviticus 21:6, 8,17). This bread was given to be food for our souls to nourish and satisfy, and joining ourselves to him in an everlasting covenant.
As we eat the bread, we should remember how Jesus was broken, pierced, and beaten with stripes for our redemption. As we drink the cup, we should remember that His blood, His life was poured out on Calvary for us. His redemption has reconciled us to God, we can now sit down to a meal with Jesus, and enjoy each other’s company.
The Roman Catholic Church believe transubstantiation that is the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus. Martin Luther explained of consubstantiation that is the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, but by faith they are the same as Jesus’ actual body. John Calvin taught that Jesus’ presence in the bread and wine is real, but only spiritual, not physical. Zwingli taught that the bread and wine are significant symbols that represent the body and blood of Jesus (Enduring word commentary).
The shedding of Christ's blood is an atonement made for all (Leviticus 17:11). The cup of wine is a sign and token of the New Testament, or new covenant, made with us. Without the blood of Christ, there is no New Testament. Without New Testament we had never know the meaning of Christ's blood shed.
It commemorates the purchase of the covenant by the blood of Christ, and confirms the promises of the covenant. This will be reviving and refreshing to our souls, as wine that makes glad the heart.
3. The Lord’s commemoration
In fact, Jesus observed the Passover for two reasons: one is that he was a Jew, so mandatory according to the Jewish law. Secondly he changes the Passover into ever present God. No more passing over from us and visiting us but a permanent stay with us. He has become an ever present God, Emmanuel. Passover marks the liberation of the children of Israel from bondage and their subsequent exodus from Egypt. Lord’s supper remind us that every participant passed over death, passed over the power of sin and Satan.
A Passover seder is a meal following a specific ritual order retelling the story of the exodus, including prayers, songs, and special food. The Passover Lamb was sacrificed with all minute observations and holiness. Passover refers to the event of that night on which God has passed over the houses of the Jews during the tenth and final plague before exodus. It is an eight-day celebration. Passover in 2023 is from sunset on April 5, 2023, to sunset on April 13, 2023.
Seder plate has Vegetables are dipped into salt water representing the tears Jews shed during their time as slaves, bitter herbs symbolizing the unpleasant years of their bondage are eaten, a lamb shankbone and a mixture of fruit, nuts and wine known as charoset, which represents the mortar Jews used while bonding bricks as slaves in Egypt.
The main course of the meal was a lamb freshly sacrificed for that particular household. It was the sin-bearing sacrifice that allowed the judgment of God to passover the household that believed (Enduring Word commentary). During the meal, the story of the exodus from Egypt is read aloud from a special text called the Haggadah and rituals corresponding to various aspects of the narrative are performed.
We are commanded to Commemorate the Lord’s supper with solemnity, serenity and sanctity.
Paul in his first epistle to Corinthians warns the dangers of participating in the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner. They are answerable to God for despise the atonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Good would judge the wicked participants. Paul says a few became sick, weak and died too! (1 Corinthians 11:27-30). Solemnity is a state of being serious, a formal, dignified rite or ceremony of the church, this must be observed with all its solemnities. No one can take it lightly, it’s of the Lord, from the Lord. It’s not a Prasadam served for all worshippers. It’s a mandate for the redeemed.
Conclusion:
So, observe the holy communion as
the Lord’s commandment,
the Lord’s covenant and
the Lord’s sacrificial commemoration.
God bless you, amen.
