Matthew 26:17-30
Holy Communion, the sacrament Jesus instituted on the night before His crucifixion, is reserved for only one kind of person, and one kind of person only.
Holy Communion is for betrayers of God, those whose basic orientation in life is away from God, the giver of life, and toward an eternity of sin, death, damnation, isolation, and regret.
Holy Communion is God’s Word to sinners.
Only sinners can approach this table.
Jesus tells us so in this evening’s Gospel lesson. He does so while having the Passover meal with the twelve we now know as apostles, the sent ones.
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus says to all of them, including Judas, “one of you will betray me.” (Matthew 26:21)
Then He tells them again, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me [and that would have been all twelve of the men at the table] will betray me.” (Matthew 26:23)
None of the twelve believe in what Jesus tells them.
Each in turn asks Him, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” (Matthew 26:22)
Judas seeks extra assurance, addressing Jesus as Rabbi or Teacher, rather than as Lord: “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” (Matthew 26:25) To which Jesus says, “You have said so.” (Matthew 26:26)
The question asked by each man says two things.
The first thing it says is that they don’t trust Jesus’ Word. They were grown-up men who had stuck with Jesus for several years. They were certain they wouldn’t betray him now.
The second thing it says is that down deep, they all know themselves to be betrayers of God the Son. Only Judas would sell Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver. But most of the men around that table would scatter in fear at the moment of Jesus’ arrest. The boldest of the group, Peter, would go to the temple environs to watch Jesus’ trial, but would deny any association with Jesus three times. They all–every single one of them–who eat the Passover meal with Jesus that night will betray Jesus. That’s what betrayers do. It’s what sinners do.
Betrayers have inherited this disposition to look out for themselves with no thought of God or others. Adam displayed it when, immediately after falling into sin, he blamed God and Eve, the woman he had described as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:22) “The woman you put here with me,” he tells God,”—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12) Eve was maybe a little better. She, at least, didn’t try to pin the blame on God. When God confronted her for her part in the fall, she told God, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13)
You and I are no different.
The truth is the last thing any of us wants to do is love God or love others.
We prefer worshiping at the altar of self and preserving our own skins rather than taking the chance of loving God or loving for others, for there is always risk in love.
We recoil at the Word of God when it tells us: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)
The psalmist tells us that, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:2-3)
We are betrayers of the God we know in Jesus.
But to the betrayers who sat around Him at the Last Supper, as well as to we betrayers who gather in this sanctuary tonight, Jesus has another Word.
He gives it to all who gather in the name of the triune God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to all who realize they are betrayers in need of the Messiah Who has come to save us from sin and all its deadly, fatal consequences.
Jesus says of the bread and the wine on our table: “Take and eat; this is my body” and “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)
Jesus meets our betrayal with His new covenant or new testament, His promise, to make the filthy clean.
He, as one teacher puts it, gives us His body and takes on Himself our old bodies of sin even as we are betraying Him.
And so, each time we receive Christ’s body and blood, a miracle occurs. We who, by our nature and our actions, betray our God, are forgiven and made new.
Through the years as a pastor presiding over the sacrament, I have encountered people who refused to take the bread and the wine because they didn’t believe.
I’ve always respected that. It shows an integrity that some church-goers would do well to emulate.
The Small Catechism tells us that people are “truly worthy and well prepared who believe [Jesus’] words, ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’”
If we’re willing to trust the promise of those words from Jesus, we should, by all means, come to the table and receive Christ’s body and blood.
Nothing will more certainly build saving faith in Christ within us, no matter the depths of our betrayal or the breadth of our sins, than receiving the sacrament whenever it is offered.
Holy Communion is Jesus’ Gospel Word of promise and life for sinners!
All of which is why I’ve been deeply troubled by another group of people I’ve encountered through the years: Those who refuse the sacrament because they don’t feel they’re good enough, or holy enough, or repentant enough.
During His Last Supper with the twelve, do you notice what Jesus does immediately after He tells Judas that he, like the other eleven, is going to betray Him?
He doesn’t spend a moment condemning, excoriating, or ragging on the twelve.
He doesn’t rage against their sins or give vent to resentment.
Jesus knows that He’s going to the cross to take the condemnation for sin each of us deserves, whether Judas sells Him out, or Peter denies knowing Him, or the others melt into the streets of Jerusalem, or we sin against God, or not.
Jesus has a mission and no amount of human disloyalty, sin, or betrayal will turn Him away from it. Referring to His crucifixion, Jesus says elsewhere, “I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50)
Instead of speaking words of condemnation, Jesus immediately shifts to giving His antidote for our sin, His gift to we betrayers.
Jesus gives to us who are born dead and condemned for our sin, Himself, His body and His blood.
As Jesus says in another place, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32) We are the sin-sick and we are the dying that Jesus has come to save!
Friends in Christ, this feast of Christ’s very life given to us to eat and drink, isn’t for the perfect.
It’s for those of you who know the depths of your betrayal of your Lord and who know of your need of Him.
In another place, Jesus tells us a truth that I fear we don’t take literally enough. “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” (John 6:53-56)
So, on this Maundy Thursday, as Jesus gives us His Word–His body and blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine–, however much you and I may have betrayed our Lord in the past week, two days, half hour, we are right where we belong: At the table of our Lord. Amen
Holy Communion is for betrayers of God, those whose basic orientation in life is away from God, the giver of life, and toward an eternity of sin, death, damnation, isolation, and regret.
Holy Communion is God’s Word to sinners.
Only sinners can approach this table.
Jesus tells us so in this evening’s Gospel lesson. He does so while having the Passover meal with the twelve we now know as apostles, the sent ones.
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus says to all of them, including Judas, “one of you will betray me.” (Matthew 26:21)
Then He tells them again, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me [and that would have been all twelve of the men at the table] will betray me.” (Matthew 26:23)
None of the twelve believe in what Jesus tells them.
Each in turn asks Him, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” (Matthew 26:22)
Judas seeks extra assurance, addressing Jesus as Rabbi or Teacher, rather than as Lord: “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” (Matthew 26:25) To which Jesus says, “You have said so.” (Matthew 26:26)
The question asked by each man says two things.
The first thing it says is that they don’t trust Jesus’ Word. They were grown-up men who had stuck with Jesus for several years. They were certain they wouldn’t betray him now.
The second thing it says is that down deep, they all know themselves to be betrayers of God the Son. Only Judas would sell Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver. But most of the men around that table would scatter in fear at the moment of Jesus’ arrest. The boldest of the group, Peter, would go to the temple environs to watch Jesus’ trial, but would deny any association with Jesus three times. They all–every single one of them–who eat the Passover meal with Jesus that night will betray Jesus. That’s what betrayers do. It’s what sinners do.
Betrayers have inherited this disposition to look out for themselves with no thought of God or others. Adam displayed it when, immediately after falling into sin, he blamed God and Eve, the woman he had described as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:22) “The woman you put here with me,” he tells God,”—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12) Eve was maybe a little better. She, at least, didn’t try to pin the blame on God. When God confronted her for her part in the fall, she told God, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13)
You and I are no different.
The truth is the last thing any of us wants to do is love God or love others.
We prefer worshiping at the altar of self and preserving our own skins rather than taking the chance of loving God or loving for others, for there is always risk in love.
We recoil at the Word of God when it tells us: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)
The psalmist tells us that, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:2-3)
We are betrayers of the God we know in Jesus.
But to the betrayers who sat around Him at the Last Supper, as well as to we betrayers who gather in this sanctuary tonight, Jesus has another Word.
He gives it to all who gather in the name of the triune God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to all who realize they are betrayers in need of the Messiah Who has come to save us from sin and all its deadly, fatal consequences.
Jesus says of the bread and the wine on our table: “Take and eat; this is my body” and “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)
Jesus meets our betrayal with His new covenant or new testament, His promise, to make the filthy clean.
He, as one teacher puts it, gives us His body and takes on Himself our old bodies of sin even as we are betraying Him.
And so, each time we receive Christ’s body and blood, a miracle occurs. We who, by our nature and our actions, betray our God, are forgiven and made new.
Through the years as a pastor presiding over the sacrament, I have encountered people who refused to take the bread and the wine because they didn’t believe.
I’ve always respected that. It shows an integrity that some church-goers would do well to emulate.
The Small Catechism tells us that people are “truly worthy and well prepared who believe [Jesus’] words, ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’”
If we’re willing to trust the promise of those words from Jesus, we should, by all means, come to the table and receive Christ’s body and blood.
Nothing will more certainly build saving faith in Christ within us, no matter the depths of our betrayal or the breadth of our sins, than receiving the sacrament whenever it is offered.
Holy Communion is Jesus’ Gospel Word of promise and life for sinners!
All of which is why I’ve been deeply troubled by another group of people I’ve encountered through the years: Those who refuse the sacrament because they don’t feel they’re good enough, or holy enough, or repentant enough.
During His Last Supper with the twelve, do you notice what Jesus does immediately after He tells Judas that he, like the other eleven, is going to betray Him?
He doesn’t spend a moment condemning, excoriating, or ragging on the twelve.
He doesn’t rage against their sins or give vent to resentment.
Jesus knows that He’s going to the cross to take the condemnation for sin each of us deserves, whether Judas sells Him out, or Peter denies knowing Him, or the others melt into the streets of Jerusalem, or we sin against God, or not.
Jesus has a mission and no amount of human disloyalty, sin, or betrayal will turn Him away from it. Referring to His crucifixion, Jesus says elsewhere, “I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50)
Instead of speaking words of condemnation, Jesus immediately shifts to giving His antidote for our sin, His gift to we betrayers.
Jesus gives to us who are born dead and condemned for our sin, Himself, His body and His blood.
As Jesus says in another place, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32) We are the sin-sick and we are the dying that Jesus has come to save!
Friends in Christ, this feast of Christ’s very life given to us to eat and drink, isn’t for the perfect.
It’s for those of you who know the depths of your betrayal of your Lord and who know of your need of Him.
In another place, Jesus tells us a truth that I fear we don’t take literally enough. “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” (John 6:53-56)
So, on this Maundy Thursday, as Jesus gives us His Word–His body and blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine–, however much you and I may have betrayed our Lord in the past week, two days, half hour, we are right where we belong: At the table of our Lord. Amen
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