Maundy Thursday
Text: Luke 22:7-18
Theme: His Food Our Fill
Have you ever been so hungry that you are just starving? I mean you are at that point where you are hangry. Like those snicker commercials where the tag line was “You’re Not You when you’re hungry.” Advertisers were trying to convince us that the snickers was what we needed to fill that hunger in our lives. But if you were truly starving, would a candy bar be able to truly satisfy you? No. It may help for a time. It may give temporary satisfaction. But it never truly satisfies.
What are you hungering for today? I am not talking about a juicy steak (although I could go for that). What is the void in your life that you are trying to fill? What is that need that you need to satisfy? Where do you turn to find your worth? What are those candy bars that you are trying fill yourself up with but can never truly satisfy? Things you do, the accomplishments you’ve made, the people you surround yourself with? What earthly means or ways are you trying to fill a spiritual hunger in your life? Our theme for today is “His Food, our Fill” where we will see what Christ gives us which is exactly what we need.
Tonight, is the night that Jesus would be betrayed. Jesus wanted to spend this last meal with his disciples. He didn’t just “want to” but he says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…” He desired to eat it with disciples, with the one who would betray him, with the ones who were going to argue about who is the greatest, with the one who would deny him. He eagerly desired to have this meal with his disciples who would abandon him at the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus desired to eat this Passover with them? But not only eat the Passover but would suffer for…them? After they would do all those things? But it wasn’t just for them. It was for you and me. He would suffer for…us? After we did…that? Why would he eagerly desire to celebrate the Passover? Because that night at that Passover meal which symbolized the old covenant God made with his people, he would establish a new covenant that would be our fill.
This old covenant was established on Mount Sinai when God gave his people the 10 commandments. Essentially it was a quid pro quo type of agreement. This for that agreement. All kinds of blessings were contingent on the children of Israel doing something FOR God in return.
This makes sense to us. This two-sided covenant is seen in just about every other facet of our lives. You earn what you get. You work and you get paid. It has an impact on us individually as we think about how we relate to other people. You get on on an airplane and you have first class verses the coach. You go to a club, or a restaurant and there is VIP section. You go to a sporting game and some people have better seats. You earn what you get type of thing.
As we see this in the world, it is like it impacts us individually as well. We try to fill ourselves up by what we do. We look around and compare ourselves to others, “If I make as much money as they do, if I am in the first class on the plane, or sit the VIP section, a CEO of a big company then I will be worthy, then I will be happy, then I will be satisfied.”
But the problem is that it will never truly give us what we need. It may make us happy for a time, but it will still leave us starving, wanting more. That was true with the Old Testament believers. That no matter how hard they tried they could never earn God’s favor. They would have to offer sacrifice after sacrifice, and it was never enough. It could never create a right relationship with God. By it’s very nature the Old covenant could never truly satisfy. Because no matter how much we try we can’t earn that forgiveness because we fail to keep it perfectly.
But what Jesus gives to us in the new covenant defies human logic and reasoning. It gives to us what need, and we find our spiritually fulfillment. Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper and says, “He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the supper, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you.”
The Lord’s Supper is the spiritual food that we need and where we find our fill. In the Lord’s supper Jesus is giving to us his very body, his very blood in with and under the bread and wine. And who is it given for? It’s for you.
When he says, “this is for you” He does not simply mean it is for your benefit, but it means that in your place. This new covenant is a “this in place of that” agreement. It’s a one-sided covenant/agreement that Jesus has kept. The terms of the convent are executed when Jesus’ body is given in place of ours and when his blood is poured out in place of ours. As a result, nothing is required by God in return.
The body and blood given and poured out in place of us, has won for us the forgiveness of sins. Along with it, they won for us life and salvation. In Holy Communion, Jesus has made this same body and blood the food and drink by which he satisfies our every spiritual need. And who is this meal given for? You. This is what we need.
The devil takes a big question mark and tries to stick it in front of this precious meal. Jesus body and blood can’t be present. This meal can’t give you what your heart desires. You fill yourself with other things. Before you know it you become so busy doing other things that Holy communion falls off the list. When you separated yourself from hearing God’s word, from coming to the Lord’s supper, odds are that you are looking for those same blessings elsewhere.
This is my body given for you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you. Yes, for you. Not because you are some CEO of a company, not because you have earned it. It is for you… who are burdened by sin. It is for you who are weighted down by guilt. It is for you who are constantly looking for your worth and your value. It is for you who are lonely, depressed and downtrodden. It was given and shed for you.
We come to the Lord’s Supper as a beggar goes to a king. We have nothing to give to the king but the king has so much to give. If we think that we come to the Lord’s table and think this meal is something we do for God, it would be like the beggar saying to the king you should be so grateful that I came before your presence. It is insulting to the king. How much more valuable it is for the beggar to simply say “Thank you my king”
This connects us to the bigger picture of the old covenant vs the New covenant. If there I anything that I need to contribute, then I am going to be left starving. It won’t satisfy the deepest needs of my heart. Only when it is the pure gospel can it be food that completely fills us up.
My family in Christ. That is what we receive in the Lord’s Supper…what our heart needs. It is pure gospel where Jesus gives us the forgiveness he won on the cross. Where he fills the loneness with his presence in a special way where he gives himself, his body and blood to eat and drink with the bread and wine. At the Lord’s supper, we also remember. That we are so valuable to him, that he willingly suffered in our place. His Food, our Fill.