He Prepares a Table

Isaiah 49:7-13 There are two pictures of Jesus that are recorded in the Holy Gospels on this night when he celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke portray him as the sacrifice that would be slain upon the altar of the cross—the one whose body and blood would form a new covenant of forgiveness and life that is given to us to eat and drink in with and under bread and wine.

John portrays Jesus as the humble servant who kneels before his disciples and washes their feet and who begs his heavenly Father to bless the same ones who would betray him to his enemies and abandon him in his hour of need. 

Holy sacrifice and humble servant.  That is who Jesus is.  That is what we remember and give thanks for on this Holy Thursday:  gifts of forgiveness, peace, and life in his true body and blood that we receive on this altar tonight.  Isaiah wrote:

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers:  “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 

            When Jesus and his disciples entered the upper room where they would celebrate the Passover Meal, there was an uneasy pause.  The custom of the day dictated that a servant would greet them and wash their feet—a necessary custom because of the dusty roads of that day.

But there was no servant—only a rabbi and his students.  Who would become the servant?  Who would do what was necessary?  Who would become lowly in the eyes of the others?  And so the disciples waited, each for the other.

The disciples had struggled with this before.  Only a short time before this Passover, James and John had asked Jesus for places of glory in the kingdom and the other disciples were furious (not because such a request was wrong) but because they didn’t think of it first. Jesus told them that day:

Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            That Passover evening, Jesus showed them just exactly what those words meant, that the one who is first must be the slave of all.  While the disciples stood around in unbending pride, Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist and took a pitcher and a bowl and knelt before them and began to wash their feet, humbling himself and becoming a servant to them all.

He would do even more in the hours to come, humbling himself into death, even death upon a cross—becoming a slave to the world as he bore our sins on Calvary.

We honor the apostles as the foundation of the church.  We know that they are seated on thrones in heaven and have golden crowns upon their heads.  But that is only because the one who is greater than them all—the one who is the cornerstone upon which the church rests—became the servant of them all.

And because Jesus did not count equality with God something to be held onto—and because he took on the form of a servant—and because he suffered death, even death on the cross as our suffering servant…

God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

            The day is coming when every knee will bend before him and every tongue confess that he is lord and the great and the mighty and the powerful will cast their crowns before him and confess that this humble servant who sacrificed his life on the cross is the King of kings and Lord of lords who was chosen by God to be the new covenant between God and man.  Isaiah wrote:

Thus says the Lord:  “In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ 

            A covenant is a solemn agreement or contract between two parties and the root word in Hebrew for covenant is “to cut” because the parties of a contract would cut an animal in two, shedding its blood as a solemn sign of their agreement. 

Isaiah promised that a day was coming when the Lord would give his servant as a new covenant and the shedding of his blood would mean peace between God and man.

That promise was fulfilled on this night two thousand years ago when Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room on the Passover and he took the bread and the wine and said that it was his body and blood, the new covenant between God and man.

Covenants between God and man had been made before—two-sided covenants where God would do his part and man would do his.  God was always faithful.  He always kept his side of the bargain.  It was man who failed—time, and time again—to keep their side of the covenant and fulfill their part.

So it is in our own life.  God is always faithful to his promises.  It is we who fail to do the good he commands.  It is we who do the evil he forbids.

But the new covenant God would make with man would not be like the old covenant.  This would be a new covenant that was one-sided:  God would send his servant, Jesus.  God would accomplish our salvation on the cross.  God would give it to us as a gift of his grace in Holy Communion.

This was the new covenant in Christ’s blood shed upon the cross—a new covenant of forgiveness and mercy and peace that we receive every time we come to Holy Communion as food for our souls, given by the Good Shepherd who loves to feed his flock.  Isaiah writes that God’s people, the flock of the Good Shepherd:

shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. 

            Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord is spoken of as a shepherd.  David said, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  Ezekiel promised that the Lord himself would come and shepherd his flock.  And Isaiah promised that the Messiah, like a shepherd, would gather his lambs in his arms and carry them in His bosom and gently lead them.

And so it’s not an accident that on the night of our Savior’s birth, shepherds were the first to learn of the Prince of Peace.  These simple men and their humble vocation were chosen by Jesus to be the image of his work in the world. 

Jesus said of himself that he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.  He came to call his people like a shepherd calls his flock and to protect them from those who would harm them and especially to feed his flock and lead them to the green pastures of heaven.

That is exactly what he does in the meal that he has set before us tonight--his body and blood given for us in his death upon the cross—and placed upon this altar by our great high priest who cares for his flock. 

Holy Communion strengthens us for the spiritual battles we face each day.  It is the food sustains our faith.  It is the heavenly manna that satisfies our spiritual hunger until that day we enter the promised land of heaven where there is no hunger or thirst. 

Around this altar is the refuge Isaiah speaks of where the Good Shepherd feeds his flock with his own body and blood and the hard realities of life are kept at bay as we rest in his real presence and the forgiveness he gives to his people the church.  Jesus says:

I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.  Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene.” 

            All around the world this day, among every nation, people, language, and tribe—the church gathers around altars like this one and they receive the body of Christ and they drink the blood of Christ and they leave that place of worship forgiven of their sins and strengthened in their faith.

For the last two thousand years, at any moment, every day, somewhere in the world, the Sacrament of Holy Communion is being celebrated for it has always been the central act of worship for the Holy Christian Church and not an occasional extra to take or leave as we see fit.  That old, familiar hymn gets it right when it says:

Elect from ev’ry nation, Yet one o’er all the earth; Her charter of salvation:  One Lord, one faith, one birth.  One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses With ev’ry grace endued.

            So it is for the Christians gathered here tonight around this altar that, we who are united in a common confession of faith, and fed with the body and blood of Christ, go forth into this world filled with hope and joy because our Good Shepherd has had compassion on us and comforted us with his real presence.  The Bible says:

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing!  For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

            On this Holy Thursday, we remember and give thanks to Almighty God for the new covenant he has made with the world in his Son Jesus Christ-his body crucified on the cross and given to us here tonight to eat—his blood poured out upon the cross and given to us here tonight to drink. 

A new covenant full of grace and mercy and peace and forgiveness, God’s gift of salvation to us in his Son Jesus Christ, accomplished on the cross and laid upon our altar for us to receive under the bread and wine, a Eucharistic meal where we join angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven to give thanks for all that Christ has done for us.  Amen.