This Bittersweet Supper

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We are gathered here to commemorate Our Lord's giving of the Lord's Supper on the night when He was betrayed. Our gathering for this Meal is bittersweet, for this is a matter of great joy, but also great sorrow.

The Supper of our Lord brings to us great and immeasurable joy because here our Lord comes to us and feeds us with the food of life. With this bread and wine, we receive the very, true, physical Body and Blood of our Lord for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. Under this sign, the Church is constituted. From this Chalice flows the life-blood of the Church. With this Body and Blood, we live and move and have our being. This Supper defines the Church, because apart from it, there is no Church.

However, the Lord's Supper is also a bitter thing. That same body which you receive on your tongue is the same body which was handed over to the soldiers to be beaten and flogged. That same body was riven with nails and spear. That same body died the death due for your sins and mine. The holy blood that fills the chalice is the same blood which was spilled in the court of the Praetorium and which flowed from the pierced side of Jesus, mixed with water. In order to give us this blessed meal, Jesus had to die. The Lord had to die, so that His servants might live.

However, the Lord's Supper is indeed a joyful thing, and its giving a joyful occasion for us. Through the blood poured out in this blessed cup comes forgiveness of our sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, but with the Lord there is forgiveness through His blood. Our sins are purged as His Body and Blood enter us and fill us body and soul. Filled with the life of Christ, we come to truly know life. We experience the joys of heaven as the heavenly Table is brought to us. You need not be caught up into the third heaven to experience the glory of God, for He puts His glory on your tongue. Here is where you find true joy, and nowhere else. For there is no true joy apart from the Supper, since there is no life without the life-blood of Christ.

But sometimes we get to thinking that we do not need God's service. Like Peter in the upper room, we think that we should be serving the Lord, and not the other way around. This misdirected spiritual feeling tempts us to seek what we can do to please God, to help Him, to impress Him. We want to praise Him. We want to move mountains for Him. We want to bring Him our successful lives and our sincere devotion.

What you and I do not want to do is receive God's service. We do not want the Lord to wash our feet. We do not want Him to touch our soiled and dishonorable parts. We do not want to receive His gifts. Like Peter, we want to fight for our Lord, but we are hesitant to let Him fight for us.

However, God does not want your service. He is not primarily interested in your offerings or your devotion or your endless praises. He is interested in bathing you in His sacred flood, washing you and making you presentable. He is interested in feeding you with His Body and Blood. He is interested in raising you from the dead and giving you His life. This Supper is not our remembrance of Him, but His gift to us.

Consider two of the disciples, Peter and Judas. Peter was zealous, burning with desire for the kingdom of God. He made the confession upon which the Church is built. And yet Peter denied Jesus. He would have kept our Lord from His death. He denied Jesus three times in the house of Caiaphas. Peter failed at his task. And yet he was not lost. Peter remained in faith, because he clung to the forgiveness his Lord and Savior promised to him. Peter was bathed in Christ, and so needed only his hands and feet washed. Again and again he was washed of the dirt of the road and he was made clean.

On the other hand, Judas was condemned. He knew the Lord. Jesus was no stranger to him. Nevertheless, Judas betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. His betrayal had more grave consequences, but was really no worse than that of Peter. However, Judas was condemned by his own doing. Judas refused the washing of the Lord. He lost faith and gave up hope. He turned his back on the forgiveness of sins and spilled his blood, which could not atone for his sins.

You have been washed in the waters of Holy Baptism. You have been raised from death to life. You have been marked as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified. You have been clothed with the wedding garment of salvation. And now, here, tonight, you come at the Lord's bidding to be fed from His hand, with His Body and Blood. Here He feeds you with the food of heaven, with the Bread of Life. Here He knits you, each and every one, together into one Body, His bride. Here He puts into your mouth the same food which nourishes the saints in heaven. And in this Meal our Lord Christ gives you strength for the coming days.

On this night, our celebration of the Lord's Supper is subdued, but it is still a celebration. Jesus died for your sins; they are forgiven. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.