Homer Avenue UMC - Holy/Maundy Thursday - 04/13/17 Sermon - “The New Passover Lamb"

Thursday 04/13/17 Homer Avenue UMC

Holy/Maundy Thursday

Sermon Title: “The New Passover Lamb”

Old Testament Scripture: Exodus 12:1-14

                                            

New Testament Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Gospel Lesson: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

My friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome again on this our Holy/Maundy Thursday, of this our Holy Week.

This week began on Palm Sunday, with Jesus’ triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, during the Jewish Passover festival. As you might remember, Jesus came in on a donkey, with shouts of “Hosanna!” and people laid there cloaks and there palm branches before Jesus.

On this night, Jesus has now been in the holy city, Jerusalem, or “Zion,” since he entered it on Palm Sunday. He has been teaching, loving, healing, and forgiving. On this day though, or more appropriately this night, we have another key part of the story of this our Holy Week.

You see, tomorrow is Good Friday, the day that Jesus Christ will be crucified for the sins of the world. Tomorrow will be the day that Jesus will show us what love is, as he gives up everything for us.

On this day though, then transitioning into this night, we have the “Last Supper”. Many of us have seen the “Last Supper” depicted in the Leonardo Da Vinci painting that has Jesus and all of his disciples eating on one side of a long table. This “Last Supper,” that Jesus ate with his disciples, and maybe even the women that were with him, was significant. How significant you might ask? So significant that Christian Churches worldwide have celebrated the events of this night for centuries. We come tonight to continue this tradition.

Some call this day Holy Thursday, as we celebrate the Last Supper that Jesus had with his friends. At this Last Supper we are given the gift by Jesus of the sacrament of Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. As a result of this, the majority of churches worldwide, whether weekly, or monthly, or in some other fashion, celebrate the gift of the bread and cup, as Jesus commanded us to do. This all began on this night.

On this night, Jesus also washes the feet of his disciples, and since he did not command us to do the same, foot washing is not a sacrament. Even though Jesus only commanded us to partake in Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper, and to be baptized, we have the opportunity this night to celebrate the ordinance of foot washing. For those who are a little weary of their feet, we can also wash a hand. This ordinance, this tradition that many Christian Churches practice on this day every year, allows us to show the love that Christ showed to the Apostles on this night. We don’t have to do this, but we chose to, to better show each other the great love of Jesus Christ.

Many Protestant Churches, like the United Methodist Church refer to this day as “Maundy Thursday, which comes from the Latin word “Mandatum” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday#Derivation_of_the_name_.22Maundy.22). The Latin word “Mandatum” translates to mandate or commandment, as Jesus ends the Last Supper, after the foot washing, with the “Maundy” or “Mandatum”.

In fact, our gospel lesson for tonight from the gospel of John ends with Jesus saying, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:34-35, NRSV). The roots of the title of this night being called “Maundy Thursday” are largely English or British in nature. So some Christian traditions call this day “Holy Thursday,” “Maundy Thursday,” or even something else. This emphasis on the commandment to love one another then, is largely where we get the name “Maundy Thursday”.

So in the gospel of John on this night, Judas Iscariot had already planned to betray Jesus for 30-pieces of silver, Jesus and the disciples had finished the Jewish Passover Seder meal, and the sacrament of Holy Communion, or bread and cup was instituted. Jesus then washed the feet of his disciples, and lastly instituted the “Maundy” or the commandment to love one another.

Given all this, this night is really significant in this Holy Week, and the events of this night are great. In fact, as this night wanes, Jesus will end up in the Garden of Gethsemane praying about his torture and crucifixion with will happen tomorrow.

With all of this said, my sermon title tonight is called “The New Passover Lamb”. The reason that I picked this sermon title, is because of the way that our reading from the Book of Exodus directly ties to Jesus Christ.

In our Book of Exodus reading for tonight, Moses has been arguing with the Egyptian Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go. More specifically, to free them from slavery, so that they may go to the Promised Land. The land of milk of honey.

Part of the story in the Book of Exodus of Moses arguing with the Egyptian Pharaoh to let his people go, is that of plagues. These plagues included things like the rivers and water turning to blood, locusts, frogs, and the last one, the death of all first born sons. All of these plagues hit Egypt to push the Pharaoh to let the Jews leave slavery in Egypt, to then go the Promised Land.

This plague of the Angel of Death coming for all of the first born sons in Egypt was a terrible plague. In God sparring the enslaved Jews, he gave them an option to save their first born sons from this plague.

In this scripture, the people of Israel in Egypt were instructed to sacrifice a lamb without blemish or fault, and then rub the blood of that lamb on the doorposts on their homes (Ex. 12:1-7, NRSV). In doing this, when the angel of death “Passed Over” there house that night, not only would their first born sons be saved, but this would then become the Jewish holiday of the Passover. This holiday commemorates the angel of death passing over the Jewish people in Egypt, as well all as them being freed from slavery in Egypt.

On this night, Jesus, his disciples, and maybe even the women who were part of the group, had the “Last Supper”. In doing this, they literally shared a Jewish Passover holiday Seder dinner, which would have had Lamb, bitter herbs, egg, and other things. When you look at on Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings of the Last Supper though, you will see more than bread and a cup of wine on the table. This is because they shared a traditional Jewish Passover Seder dinner.

In doing this, Jesus took the bread, and then took the cup, and instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper.

The Apostle Paul speaks specifically on this in the reading tonight from 1 Corinthians. In the reading he says, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:23-24, NRSV).

Then the Apostle Paul said, “In the same way he took the cup also, and supper, saying, “this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me”. For as often as you this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:25-26, NRSV).

While many of us have heard these words likely many times, you will notice that Jesus said while holding the communion cup, “this cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:25b, NRSV). This is significant, as Jesus is saying that the Old Law in the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible, and the old Passover Lamb is needed no more. Now, instead of lamb being sacrificed by the Jews in Egypt to protect them from the angel of death, Jesus, “the New Passover Lamb of God”, will shed his blood for all people, both past and present. We don’t need to put Jesus’ blood literally on the doorposts of our homes like the Jews did in Egypt then, as Jesus’s blood on the cross will cover the doorposts of our hearts and our souls. For all of these reasons and more, Jesus is “The New Passover Lamb”. 

In fact, as I said this past Sunday, the day after Jesus was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist, John said when he saw Jesus coming, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29, NRSV).

Another example if this is from Revelation 5:6 that says, ^“Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6, NRSV). 

The idea that Jesus is “The New Passover Lamb,” that he covers us from death is an ancient concept. Specifically, that while we will all face the pain of earthly death, eternal death like the angel of death will pass us over, if we have faith in Christ. All of this makes Jesus “The New Passover Lamb”.

So on this night, during the Jewish festival of the Jewish Passover, Jesus shares the Passover Seder dinner with the disciples, Judas Iscariot will betray him, Jesus gives us the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, he gives us the gift of foot washing, and he then gives us the “Maundy,” which is the commandment to “love one another” (Jn. 13:1-7, 31b-35, NRSV).

It is my hope and prayer that this Holy or Maundy Thursday will take on new life for you tonight, that we will all understand it even more, and that we will grow closer to Jesus Christ, “The New Passover Lamb”. I pray that we would be filled, renewed, and empowered to forth into a world that largely knows him not, and change it, as this what Jesus has taught us to do. Amen.