Sermon for 4/14/22: Maundy Thursday (St Mark Passion series)

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Believing Is Seeing
Mark 14:12-25

 
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

           Throughout this season of Lent, we have looked upon our Lord’s Passion through the eyes of St. Mark the Evangelist. And we’ve had a recurring theme: We do not see things the way the Lord sees them. We want to believe only those things we can see. We call it the scientific method, and it works pretty well for us in our daily lives. But when it comes to the things of faith, everything is turned on its head. In fact, as we hear in Hebrews 11, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So it is not that seeing is believing; in fact, it is only through the eyes of faith that we can see what our Lord is doing for us and for our salvation.

          The disciples ate the Passover with Jesus that night. The Passover was the great feast of Israel’s redemption, the meal that recalled Yahweh’s deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians. In eating the Lord’s food for pilgrims, the disciples recalled and gave thanks for Israel’s deliverance. They called for the Lord to rescue them from all their oppression and to establish His reign forever. But the Twelve, like the rest of God’s people, weren’t concerned so much with their past deliverance; they were more concerned with their current Roman oppressors, and they wondered if deliverance would ever come.

          The disciples had eaten the Passover with Jesus before; that night would be no different. Oh, they were aware of the building opposition to Jesus from the authorities. They had seen the strange anointing from the unnamed woman earlier that week at Bethany, when Jesus claimed that she was preparing His body for burial. But they were not going to let their Rabbi’s melancholy predictions spoil their celebration of the Passover. But the Passover is not merely an event from the past; it pointed forward to the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God. And the disciples were blind to that present reality. Jesus had told them—and we’ve heard these words already this Lent—“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him.” They could not see the reality Jesus revealed to them: that He was the greatest Passover Lamb and the fulfillment of the Passover. They wouldn’t believe it. They wouldn’t believe that their Master would suffer and die. Blinded by their sin, they couldn’t see it. They had missed it.

So Jesus found another way. Hear again these words: “Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, ‘This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.’” Since they disciples wouldn’t believe what was right before their eyes, Jesus place His Word in their mouths.

          What about you? Is this just another Maundy Thursday? Is this just another night for you to come to church? Another night singing those boring, stodgy old hymns? Another night to listen to that tiresome man in the pulpit, to get your snack of bread and wine, and then be on your way? Are you just receiving simple bread and wine in your mouth? Or is there something more happening here tonight? We desperately want there to be something more here, but our eyes, blinded by sin, cannot see it; our ears, attuned to the whispers of that satanic serpent, cannot hear it.

So Jesus finds another way. He invites you to eat His Word, too. Here on the altar, the Passover Lamb of God is here in tangible form, hidden in bread and wine. He invites you to know that He is the Son of God, and that He will establish God’s reign of mercy, grace, and love through the Passover of His own body and blood, present through His Word and promise. The blood of Christ is painted on the doorway of your heart, and the angel of death passes over you. Death is defeated; Satan is chained. Here is deliverance: signed, sealed, and delivered in His Word.

So come. Come: eat and drink the Word of God. Believe it. He has a plate and cup, filled with His body and blood, filled and waiting. Take it and eat; take it and drink. Believe, and you will see. In the name of the Father and of the (†) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.