Sermon for 4/6/23: Maundy Thursday (Lord's Supper series)

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A Meal of Rest and Refreshment
Exodus 31:12-18

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

“Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” This was the Lord’s solemn command to His newly redeemed people. He had given them many other commands, but above all, the Lord wanted His people to rest from all their work, just as the Lord Himself had rested from all His works of creation. By observing this command, the people would know that it is the Lord who sanctifies them. God also warned the people what would happen to them if they did not keep the Sabbath. “Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.” God’s command was not to be disobeyed.

Why was it so important? Why was God so insistent that His people set aside a holy day of rest? Besides the obvious purpose of providing physical rest and refreshment, this holy day was established so that God might bring spiritual refreshment to the souls of His people. The Sabbath was a time for the children of Israel to receive instruction in God’s Word, to be refreshed with the Word, to be comforted and renewed.

But the Sabbath Day served another, greater purpose. Like all the laws given by God through Moses, the Sabbath Law was a “tutor,” as St. Paul says, until Christ came, “that we might be justified by faith.” It was to teach His people about the One who is Himself the “Lord of the Sabbath.” With the coming of Christ in the flesh, the true Sabbath rest had come. Jesus shows us that He has fulfilled the Sabbath when He says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” By urging those who are weary by sin to find rest in Him, He is telling us that in Him all our labor ceases, and we find true “rest for our souls.”

During His earthly ministry, many heard our Lord’s invitation. They came to Christ in faith, and they found rest for their souls. They cast off their burdens, their guilty consciences, their sorrow over sin, death, and the devil. They took refuge in the mercy and righteousness of Jesus Christ. They put aside their work so God might work in them through His Son. He is our Sabbath rest because He rested in the tomb. He rested on the Sabbath from all His works of redemption. On Good Friday, after suffering for our sins on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” And then He was laid in the tomb, where He rested until the third day.

Of course, many rejected this invitation. Many Jews did not want to lay aside their works; they wanted their works to count for something. They had forgotten the true purpose of the Sabbath—to point to Christ. They insisted on carrying their own burdens, spurning the Lord’s gracious invitation to cast all their cares on Him and find rest for their souls. Nothing saddens the Lord more than having His invitation despised and rejected. This is why He weeps over Jerusalem: He knows what their rejection will cost them. This is why He so urgently commanded the children of Israel to observe the Sabbath. And this is why He urgently invites those who are troubled by their sins to believe in Him.

Jesus also wants you to find rest for your soul—not in the passing pleasures of this world, nor in your own works and righteousness, but in Him: in His atoning death, in His rest in the tomb, and in His resurrection on the third day. He wants you to lay aside your load of sin, just as He wanted His people of old to rest from all their works. To this end, He has instituted for you and for all of His weary sojourners the salutary gift of the Lord’s Supper.

Every week you come to the Lord’s Table, weak and weary and burdened by sin, in need of spiritual rest and refreshment. You have multiple transgressions against God. Your thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin. Your load is too heavy for you to bear. And so the Lord says to you, “Come to Me. Eat and drink My body and My blood, and you will find rest and refreshment for your soul.” The hymn we just sang confesses this comforting truth:

Here would I feed upon the bread of God,
Here drink with Thee the royal wine of heav'n;
Here would I lay aside each earthly load,
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiv'n.

Our Lord’s presence is not just something that happens in our thoughts or feelings. It is a concrete reality in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus is present in His body and blood under the bread and the wine. He is not far away. He is not in some place you must go to in your imagination. The Lord comes to you in the Divine Service and invites you to “lay aside each earthly load” and find rest.

The children of Israel did not wander in the wilderness forever. They were pressing toward a goal. The Lord was leading them to the land flowing with milk and honey, the Promised Land. Each Sabbath was a “rest stop” along the way toward that final rest they would have in the land of Canaan. The Church also presses toward a goal. We, too, look with longing eyes to the eternal rest Christ has promised to give us. It is comforting to know that, each time we gather to rest our weary souls at the Lord’s Table, we are reminded of the future and final rest we will have when Christ comes again in glory. It is truly a foretaste, not only of the feast, but of the rest to come. 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.