Mark 14:22-25; Exodus 12:43-51; Psalm 111
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the earliest name for the Lord’s Supper is eucharist, which means thanksgiving. Eucharist is a Greek word meaning to give thanks which appears in each of the Scriptural accounts of Jesus’ words of institution at the Last Supper. The early church adopted the name Eucharist for the meal they celebrated and ate together at Jesus’ command in remembrance of Him. Thus, while we rightly prepare for our receiving of the Lord’s body and blood in the Eucharist by confession and absolution, prayer, and reverent piety, the Eucharist is first and foremost a meal of remembrance and thanksgiving for the atoning sacrifice and victory over sin, death, and Satan that Jesus has won for us by His vicarious suffering, death, and resurrection.
As Jesus instituted it, the Eucharist was a reinterpretation of the Passover remembrance meal. Each year on the 14thof Nisan, the Hebrew people were to slaughter a one-year-old unblemished lamb at twilight, roast it, and eat it in remembrance and thanksgiving of God’s mighty deliverance of His people from captivity and slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt. The Exodus and the Passover deliverance was and is the central story of the Holy Scriptures, but they pointed to and were fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. “And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” The next day Jesus would lay down His life as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. God’s wrath against our sin would be poured out upon His Son and would pass over us. The Eucharist is a meal of remembrance and thanksgiving that continues to bestow the forgiveness, life, and salvation Christ won for us on the cross.
On the very night, and at the very meal in which He would be betrayed, our Lord Jesus gave thanks to His Father for His gracious and merciful gifts. The children of Israel gave thanks to the LORD on the very night His wrath would visit Egypt and all who were not marked with the blood of the Passover lamb. Yes, even amid intense tribulation, persecution, suffering, and death we must be thankful to our LORD for daily bread, life, and salvation. Without gratitude and thanksgiving, we become forgetful, self-righteous, complaining, selfish, uncompassionate, merciless, and unforgiving. Jesus shows us how to be grateful and thankful amid trial, tribulation, and suffering that we might give thanks always to our merciful and gracious God and extend His mercy and grace to others. We should not only be thankful that our Lord gives us His body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine, but we should be thankful for the daily bread the LORD provides us every day. Every Lord’s Day we receive His body and blood with thanksgiving in remembrance of all He has done for us and continues to do for us until He comes again. The Eucharist keeps us remembering and it keeps us thankful, gracious, merciful, compassionate, and forgiving.
Again, the central story of the Holy Scriptures is the Exodus, the story of God’s mighty deliverance of His people out of bondage and slavery in Egypt. This story, played out in the book of Exodus, is the central event of Jewish history, commemorated annually in the Feast of Passover, remembering the tenth and final plague God visited upon the Egyptians, killing their firstborn while sparing the firstborn of His people who had marked their doorways with the blood of a sacrificed lamb. Building upon that idea, Christians find the Passover fulfilled in the Son of God Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death upon the cross. There, God provided the unblemished Lamb of His Son as an all-atoning sacrifice that would take away the sins of the entire world. The LORD no longer requires a sacrifice for sin, for He has satisfied that requirement and has atoned for our guilt in Jesus’ blood. The sacrifice the LORD truly desires from us is the living sacrifice of our bodies and lives in humble and loving service of our neighbor and in praise and thanksgiving to God – in other words, an attitude of gratitude.
Following the Exodus, however, the Israelites began to grumble for thirst and hunger, even to the point of blaming God and accusing him of intending evil towards them: “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger,” and, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” Where was their gratitude? The LORD had delivered them from slavery by mighty works, accompanied them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and had been faithful to them, keeping His promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and their father Jacob. How quickly they forgot. How quickly we forget too.
When things are going well for us, we take God for granted. We may even begin to think that our good fortune is solely due to our hard work and effort. When things begin to go badly, however, when unemployment, financial woes, marital strife, disease, or death begin to afflict us, do we not begin to grumble against God and blame Him for our misfortune? Or perhaps we begin to doubt His goodness, or that He is there for us at all. I hope not, but if we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that such thoughts pass through our hearts and minds even if we don’t want them to.
To worship God, to have Him as our Father, is to believe and to trust in Him and His Word and Promises made, kept, and fulfilled in the past, and finally and definitively in the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, even during the bad times – especially during the bad times. Faith is not fickle; it does not give up when bad times come, but faith clings even more to our Lord and God and His Word for forgiveness, life, and salvation. Such faith produces hope and love. The LORD never promised us that it would be easy. In fact, He promised the exact opposite: “In the world you will have tribulation.” “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” However, the LORD did promise that He would never leave us or forsake us, that He would be with us always, and that nothing can separate us from His love. And, that is the cause of our faith, our hope, our love, and our gratitude, thanksgiving, and praise.
God’s people maintain an attitude of gratitude in all things – in good times and in bad. Because the people of Israel were hungry, they forgot to be thankful for their deliverance from slavery. When God answered their prayers and gave them manna to eat, they soon grew bored with it and grumbled some more. Let us be grateful for the blessings we have and not focus upon our wants. The LORD has promised to provide us with what we need, which may not necessarily be what we think we want.
During the COVID-19 pandemic we were all forced to sacrifice some of our creature comforts: Work, school, and church; shopping, dining out, and sporting events; changed vacation plans and postponed celebrations; etc. And yet, most of us were still able to attend school online, work from home, view worship videos and devotions; shop online, order take-out; and more. Moreover, we are blessed to live in the freest of the nations of the world where we are prone to take the most basic of necessities and luxuries for granted: Running water, sewers, electricity, reliable internet, and communications, just laws, representative government, peace and safety, and much, much more. To be sure, many are grumbling today about many things. Are they focusing on what they think they want rather than what they need? Are they counting their blessings, or are they counting their grievances? An attitude of gratitude goes a long way towards finding peace for yourself and creating peace for others. Remember the LORD’s blessings, promises made and kept in Christ Jesus, and give thanks with a grateful heart. Let us maintain an attitude of gratitude.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your boundless love and mercy toward us.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment