April 2
“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My Body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins,'” Matthew 26:26-28.
Today, the church observes Maundy Thursday, the day on which we remember that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. The Lord Jesus told two of His disciples, Peter and John, to go to Jerusalem, where He would celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples. He also told them that they would meet a certain man carrying a pitcher of water, whom they should follow to a certain house. They were to request the master of the house for permission to use the guest room, where Jesus and His disciples could celebrate the Passover Festival.
The two disciples went into the city, and they found everything just as Jesus had told them. They were directed to an Upper Room in a home somewhere in Jerusalem. On Thursday, the two disciples prepared all the food for the evening Passover meal. The Passover meal was celebrated in remembrance of God’s miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage in the land of Egypt.
It was the tenth plague, the slaying of the firstborn in every Egyptian home, that persuaded Pharaoh to call for Moses and urge all of the children of Israel to get out of the land of Egypt. The children of Israel had been instructed by God to kill and roast a yearling male lamb and to spread some of its blood on their doorposts and on the lintel above the door of their homes. As the Lord passed throughout Egypt on a given night, He slew the firstborn, both man and beast, in every Egyptian home, but He passed over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. They were spared from death by the blood of a lamb.
That lamb was a symbol of Jesus, whom God would send at His own appointed time to redeem all people. When Jesus began His public ministry, John the Baptist pointed to Him and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29. The Passover Festival was celebrated each year by the children of Israel. Jesus continued the practice during His life on earth, and the night before He was crucified, as they gathered in the Upper Room, He informed His disciples that He would celebrate it for the last time while He was on earth.
At that Passover meal – on that first Maundy Thursday, as it has been designated by the church – Jesus instituted what we call the Last Supper, or the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion: “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My Body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'”
In the Church, we have Jesus’ command to continue to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him. We remember who He is and what He did to redeem us. He sacrificed His body on Calvary’s cross and shed His holy, precious blood to wash away our sins. In the Lord’s Supper, He gives us His true body with the bread and His true blood with the wine to eat and drink. The words of Jesus are very clear: “This is My body. This is My blood.” The body of Jesus is really present in and with the bread and His blood is really present in and with the wine. The apostle Paul wrote, “Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord,” 1 Corinthians 11:27. When you attend the Sacrament of the Altar, which is another name for the Lord’s Supper, you receive the true body and blood of Jesus as a pledge and seal of the forgiveness of sins. Believe it with all your heart.
“Thy Table I approach,
Dear Savior, hear my prayer;
Oh, let no unrepented sin,
Prove hurtful to me there!
Thy body and Thy blood,
Once slain and shed for me,
Are taken here with mouth and soul,
In blest reality.” Amen.