Sermon for Maundy Thursday – 4.17.25
+ Maundy Thursday – April 17th, 2025 +
Series C: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 10:15-25; Luke 22:7-20
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
“An Edible Covenant”
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When God visits and delivers his people he makes a covenant with his people. Not a contract, as in…you do your part and he does his part. No. A covenant isn’t a contract. It’s a promise. It’s a gift. It’s God doing all the heavy lifting for you. It’s a one-sided salvation that we didn’t see coming and didn’t deserve but he does it anyway.
When God delivered Noah and his family through the flood, God made a covenant…and not just with Noah, but with all creation. He put his bow in the sky. He made a promise. When the rainbow is in the cloud, then I will look at it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
When God promised to deliver Abraham and make him the father of nations and that all nations would be blessed through the promised seed…a promised son, God made a covenant. In flame and fire, God passed through the sacrifice of blood and flesh that he made…and all while Abraham slept, by the way. “Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your [i]descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He [j]credited it to him as righteousness.
When God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, delivered them through the Red Sea and drowned Pharaoh and his armies, he met Moses at Sinai and once again made a covenant with his people. This time, God carved his covenant in stone tablets. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [a]slavery.
When God established the reign of King David he also made a royal covenant with David. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. 12 When your days are finished and you [c]lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your [d]descendant after you, who will come from [e]you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
And when the Lord called Jeremiah his prophet to speak of his coming deliverance, that’s right, you guessed it, he made another covenant. A promise. “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.33 “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.”
When God visits and delivers his people he makes a covenant with his people. It’s no different when God takes on flesh and blood to save us. Once again he makes a covenant. A promise. A gift. Only this time the promise isn’t found in the flesh and blood of a beast, but in the flesh and blood of God himself who once again makes a covenant with and for his people. A one-sided action that we don’t deserve but Jesus gives it to us anyway. Not a contract, but a covenant. Not something we do for God but something he does for and gives to you. a promise. A gift. A new testament in his body and blood. A new covenant of bread and wine and body and blood.
And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.
Once again, just as it was for Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets, all the action is on Jesus’ side of the table. Jesus takes bread in his hands. Those hands that wiggled on Mary’s lap. Those hands that healed the sick. Touched the leper. Raised the dead. Jesus breaks the bread as he did for thousands on the hillside. Jesus gave it to his disciples, as he gives it to us on this day and every Lord’s day. This is my body, given for you. And with the same hands that shaped the rivers and formed the waters and turned water into wine, he takes a cup of wine and declares his solemn promise to you. “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.
For we who are sin-sick, here is the medicine of immortality. Food of the new creation come into the old.
For we who are dead, here is Living Bread from heaven. True manna in the wilderness.
For we who are poor beggars, here is a sacred treasure from the Son of David.
For we who are lonely, here is the communion of saints as we are numbered among Abraham’s offspring by grace through faith in Jesus, the Promised Seed.
For we who are attacked by the devil, here is a trusty shield and weapon.
For we who are hungry, here is life-giving food for body and soul.
For we who are thirsty, here is a cup of blessing overflowing with Jesus’ forgiveness.
For we who are faint and weak, here is strength and sustenance for the journey.
For we who are emptied of all self-righteousness, here is Christ’s righteousness that satisfies you with good things.
For we who are Adam’s cursed descendants, here is the flesh and blood of Christ that redeems us from the curse.
For we who have troubled consciences, here is consolation and peace.
For we who are the Church on earth, here is the pulsating heart of the Gospel where heaven comes to earth.
Here in the Lord’s Supper, in this covenant of Jesus’ body and blood given and shed for you, Jesus is doing all the heavy lifting for you. It’s his promise. Pure gift. Unfiltered, boundless grace. A covenant of deliverance for you. When God visits you, as he does on this holy day, he brings you his holy covenant for your deliverance, forgiveness, and life.
A blessed Maundy Thursday to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.