Maundy Thursday—38th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. When we last looked at Psalm 69 in our Lenten service we examined the risen and exalted Messiah’s hymn of praise. It is the new song of the Gospel—a most precious song!—and it does not sound in vain! It arouses and moves the poor hearts of many sinners and fills them with rest, comfort and peace. And then these hearts also strike up a hymn of thanks and boast in and praise the name of the Lord. Wherever the new song of the Savior, the Gospel, sounds, the believers’, the Christians’ hymn of thanksgiving also sounds because in and by that Gospel the Holy Spirit works faith. And where there is faith, there is thanksgiving. It is fitting that our psalm then concludes with a summons to praise God, who in Christ saved us: Let heaven and earth praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them. This call to praise applies above all to the children of God, the redeemed of the Lord.
This theme of thanksgiving offered up by our Lord’s dear Christians is especially fitting today, on Maundy Thursday, as we today remember our Lord giving His Church the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood, Holy Communion. Thanksgiving was the dominant note in the Lord’s Supper of the early Church. In fact, from early on this Sacrament was called the Eucharist, “Eucharist” the Greek word meaning “Thanksgiving.” Many Christians still call it the Eucharist. As we just heard in our readings, even though it was the night in which our Lord was betrayed, He took bread and gave thanks; He then took the cup and gave thanks. Thanksgiving is both the theme of our text from Psalm 69 and the theme of Maundy Thursday, the day on which our Lord gave His Church the Holy Sacrament. With that in mind, let us then examine our text, this hymn of thanksgiving of our Lord’s redeemed and apply it to our hearts and lives today.
1. Let heaven and earth praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them. Creation shows in a wonderful way the glory, wisdom, might and majesty of God Who made it. Our redemption—the life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ—shows the grace, mercy, love of the holy Triune God; it shows so beautifully and clearly God’s saving and redeeming glory. Even better than creation is our new creation by the water and word of holy Baptism!
When we poor sinners hear the Messiah’s new song of the Gospel—and for most of us the first time we heard that Gospel was with the word and water of holy Baptism—and by it trust in Him as our Savior, then we begin our hymn of thanksgiving. What great reason we have—every heavenly and spiritual gift that Jesus brought about and won for us on the cross is given to us; and the Holy Spirit has created faith in our hearts so that we may receive what Jesus now gives us! We thank the Lord for the riches of the Gospel He both brought and gives us.
How much more clearly can this be than in the Holy Supper where Jesus gives us with the bread His Body saying, “Take, eat this is My Body which is given for You” and where He gives us with the wine His Blood and tells us to drink His blood which is shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Here is our reason for thanksgiving—our suffering Savior suffered and died for our sins on the cross. His body bore all of God’s wrath over our sin that we earned and deserved; He shed and offered His blood as the payment for our sin to reconcile us sinners to the holy God. Now with the bread and the wine He gives us His body and blood together with every blessing He brought about for us. How, then, can we not be thankful? How can the celebration of the Lord’s Supper not be a Eucharist, a thanksgiving? Even in the midst of the most solemn time of the Church Year, Holy Week, there is still joy because Jesus, in His Word and Sacrament, gives us these spiritual and heavenly goods.
Precisely in giving us these spiritual and heavenly goods in Word and Sacrament Jesus is building His Church and gathering us into His kingdom, the Church. Our text: For God will save Zion And build the cities of Judah, and they will dwell there and possess it. This is Christ’s kingdom of grace, His Church. Jesus established it by His work—His life, suffering, death and resurrection. He now extends it and expands its borders as by His sweet Gospel He calls sinners and leads them into His Church. Jesus tells us in the Gospel [Mt. 16.18]: I will build My Church. Christ Jesus, the true God will save Zion, the Holy Christian Church, and He will build the cities of Judah, that is, Christ gathers, establishes, preserves and protects each of the various congregations of Christians described here as cities of Judah. Each congregation is a group of believers, wherever they may be, that Christ sustains, strengthens and comforts by His Word and Spirit. That also applies to us, to our little group. The Lord has called us by His holy Word and gathered us together here in this place and time around His holy word and sacraments. He is here in our midst mightily at work. There is no way we can doubt His presence with us, after all, He promises us [Mt. 18.20] that where 2 or 3 have been gathered together in His name, He is there; we can be sure that He, the risen and exalted Christ, is with us because in the Blessed Sacrament He is giving us His very body and blood. We thank the Lord for His great grace in calling us into His Kingdom, the holy Church, and here in this congregation.
And we, the redeemed of the Lord, continue to have great cause to sing our hymns of thanksgiving because not only has Christ brought us into His kingdom but we now live in His kingdom, the Church. And how good we have it in His kingdom! Our text: and they will dwell there and possess it. We can now dwell securely! Of what enemies do we still have to fear? We say with David in another psalm [27.1]: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? How rich and blessed we now are in every heavenly and spiritual blessing! Before we were in spiritual distress and misery, blind and naked; but now in Christ’s kingdom we are so glorious and so rich in spiritual things; we are enlightened with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so gloriously clothed and adorned with the righteousness of Christ; in short, we are enjoying the fullness and richness of the grace of God. And Christ comes to us in His Word and Sacrament giving us that assurance and strengthening our faith.
Yet, as great as the spiritual blessings are that we enjoy in Christ’s kingdom, that does not mean that all dangers are behind us. Worry and fear are often still mixed into our joy. We know that trouble will not be lacking; we know that we will often experience hours of great trial; but we do not despair. We keep trusting our Lord Jesus who gives us our faith from start to finish and we hold to His promises. Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, And those who love His name shall dwell in it.
We have nothing to fear— even in our most difficult times, even when our faith is under attack because Christ does not turn away from us. He is faithful and protects us from all dangers to the soul. He keeps us firm in His word and faith and finally leads us into the glory of heaven, as the Apostle writes [1 Pt. 1.5]: [we] are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation.
Here again we think of the Blessed Sacrament in which we receive our Lord’s true Body and Blood. He comes to us and in it gives us the forgiveness of sin. How can we then doubt that things are now right between us and the holy God? How can we then doubt that He is graciously working all things for our spiritual good? How can we doubt His gracious presence and help when we have just received Him in our very mouths? How much closer can He be? Through His word and sacrament Christ brings us to faith, keeps us in the faith and leads us finally one day to Himself in heaven. How, then, are our hearts now filled with praise and thanks to our gracious God who from start to finish is the cause of our salvation.
Our praise and thanksgiving begins now and will continue into all eternity. This is most beautifully pictured in our liturgy. Not only in our liturgy do we offer up our thanksgivings to God with gladness of heart, but our attention is turned to the fact that we are joining the angels and archangels and all the host of heaven in their praise of God. There is one Church, part of which is on earth and part of which is in heaven. Our praise is one. But what does our praise consist of?
2. Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, And those who love His name shall dwell in it. “Loving His name” we thank the Lord and praise His name by giving Him all glory for saving us. Our salvation, our conversion, our faith, our life of good works is not from us, not the result of our good behavior, not our desiring; instead, we give God thanks as we recognize and confess that this is all the result of God’s grace. That we have come to Jesus and are citizens of His kingdom is not our merit. Instead, we were going astray when the Savior sought us out. We were dead in sins when He made us spiritually alive. We did not know Christ and His salvation when He illuminated us. Everything is His gift of grace.
By recognizing this, not only are our hearts filled with thanksgiving, but there is pure worship. Worship is simply receiving from God what He wants to give us. Faith is the highest worship because it simply receives from God His graces and gifts. This worship continues even in heaven as the saints there are still receiving the graces and gifts of God and so their hearts are full of praise and thanksgiving.
The Lord’s Supper is the Eucharist, the “Thanksgiving”, because in faith we receive the gifts and blessings Christ there gives us—forgiveness of sin, life and salvation. As faith receives these most glorious and precious of gifts, we are filled with the greatest joy and thanksgiving for what Christ has done for us and gives us purely out of His grace and mercy without any merit or worthiness on our part.
That thanksgiving wants to show itself also in outward confession. We then confess our Savior and His Gospel before the whole world; we tell the Good News about Jesus. And that thanksgiving that leads to confession shows itself in another way. By going to the Holy Supper, in thanksgiving, we want to confess Christ rightly. That’s why in thanksgiving we will only go to altars where the saving Gospel is proclaimed in all its truth and purity; so that our confession, which is our thanksgiving, is not blurred or muted, we only invite to our altar those who have the same confession of faith as we do. We thank Christ for His saving work and giving us the blessings of it through His word and sacraments by confessing Him in our practice of closed communion.
The thanksgiving hymn of Christians is also sung in our everyday lives as led by the Holy Spirit we strive to live a life more and more free of sin. We fight against our old sinful nature; we watch and pray; we hold to God’s Word and try to live godly lives in this world and be diligent in good works. Our whole lives become a hymn of thanks to the God of grace. Also here, we rejoice in the blessings Jesus gives us in the Sacrament. As we fight against sin, we will still often fail and sin, and even grievously. But instead of being racked with guilt or trying to deny or minimize that sin, we confess it and in faith receive absolution’s forgiveness; we run to the Holy Supper and receive the forgiveness Jesus gives in it and assures us of with His body and blood. Then by the Sacrament’s assurance of forgiveness and strengthening of faith, we are joyful and sing our hymn of thanksgiving.
Today we remember Jesus giving His Church this Sacrament in which we share in the joy of Christ’s victory and receive its benefits. May we remember the blessings He gives us in it and may we thank Him by receiving His gifts here in faith and joy, faithfully confessing Him and leading a life empowered by His work on us in Word and Sacrament. INJ Amen.