Broken Bread

Maundy Thursday
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Matthew 26:17-30

“Restored in Christ: Broken Bread”

Evening had come, and Jesus and his disciples now sat around a low table to share a meal. After climbing up the outside steps they had entered into this large guest room built atop someone’s home. The preparations had been made, and the time for the Passover meal had come. The breeze through the windows made the lamps flicker as they carried on their conversations. In his role as the twelve disciples’ teacher, Jesus served as host this night as they began by singing the psalms of Passover which preceded their meal. These men had traveled together for three years as they followed Jesus, so this probably wasn’t their first time celebrating the Passover as a group. It was a special time each year, breaking bread together, recalling how God delivered the Hebrew people from their captivity in Egypt. But this year was all the more special, even if the disciples didn’t realize it as they passed wine, bread, and lamb around that table.

When was the last time that you shared a significant meal – when you “broke bread” – with some of the people in your life? For a lot of folks, Easter Sunday’s celebrations have to include a special breakfast or brunch; Washingtonian magazine even compiled a list of top brunch spots for Easter Sunday. Families and friends gather around a table to enjoy out-of-the ordinary food in each other’s company. Like Thanksgiving, it’s one of those times of the year where the traditions we have can gravitate, sometimes excessively, towards what’s going on in a meal. It can be a chance for people to just sit down and talk, telling stories or catching up. It’s a time for food and fellowship. It’s a time to enjoy the extraordinary community that has come together around the table. Remember meals like those?

Thanksgiving dinner. One of the names that we have for Holy Communion is “the Eucharist.” It comes from the ancient Greek word for “thanksgiving,” eucharistia. The sacrament which Jesus established for all his disciples that evening in the upper room tied into the celebration of Passover. That meal connected God’s people with their past, reminding them of God’s goodness in bringing rescue. God commanded Moses and His people Israel to observe the feast Passover each year as a memorial – like a thanksgiving dinner, in a way. Jesus didn’t just celebrate the Passover supper with his disciples, though; he gave a new meal to replace the old, acting as both the host and the feast. And for that, we give thanks.

God gave the feast of Passover to the Hebrews to remind them of His love. Recalling God’s saving work in history for His people, Jesus used the elements of the Passover meal to institute a new means for God’s loving grace to be delivered in the Eucharist. He reinterprets the Passover in light of his impending death and his second coming. There at the table with his disciples, Jesus looks ahead to the cross where he would soon offer himself up as the ultimate Passover lamb. His body would be broken as the bread in his hands. His blood would be poured out as the wine in the cup that he blessed after supper. On the cross, his body and blood were given to win forgiveness for the sins of all people for all time. That’s the summary of Jesus’ work: his life, given for yours, given for every soul that ever was or ever will be. God’s new covenant with His people was sealed by Jesus’ faithfulness. Jesus came to bring complete atonement and restoration of fellowship between God and His Creation. He came so that you could have a seat at the table with your Creator. Jesus linked that soon-to-be-accomplished victory to his people through his body and blood, broken and poured out in the bread and the wine his people would share in remembrance.

When you come to the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, you are sharing a meal with all of Jesus’ disciples. They come from every time and place. You are there in the upper room on Maundy Thursday. You are there with the disciples who saw Jesus break bread, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” You are there with those who heard Jesus bless the cup of win, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” And they are here with you, along with all the saints, people like you and me who rely on Jesus as our Savior. In Holy Communion, you are lifted out of the here-and-now and connected with the eternal. You’re breaking bread with God!

Jesus gives the gift of forgiveness through his body and blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine. Some groups of Christians deny that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist, not understanding how that could be possible. Others try to explain it so as to master the mechanics of God’s great gift. God doesn’t explain how Christ’s body and blood are present, though. He simply tells us that Jesus is there. As Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 10:16, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Our Lord gives the things of God for the people of God. Does it matter? Yes! Emphatically, yes! What’s the difference between a picture of food and a plate of food on the table in front of you? The former might remind you that food is good and nourishing and can fill you up. The latter actually brings all those things to you. When you come to receive the Lord’s Supper, eating and drinking the Lord’s body and blood with the bread and the wine, you get nourishment. The Eucharist applies the forgiveness of sin that Jesus won on the cross to each and every individual who gathers around his table.

As a Christian, do not neglect coming often to receive his great gift from God. Hear some of what Martin Luther wrote about Holy Communion in his Large Catechism:
For here [Christ] offers to us the entire treasure which He has brought for us from heaven. With the greatest kindness He invites us to receive it also in other places, like when He says in St. Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is surely a sin and a shame that He so cordially and faithfully summons and encourages us to receive our highest and greatest good, yet we act so distantly toward it. We permit so long a time to pass that we grow quite cold and hardened, so that we have no longing or love for it. We must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body also is relieved. Why then, do we act as if the Sacrament were a poison, the eating of which would bring death?
The Eucharist isn’t something that you should ever despise or disregard. It isn’t a poison; it’s an antidote. It’s an antidote against the poison of sin that you have within you, eating away at you and isolating you from both God and the people around you. The Large Catechism also states that “the Lord desires [that we partake of the Sacrament] and … it is pleasing to Him.” Jesus has given you this gift so that you need never be cut off and alone. The Lord’s Supper is here for all those who desire to be godly. Its worth is not dependent on your worthiness; God prepares his people for the meal. Connected to Jesus, the Passover lamb, you are forgiven. He calls you to the table to experience restored fellowship with God.

A final word from Luther from the Large Catechism this evening: the Lord’s Supper is meant to be received in “joy and seriousness.” Think on this. At the Lord’s table, both are in order! Ponder the enormity of God’s love for you and the lengths to which He has gone to welcome you to dine with him. Eat and drink Jesus’ true body and blood with bread and wine, for he is here to nourish your body and your soul. This is a time for food and fellowship. This is a time for thanksgiving. This is a time to enjoy the extraordinary community that has come together around the table.

Come and share a meal with our Lord. Break bread with him. And be restored.

Amen.