Transfiguration B [Mark 9:2-9] (11-Feb-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today we are celebrating an event recorded in the Gospels which we call the Transfiguration. In this reading we read about how Jesus appeared to Peter, James and John in a particularly amazing way, where his face and clothes became to shine with bright white light. We also read about how Peter, James and John also saw Moses and Elijah, two well-known figures from the Old Testament who have lived long ago, talking with Jesus. And then, we also read about how a cloud covered them, and God the Father spoke, declaring Jesus to be his Son, and giving the command that we should listen to him. And so, we’re going to look at these three things in our sermon:

I.                Firstly, the amazing light that came across Jesus and changed his appearance.

II.                 Secondly, the fact that Moses and Elijah appeared, and

III.              Thirdly, the words that God the Father spoke from the cloud.

So let’s come to the first part of our reading, where we read about

I.                   The amazing light that came across Jesus and changed his appearance.

We read in our Gospel reading today: Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and let them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. This is how the evangelist Mark describes it in his gospel which we read today. He makes a particular emphasis about Jesus and his clothes. Matthew also tells us that his face shone like the sun. And also Luke, says that Jesus was praying, and that the appearance of his face was altered.

This is an amazing thing that happened. John also makes mention of this event, when he says the well-known words at the beginning of his gospel: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory… Here in our reading today, we get a little picture of that glory that John saw, together with Peter and James. Peter, who was also there on this occasion, wrote about this event in his second letter, where is says: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. Do you see what kind of an impression this event made on John and Peter? You can almost sense that their amazement hadn’t worn off even by the time they wrote it.

This event in our reading teaches us something wonderful about Jesus. It teaches us that Jesus is a human being whom we can see and touch, but that also he is true God. He is the light of the world, who existed right from the beginning of time together with his Father. The Book of Hebrews calls Jesus the radiance of the glory of God. Jesus is 100% man and 100% God 100% of the time, but he most of the time, he hides his glory and his majesty and his brightness under the humble form of a human being like us. It’s almost like a burning coal, or a hot piece of iron that a blacksmith uses. Jesus is true God, and this divinity of Jesus shines out through his human body, just like fire and heat make a charcoal or a piece of iron glow red hot.

But the miracle of the Transfiguration is not this happened to Jesus. The miracle is that the disciples were allowed to see it. Everything that Jesus did or said glows and radiates and shines with all of his wonderful divine power and energy. Here in our reading, Jesus makes it clear to the disciples exactly who he is. Like a true man, made in the image of God, he prays, he has a face, a body, clothes. But as true God, shining with brilliant light, he glows and shines and sends out his rays. When Jesus asked Peter who the Son of Man is, Peter replied: You are the Son of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of God—this is who Jesus is. When Thomas after Easter saw Jesus standing in front of him, with the wounds in his hands and his side, what did he say? He said: You are my Lord and my God.

We learn here just who this Jesus is that we worship. He came down from heaven to live a life among us. This is the Jesus who lives with us each day, who baptised you personally, and who gives you the Lord’s Supper each Sunday. You are his bride, and he is your bridegroom. And all of this wonderful glory and power he shares with you, he uses this power to die and cancel your sin, he unites himself with you, and he shows you a little taste of what he will be like when you see him in heaven. But we might think: but I am so ordinary, so sinful. I carry a lifetime of burdens, and shame, and sadness, and worries and guilt. Does this Jesus with all of that brilliant heavenly light want to enter into my life? Yes—he has died for you, he has shed his blood for you, that body shining with light was nailed and pierced and whipped and crucified for you, and now he is risen from the dead. He gives you his forgiveness and his promise of eternal life and his victory as a wonderful robe and clothing of righteousness and holiness, so that you can stand before God, and wrap yourself up completely in that robe. You can stand before God the Father, not because you are so holy and perfect. Far from it—you are not holy and perfect. But this Jesus is—and let’s you wrap yourself up in his robe of righteousness, that righteousness, that holiness, that purity, that brilliance and radiance that belongs to him.

But also, we get a little taste of what our bodies will be like when Jesus raises us from the dead. In the Apostles’ Creed it says: I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Sometime after we have died and gone to be with Jesus in heaven, he will gather up all of the dust and ashes of our bodies and transform them and glorify them. Paul says in Philippians: Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. Just think about that for a moment—the wonderful glory that we see in our reading today of Christ’s body, he won’t only keep to himself, but he will share that glory with you, and transform your body at the end of the world.

The other thing that happens in our reading today is that it’s not just Jesus’ face that shines with brilliant light, it’s not just his body, but it’s also his clothes. Our reading today says: His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Now the wonderful thing about Jesus is that, now that he has ascended into heaven, he still wants to meet us and speak to us and be with us even now, here in this lifetime, on this side of the grave. And so he clothes himself. He hides himself here on earth, in such a way that you would only know he were there if he told you. Do you know what these things are, where Jesus clothes himself? First of all, he clothes himself in the words of the bible, the Holy Scripture—not just in the printed words on paper, but also when we read it aloud, and preach it, and sing it, and pray it, and think about it. Jesus clothes himself in the words of the Scripture, and these clothes of his shine with all the brilliance of his divine light. We read: Your word is a lamp—a bright, shining lamp!—to my feet, and a light—a brilliant light!—to my feet.

Also, he clothes himself in the words and the water of Holy Baptism. To us, it looks like just a bit of water in a bowl. But this water and the words of Jesus that we speak—I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—this baptism is full of wonderful divine light and energy and power, because your baptism gave to you the forgiveness of sins, rescued you from death and the devil, and gave you eternal life. You can put your trust in this solid rock, because Jesus himself has promised that he will clothe himself there, and hide himself there. Also, on Sundays, we hear those wonderful words of absolution spoken by the pastor: I forgive you all your sins. Jesus had said to his apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness, they are withheld. And so, Jesus has promised to hide and clothe himself in these words of forgiveness, so that when we hear them we know that this is not the words of a mere man standing on earth, but the words of the Lord of heaven and earth himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. And if he has clothed himself with these things, we know that his clothes shine with brilliant divine light.

But then also, he has promised to give us his body and blood to eat and to drink. He clothes himself in this bread and wine, and this bread and wine shines and glows in such a way that they are connected and united to the body and blood of Christ himself, so that when we eat this bread, we are eating Christ’s true transformed, glorified and life-giving body and when we drink this wine, we are drinking Christ’s true, transformed, glorified, and life-giving blood. And Jesus knows that if we came on our own, we would die and be completely overwhelmed by his holiness. Jesus knows our sin and our weakness, so he says to us not just, This is my body, but that it is given for you. He says not just, This is my blood, but that it is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And so we can trust him and his words and joyfully receive the wonderful gifts that he gives to us.

So there are so many wonderful things that we learn in our reading today from the fact that Jesus was transfigured, that his face shone like the sun, and that even his clothes become radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

Let’s come to the second part of our reading where we read about where

II.                 Moses and Elijah appear.

Moses and Elijah were two historical figures which we read about in the Old Testament. Moses lived about 1500 or 1600 years before this event, and led the Jewish people out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Elijah was a prophet who lived many years later about 800 or 900 years before this event, during the years of one of the worst kings in Israel’s history, King Ahab. And in our reading today, they show up, and they are standing there on the mountain with Jesus.

One of the very strange things about Moses and Elijah is that nobody knew where Moses was buried. His bones were never found. Also, Elijah didn’t die in the normal way, but was carried into heaven with chariots and horses of fire. We also read about another figure in the Old Testament, Enoch, who also didn’t die in the normal way. It simply says: Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.

In our reading today, we get a little glimpse of two saints of the Old Testament, who enjoy being in the presence of Jesus and talking with him. This gives us also a little picture of the way in which we who believe in Jesus will one day enjoy being in the presence of Jesus and talk with him.

Peter at this point, just goes a bit crazy for a while. He is completely overwhelmed and dithers around and doesn’t know what he’s doing. He says to Jesus: Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Mark also tells us: For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Of course, they were terrified! Here was Moses and Elijah! Did Peter, James and John think that maybe they were even entering into heaven itself?

But there is one thing that Peter’s ramblings teach us. Peter recognised Moses and Elijah—he had never met them before, but when they were there, he recognised them. And this is a wonderful comfort to us about when we enter heaven is that we will recognise people: we will recognise all those people we loved who died with Jesus and that we now miss, and we will recognise all the saints and all the apostles and the martyrs and the prophets, and everyone. It will be a wonderful family reunion, where we won’t need to wear nametags!

But also there is something else that is special about Moses and Elijah. Moses is the person who wrote down God’s law in the Old Testament. Elijah is considered to be one of the most important prophets. And often we read about the Law and the Prophets. In Romans 3, Paul says that Law and the Prophets bear witness to the righteousness of faith in Jesus Christ. Here we see Moses (who represents the law) and Elijah (who represents the prophets) pointing to Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead, we read in Luke: Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. What this shows us is that the whole of human history, and all of God’s people, were all looking forward to this moment, and this person, Jesus Christ. And even today, he is our wonderful Saviour, our King, our Lord, our Mediator, our Advocate, and our Redeemer. When we look to Jesus and point to him, we even have Elijah and Moses on our side.

But let’s come to the last part of our reading, about where:

III.              God the Father speaks from the cloud.

We read: And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

Here is God the Father’s voice: and he points to his Son, and tells us not simply to look at him, or to touch him, but to listen to him. All the power is in Jesus’ words. John calls Jesus the Word of God. He says: The word became flesh. But Jesus is not the word of God who keeps his mouth shut. He is the word of God who continually opens his mouth. He was speaking even through Moses, and Elijah, and throughout the Old Testament. And when he rose from the dead, he sent out his apostles to give an eyewitness of him. He says: He who hears you hears me. And this Jesus calls takes every that Moses said and everything that Elijah said, all of God’s law and all the cries of the prophets, and preaches it right into the very centre of our hearts, and calls us to repent, to completely change our lives, and our whole way of thinking. But God the Father also points to his Son, and says: Listen to him, because of a new word that will be spoken. This word is the Gospel, and this word shows us Jesus as our Saviour, as the one who has fulfilled the whole law for us, and now gives forgiveness and eternal life as a gift completely and totally freely to everyone who believes in him.

And so, when God spoke to Moses, he gave him the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment says: You shall have no other Gods before me. And now the same God who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai now speaks from the cloud and says: Listen to him. If you want to have me as your God, you must listen to my Son. You will get to me and come to me in no other way! This is my beloved Son. Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Peter said: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

And so, the disciples look up and see Jesus by himself, alone. They see his kind face, and a gentle hand on their shoulder of a friend. But more importantly, they have a word from the Father: Listen to him. And Jesus says: Rise, and have no fear. Have no fear, for I will suffer and die for you, I will rise for you, and I will forgive you, and lead you, and strengthen you, and bless you, and be with you always to the end of the age. This is Jesus, our wonderful Saviour! Amen.

Dear Jesus, how good it is to be here with you today, together with all the angels and saints of heaven, in your glorious presence. Speak to us in your word, and fill us with your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon on Reformation II: The Lord's Supper (22-Oct-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:23-24)

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

                                                                                                             

Today’s sermon is the second of a three-part series on the teachings of the Reformation. This year, 2017, we are commemorating the 500^th anniversary since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church doors in Wittenberg. Next week, we are going to celebrate this anniversary. In last week’s sermon, we were looking at the Doctrine of Justification by faith alone. This is the teaching that we are saved by faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross and in his resurrection for us. We cannot earn salvation by anything that we do. This teaching is so foundation for us as Christians, and as Lutherans, because it answers the most important question anybody on this earth can ask: What must I do to be saved? We spoke particularly last week about the fact that God’s law exposes our sin, and the Gospel teaches sinners what their Saviour has done for them.

In our sermon this week, we are going to talk about Lord’s Supper. This is also such an important topic because the Lord’s Supper is right at the very centre of the church, and who we are as Christians. The Lord’s Supper is the wonderful food that Jesus prepares for us which continually strengthens us as we walk on our journey through life: it is our weekly banquet where Jesus gives us his own body and blood to eat and to drink.

So let’s first of all read the Scripture which most clearly speaks about the Lord’s Supper, and that is, the words of institution. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read there the history of when Jesus instituted his special supper. Also, we read these words in St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, which read like this: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

In the church, we have all kinds of different names for the Lord’s Supper. In the Small Catechism, Luther calls it “The Sacrament of the Altar.” We don’t often use this name anymore, but it is a useful name to flesh out. A Sacrament is something which God himself has instituted—this means, it was his idea, he came up with it, he invented it, he started it off. And through this event, God brings us the forgiveness of sins through earthly elements, which are attached to his word. So in baptism, the earthly element is water, and in the Lord’s Supper, the elements are bread and wine.

Luther calls it the “Sacrament of the Altar” because the Lord’s Supper normally takes place at the altar. In the Old Testament, the altar was the place where the people offered their sacrifices to God, but for us in the church today, the altar is the place where God places the sacrifice of his own Son for our benefit. Already two-thousand years ago, Christ died on the cross and offered his body and blood as a sacrifice. Today, that same body and blood is placed by God himself on our own altar, so that we may come and partake of these gifts, and receive them into your mouths.

Sometimes, the Lord’s Supper is called the “Lord’s Supper”. This name actually comes from the bible itself, where Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for making a right mess of everything. He says: When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. It’s as if to say, it’s just your own supper. But then, Paul goes on to teach them about the Lord’s Supper and what it is. It’s called a supper, because Jesus first held it with his disciples in the evening.

We sometimes also call it “Holy Communion”, which comes from St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10, where he says: 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? That word, “participation”, can also be translated, a “communion”. This means we share in something—Jesus shares his body and blood with us in the bread and wine, so that we have this communion with him. Also, sometimes, people call it the Eucharist, which means “a thanksgiving”. It comes from the Greek word, “thank you”. It is a word that means something like the “thanksgiving dinners” which happen every year in America.

In Luther’s Small Catechism, we have a very clear statement about what our church believes about the Lord’s Supper. He says: The Sacrament of the Altar is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.

The most important thing to discuss when it comes to the Lord’s Supper is what it is. Our church believes and teaches that it is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, Luther has a very significant word which he puts there in the catechism. He says: it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now why does he put in this word “true”? Because there are many people who don’t believe that it really is the body and blood of Christ, and that it is only a symbol. Actually, if we take the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church (that means, the Greek church and the Russian church), the Oriental Orthodox Church (which is the Coptic Orthodox from Egypt and Ethiopia), and the Lutherans, this is the most widely held belief about the Lord’s Supper by Christians all around the world today, and the most widely held belief throughout Christian history.

However, many Christians today don’t believe it, and these are the churches which follow the Reformed opinion. Many—in fact, most—protestant churches hold this opinion. This is the opinion which says that the bread and wine only represent or symbolise the body and blood of Jesus. Lutherans don’t believe this—our church teaches that the Lord’s Supper is the body and blood of Christ. Why do we hold to this so strongly? The reason is, because on the night Jesus was betrayed, he said: This is my body. This is my blood. He didn’t say that it represented his body, and he didn’t say that it symbolised his body. He said: This is my body.

Now, there are three reasons why people often disagree with this. Firstly, people say: There are other passages in Scripture where Jesus talks in a figurative way about himself. For example, he says: I am the vine. Or: I am the door for the sheep. Now, yes, that is true. But this is a different context. In those passages, Jesus is using a picture of himself to teach his disciples something. With respect to the vine, he is not saying he represents a vine. Jesus is not some insignificant person who represents a cosmic, alien vine in outer-space somewhere. What he saying is that just as a vine has branches, so also we Christians and disciples of Jesus are members of Jesus, we are made part of his body, just like branches on a vine. And just as a vine sends the juice and sap out to all the branches and fruit, so also Jesus fills us with all the gifts of his Holy Spirit, and every gift that we need as we live in his kingdom.

But the Lord’s Supper is a very different thing. Firstly, this happened on the night when he was betrayed. This was his final meal with his disciples. Just as when Jacob was about to die and gathered his sons to give them a blessing, so also Jesus shares this supper with his disciples just as he is about to die. And what do you know about writing a will? You don’t mess around with language. You don’t talk in such a way that can be taken in two ways. Now, this is not just anyone’s will—this is Jesus’ will, and he is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is speaking straight here. He is not messing around with his words. When he says: This is my body, he means that it is his body.

Also, sometimes people say that the answer to the problem lies in the words: Do this in remembrance of me. Some people say: It can’t really be his body, because he says that it is for remembering him. So they say: The Lord’s Supper is simply nothing more than bread and wine, and when we eat and drink it, we remember Jesus. Now, recently, in another sermon, I was talking about this point. In English, when we say “remember” we often mean something that goes on in our heads. But in Hebrew, “remembering” is something that people do. A very clear example of this is when the thief on the cross says to Jesus: Remember me, when you come into your kingdom. He is not simply asking Jesus to think about him, when Jesus is in heaven and the thief has gone to hell. He is not saying, “Remember the good times we had when we on the cross together.” The thief is saying, “When you come into your kingdom, I want you to bring me with you.” I don’t want you simply to think about me, and remember who I was, but I want you to do something for me, and to take me with you. And this is exactly what Jesus does. He says: Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. That’s how Jesus remembers him. He brings him to heaven with him.

And so, in the Lord’s Supper, we do remember Jesus. We remember the wonderful things that Jesus for us and for our salvation. But we don’t remember him, while he is far away and we are all the way down here. He actually comes to meet us, and we remember him in his presence. We remember the fact that he is here! And when Jesus says: Do this in remembrance of me, what is the thing that we actually do? Is it just eating bread and wine? No… The thing that we do in remembrance of Jesus is to eat his body and to drink his blood. Just as Jesus remembered the thief on the cross and brought him with him into heaven, so also Jesus comes and meets us on earth, giving us his body and blood to eat and drink in remembrance of him.

The third thing that people often say is that it is simply not possible. They say: Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, so he can’t be here on earth in the Lord’s Supper. Yes, it’s true: Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. But the thing we need to come back to is the fact that Jesus said: This is my body, this is my blood. If that’s what Jesus said, then we need to leave it up to him to work out how this is possible. But not only that, remember that Jesus actually went and met Paul and converted him on the road to Damascus. Later when Paul was in prison, Jesus went and met him and encouraged him and said: Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome. Even though Jesus ascended into heaven, he could still come and encourage his people. Also, when Jesus gave his disciples the command to baptise, he said: I am with you always to the end of the age. He also said: Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Also, remember that Jesus is both true man and true God. We can’t make our body and blood present in churches all throughout the world, because we are not gods. But Jesus has all the power in heaven and earth in his hands, and he knows how to bring about what he promises in his own words.

But the other thing we need to remember is this: Jesus body and blood is not dead flesh and dead blood. We are not cannibals or vampires here. Jesus is risen from the dead, and his whole body is glorified in a wonderful and amazing way because he is also true God. And so, Jesus did not say: This is my arm, or this is my fingernail. At the same time, he didn’t say: this is my spirit, or this is my soul. He said: This is my body, and this is my blood. This is his miracle which he performs, and he gives these things to us in a glorious, invisible way.

Now, if we actually believe that Jesus comes to meet us in the church, to give us his body and blood in this way, this completely changes the way we think about what the church is, and why we are here. I once heard the story about an American theology professor, who visited a Lutheran church in Latvia. Now Latvia was part of the U.S.S.R. for a long time, under communism, and during those years it was very difficult to be a Christian because the church was outlawed in certain ways. So this professor went early to church and sat in the back, and saw a young woman come into the church and she got down on her hands and knees and prostrated herself on the floor to pray, and then got up. The American professor was quite stunned, and said to the young woman, “Why did you do that?” The young woman said, “Why didn’t you?” It’s as if to say: If you know whose house this is, and who it is that comes and meets us here, wouldn’t you be completely in awe?

There’s a wonderful event in the gospels where a blind beggar hears the sounds of a noisy crowd and asks about it. We read: They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” This is exactly what happens in the Lord’s Supper: Jesus of Nazareth passes by and he comes right into this place to meet us and to feed us. If you were alive in those days, you wouldn’t sit at home and say: “Never mind, I’ll see him some other time”, or “I’ll pray to him later.” No—you’d go out and meet him, just like the blind beggar did! The problem is, so many people don’t realise that they are blind, and they don’t know that Jesus is here and comes to meet them. But this is what Jesus promises when he says: This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me.

There’s so much to say about the Lord’s Supper, and we can’t say it all in our sermon today. In fact, the great gift of the Lord’s Supper is something that we can spend our whole lifetimes learning, and we still won’t fathom its depths! It is my prayer that the Lord’s Supper—together with Baptism and God’s word—is the thing that is right at the centre of our life together as Christians here in this place. And old Christian writer once called the Lord’s Supper “a medicine of immortality, an antidote, that we may not die but live in God through Jesus Christ, a cleansing remedy through warding off and driving out evils.” (Ignatius of Antioch). Or another old Christian writer said: “If those who touched the hem of His garment were properly healed, how much more shall we be strengthened if we have Him in us whole?” (John Chrysostom)

But before we finish, we need to realise something very profound. If Jesus is going to come and enter into us in this wonderful way, how is it going to happen without him completely overpowering us with his majesty and even destroying us? How is it going to happen that Jesus does not completely crush us with the weight of his glory, he being so perfect, are we being so weak and sinful? It can only happen in one way: He has to forgive us our sins. And this is exactly what Jesus does. He says: This is my body, which is given for you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord’s Supper, not only gives us Jesus’ body and blood, but he also gives us the promise of the forgiveness of sins connected to it. And this word of Jesus commands faith from us, it calls us to believe this and to trust in it.

And so, it is not the sinless who are worthy to come to the Lord’s Supper, and to feast on these gifts. It is those who know their sin, and want to change their lives, and lead a completely new one. If we are honest, we realise that our old self is always a complete disappointment, and we are always failing to lead the Christian life we know we should. And so, we come to Jesus, with everything that is on our hearts and our minds, with all our failures and all our griefs and sorrows, and we place them all into his hands. And he gives us his body and blood to eat and to drink, given for you, and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This is his last will and testament, he reads it allowed to you his family, and he gives you your inheritance right into your mouths. If only we could understand what a precious gift this is! As we often say in our service: May he strengthen you with his Sacrament that your joy may be full! Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful gift of the holy supper of your body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Help us to treasure this wonderful gift which you have given to your church on earth, as we sing and praise your name together with the angels, the archangels and with all the company of heaven. Amen.