We ended our service on Friday with words of lament from Psalm 22. Verse one containing the words our Lord used on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? We also heard specific details of persecution and suffering including verse 14 and following:
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
In this fallen world we live in, we can relate to these words and understand them. As we reflected on in the Good Friday message, we know what it can be like on account of life in this fallen world to feel forsaken by God. However, above all else Psalm 22 and Good Friday as a whole is not about our suffering, but about our Lord’s suffering on the cross.
Jesus spoke the opening words of Psalm 22 from the cross, as he took on the sin of the world and despaired of his state of abandonment- as the Father turned his face from Him. But Jesus also knew how the rest of the psalm goes. He knew how the rest of the great salvation story was to unfold.
In our gospel reading the angel described as a young man reminded Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James of what Jesus had told them about his resurrection. “And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”
Just as he told you. Jesus knew the ending of Psalm 22 when he suffered the full wrath of God against sin on the cross, Jesus knew that the Father hears the cries of the afflicted and acts in mercy to save. Listen to these words of Psalm 22 that come after the lament of despair, listen for how these words are fulfilled by the Father’s saving role in Jesus’ resurrection.
But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
We heard from Mark chapter 14 last Sunday, the whole chapter. In all of the descriptions of betrayal and the Institution of the Last Supper, Peter’s denial of Jesus three times, the agony of prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus before the council- it is easy to forget about what Jesus promised to the disciples about his meeting them in Galilee.
Immediately following the Institution of the Lord’s Supper Jesus begins to speak about the future: 5 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
The two Mary’s where looking for Jesus in the wrong place. They should not have expected to find him dead lying in a tomb, but instead, they and the disciples should have known to look for him in Galilee, because that is where Jesus told them he would be.
And Jesus also made a promise to the disciples in instituting the Lord’s Supper. He spoke about not drinking the fruit of the vine again until He would drink it new in the kingdom of God. In Matthew chapter 8 Jesus celebrates the faith of the centurion and describes how people all over the world like the Centurion will believe in Him and join the victory feast of salvation. “Truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
The disciples were to look for Jesus to be in Galilee and to look for Him to feast with them, where His glory is the center piece of the feast. And just as we heard in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah chapter 25 this feast would also be to celebrate how the veil and covering of death has been vanquished forever.
Even as the angel reminded them of Jesus’ words, they were not ready to feast with Jesus in the kingdom of God as he promised. They were instead terrified. “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
That is how our gospel reading in Easter 2021 ends. Fear and trembling, paralyzed with speechlessness. Jesus has overcome death and opened the gate of everlasting life to us, and yet we are often afraid. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts and where once
We were weak, now we are strong in Christ’s mercy. As was the case for Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and the disciples, fear turns to faith and hope and joy. This ending to the gospel lesson was the end of the gospel of Mark in some of the earliest manuscripts. It is a challenge to us as the hearer, are we ready to let everything we hear about Jesus in the gospels sink in and change our lives? Are we ready to leave behind the fears of holding back and playing it safe in life so as to join Jesus in the heavenly banquet?
Listen to the details of the heavenly banquet that Isaiah chapter 25 gives us a glimpse into: where our God has provided us with a “feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” The feast is because Jesus has overcome death for us all. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all of the nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we celebrate that death has been swallowed up by life, by the power of Jesus’ life. The Lord’s Supper is the comfort given to all of us who wait on the Lord through the trials of our life. “Behold this is our God; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
That is what the Lord’s Supper is, rejoicing in salvation. Some denominations think of the Lord’s Supper as a memorial meal for Jesus’ death on the cross. After all Jesus says ‘do this in remembrance of me’. Kind of like a solemn funeral occasion.
However, it is not Good Friday that is most closely associated with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, but Easter. Our Communion distribution Hymn for this morning makes this clear: “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing Praise to our victorious King. Who has washed us in the tide flowing from his pierced side Alleluia”.
We are celebrating verse 24 of Psalm 22, as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, “but he has heard when he cried to him.” Through faith in Jesus we are heard and we are given new life. Just as Jesus was heard and raised, so also God hears our cries and provides us a feast where “Now no more can death appall, Now no more the grave enthrall; You have opened paradise, And all Your saints in You shall rise. Alleluia!”
Every Sunday morning, every Lord’s day is a feast and celebration of Christ’s victory over death. There have been times in the history of the LCMS where churches became quite superstitious about counting the Sundays of the month. 1st and 3rd but not 5th Sundays we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The depth of the reasons and history of this change from the practice of the early church and the time of the Reformation are more complex than I can share today.
In simple terms the trend was for Lutheran churches in America to focus on inner feelings as the route to genuine faith over and above the objective gifts we receive in worship. Lutherans were so influenced by American Protestantism that in the 1930s a historical survey suggests that the average LCMS congregation celebrated the Lord’s Supper between 4 to 6 times a year.
Gradually over time the frequency increased, but often stalling to a fixed number in many congregations to the point where the only reason for the chosen frequency was “Well that’s what we always have done.”
As most of you know this cautious distribution of the Lord’s Supper was the practice of Christ Lutheran as well until a young pastor who likes to shake things up at times prayerfully asked for the congregation to prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis.
We are now eleven months into this change and the extra work to prepare for the Lord’s Supper by a select few members of our congregation is greatly appreciated by me. Deeply appreciated. This extra work that is put in, twice as much of a time commitment as before allows our congregation to taste and see that the Lord is good each Sunday.
This change has allowed us to celebrate in the victory feast with Jesus just as the scriptures describe and the early church describes. Here on Easter Sunday, it is fitting that we remember and think of those celebrations of faith in the risen Jesus of generations before us.
We hear in Acts chapter 2: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.”
Or Acts 20:7 “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.” I do not plan to have this service go on into midnight, but notice how the description of gathering for worship on the first day of the week is to break bread together- the Lord’s Supper.
A Christian writing from the first century called the Didache present by 70AD which was an instruction manual for practicing the faith, records the following in chapter 14:
“On the Lord’s Day of the Lord come together, break bread and hold the Eucharist, after confessing your transgressions.” Confessing our sins and receiving Christ’s Body and blood for forgiveness- this is how the church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.
Unlike some liberal churches lost in the spirit of modernity, we do not talk about the Resurrection of Jesus as an illustration of wishful thinking and positivity, where the resurrection of Jesus was real because it is real in the believers heart. The theologically liberal based Christians focus on how the story of Jesus’ Resurrection is all about what the believers felt by their feelings, that they had hope, even though Jesus died on the cross and that hope would live with them for the rest of their lives.
In contrast, we teach Jesus rose, not because we feel it in our hearts, but because he told the disciples he would rise and he appeared to them and commanded them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching, feasting together as believers.
Our inner spiritual prayer life is important, we can know God’s love as we read the scripture and as we pray each day- But our Lord has promised to be present in the Lord’s Supper and that is amazing! Just as Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, The risen and glorified Jesus appears to us in the form of his body and blood in the sacrament, and gives us his eternal life.
This is part of the amazing message we can share with the world, we can tell people about our feelings of faith and security in the lord and that is all well and good- but how much more powerful to tell people about how we feast with God every Lord’s Day: Behold this is our God, we have waited for him that he may save us. This is YHWH we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation!
We live in a world that involves a whole lot more trial and tribulation than attending worship a few times a year can make up for. We live in a world where we no longer have the freedom to speak about our faith in our workplace, to voice unpopular views on social media without fear of censorship.
Yet we do have freedom to worship each Lord’s day, freedom to celebrate the Lord’s victory over death, to celebrate the Easter triumph each Lord’s day. In a world full of trials and temptations we desperately need the basics of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Jesus is risen and he brings the victory feast to us. Alleluia.