Sermon for Holy Thursday

33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  Jeremiah 33:33

Remember this line from the Gospel reading for Palm Sunday? We heard this, that the “disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him” (John 12:16). Jesus teaches his disciples, including us, of course, explaining to us why he did what he did. As we, tonight, meditate on that ho ly supper that Jesus instituted on the night he was betrayed, we learn from him “these things that had been written about him and had been done to him.” Receiving the body and blood of Jesus, who has since been glorified is the best way for us to gain understanding and faith in what our Lord did for us on the Cross.

He had promised, back in Jeremiah’s day, that He would make a new covenant with his beloved people. “I will make a new covenant”, he said. Not like the old one the Israel broke in their disobedience and idolatry.

Throughout the Bible, God made covenants with people. He made a covenant with Noah and made the rainbow, promising to keep the world going now, not destroying in it again in that way. God made a covenant with Abraham, telling him to leave your home country and go to a new land I am giving you and I will bless you there and like the stars of the skies, so many shall your offspring be, and all nations of the earth will be blessed by one particular Offspring.

Covenants are sometimes made, man to man. Maybe as a business agreement, or a friendship, an alliance. The marriage of a husband and a wife is a covenant between them, sealed when they make their vows and promises to each other. A covenant from God is like that, but different in some very significant ways.   First of all, it is very one sided with God. In this covenant he is cutting with us, he is the one doing it all. He doesn’t work out an agreement with us as though he needs our contribution or our attention. There is nothing we have that he lacks. He makes a covenant with us simply because he wants to be our God and he wants us to be his people. What’s more, With God, it is an everlasting covenant. We need not fear that he will break it or change it. Even the old Covenant, it wasn’t he that broke it. But Israel, his people did. So he says, “I’ll make a new one.” So just like Israel had 12 tribes, from the 12 sons of Jacob, whom God called Israel, So now Jesus takes 12 apostles and makes a new covenant with the new Israel.

We who believe, are brought into that new covenant and it makes us new. Here’s what God does to us with this new covenant: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” The law of the Lord is, simply put, love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. On the night our Lord instituted the Holy Supper, he told his disciples, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (John 13:34). That’s why this is called Maundy Thursday, because of that commandment or mandate, all related words.

An essential result of the New Covenant, written on the heart, is a new love for God and a new love for others.

With his death on the cross, our Lord Jesus did what it took, to pay for all the sins of all the world. By his death on the cross, he redeemed all the world. Now, because of that he is ready and able to make a new covenant with you. On the cross it’s for all. In the cup, it’s for you. He says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Jesus serves you his body to eat and his blood to drink, because he wants to make this new covenant with you. He wants to assure you that He is your God, and you are His people.

Amen. 

Sermon for Palm Sunday & Confirmation

 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”  (John 12:19)

 Jesus says, “Follow me.” He says that to you Trice, and Grace, and Miyah, and Kendall. Follow Jesus.

 Confirmation is about a lot of things: The fulfillment of your midweek Bible lessons and catechism instruction, your joining this congregation as a confirmed and communicant member, it is a rite of passage, a sign that you’ve grown up. But most importantly, it is the public confession that you are following Jesus. Your are his disciple. He is your Lord and Savior. This is confirming what’s been true since your baptism, You are a follower of Jesus Christ. So consider now, what all that means.

 First, you are a follower of Jesus, and that means you are not a follower of other things that are against the Lord. We teach from our catechism that there are especially three enemies of the Lord and his ways, that hinder his will and don’t want his Kingdom to come: the devil, the world and our sinful nature.

 You are a follower of Jesus, so obviously you are not a follower of the devil. Now, what that will mean is you’ve been brought into an arena where the devil is fighting. He  has to work harder on you, than he does on someone who doesn’t care. He will work harder to tempt you, to lead you astray, to give you what seem like good reasons to give up and not bother with the religion and the faith of the Lord and his church. But you just have to say, nope, I follow Jesus.

 Likewise, You are a follower of Jesus, so you are not a follower of the world and its ways. You are making a public statement today, that is completely different from what the world around us says. You’re saying that the Lord God has created you. And He redeemed you from sin and death. And he sanctified you and gave you a new birth and new life of faith. The world says that nothing created you, you just came to be by chance and chaotic randomness and that’s all there is to look forward to in the future. So the world says you’ve got to take care of things yourself, and you hear what kind of things the world says, without any acknowledgement of the Lord and his law: the world says, Choose for yourself what kind of person you will be, what gender you will be, what you will think and feel, choose for yourself without a thought or care about the people around you or the God above you. To which you are saying, in your confirmation vows this morning, I follow Jesus Christ. Him alone I serve. Him alone, I trust.

 The third spiritual enemy working against you when you follow Jesus is your own sinful nature. All of us who are born of flesh and blood are by nature selfish. So we always bent on putting ourselves first, reluctant to put others first, even including the Lord Jesus Christ. To make the vows of confirmation, means you have to repent of your sins, repent of your sinful nature, repent of your self-first attitude.

 Think about what Jesus was doing as he was riding that donkey on the Palm strewn street. You know where he was riding to? He was riding into Jerusalem. And we know what was waiting for him there. There were a lot of people crazy angry toward him. These Pharisees that are watching on, were filled with anger and hatred. “We’ve got to stop him. They said. We’ve got to put an end to this or the whole world will go after him.

 Jesus was riding right into the middle of that hatred and anger. He was riding to his arrest and trial filled with false witnesses. He was going forward toward a beating, thorns, pierced hands and feet. He is riding on to his death. You’d think he wouldn’t want to do that. But he rode on, for your faith and your salvation.

 Jesus says, “Follow me.” So that means you will probably have to go where you don’t want to go, for Jesus’ sake. Here’s what I mean: Jesus will say, “Follow me; repent of your sins and your selfish sinful nature.” And that’s not the favorite place to go. It’s not the easiest, most pleasurable thing to do. The sinner in all of us wants to say, “No, I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to admit that I was wrong. I don’t want to let on that I’m not right.” Jesus says follow me, even if it’s not where you want to go. Follow me, He says, “I’m going to the cross. Repent of your sins and believe what I say. There at my death on the cross, you are forgiven and redeemed.”

 It's good to follow Jesus, despite what your human nature makes you feel about it. It’s good to follow Jesus, despite what the world says. It’s good to follow Jesus despite what the devil would try to trick into believing otherwise.

 It’s good to follow Jesus to his cross. You do that when you pray your prayers of repentance and ask for him to forgive you your trespasses. You follow Jesus to his cross as you continue to hear what he says in his word. You haven’t learned it all yet. He has more to teach you. Keep reading, hearing, learning, and believing. You follow Jesus when you come with faith and joy to the altar and receive his body and blood with his promise, this is for you, for the forgiveness of sins and where there is forgiveness, there is life and salvation.

 And when your last hour comes, follow Jesus. He’ll take you home. None of us knows when that day will be, how it will be, what it will be like. Because it’s unknown, it’s kinda scary. And we might want to say, Lord I don’t want to go where you are leading me. When we who follow Jesus reach that point, we can close our eyes in death and have peace. We can be like the Daughters of Zion who rejoice and say, "Behold, your king is coming to your righteous and having salvation is he, Hosana! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

 Amen.