Maundy Thursday
Glory of Golgotha
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Trinity Lutheran Church-Columbia, MO
St. John 19:30
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The declaration of “it is finished!” is a far cry from “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” “It is finished!” is a proclamation of joy, one of victory. Like a conqueror who had successfully completed his task, Jesus remains upon the field of battle, remains suspended between heaven and earth on the cross to rejoice in His triumph. What His death means for the world, He desired to be known, so Christ places His seal of approval upon His entire Passion, from beginning to end, from His Condescension to His death, He says all is now ready, prepared for eternity by saying, “it is finished!”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday He knew it would end in death. He knew the cries, “Hosanna to the Highest!” would soon turn to “Crucify Him!” “His blood be upon us and our children!” and “We have no king but Cesar!” and “He saved others but He cannot save Himself.” He had spoken to His disciples of the cup which He was to drink which no one else could drink, and of the baptism which he was to be baptized which no one else could be baptized. He knew the sour and bitter wrath He was to endure. And before His Passion began, He said, “The ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me.” Upon the cross it was all over. He had emptied the bitter cup to the last drop; He had received the baptism of fire and blood; He had withstood the prince of this world—withstood him and shed His blood against him. He had been utterly forsaken and remained the obedient Son.
The end of his sufferings meant that His sufferings attained their purpose for God and for us. The purpose of these sufferings were to serve; the purpose of His Condescension to Earth, of His life and ministry, had been to redeem the sinful world. This is the fulfillment of all Holy Scripture, the very reason for which the Law was given and the Prophets foretold. This He accomplished by enduring death, by giving His life as a ransom for many; not to be served but to serve. The great work of redemption completed. When he said, “It is finished!” Jesus confirmed the fulfillment of the eternal purpose of God. He gave assurance that the eternal counsel of redemption had been victorious and gloriously carried out and would be available to all who believed on Him and His cross. The redemption of the world is the greatest act of God revealed to us. The benefits that we enjoy are the most wonderful and holy thing that God could ever bestow upon us.
Typically, the Church hears our Lord’s sermon “it is finished” on Good Friday. Maundy Thursday, you may be thinking, is about the Institution of the Holy Supper, and right you are. But our Lord thinks in terms of eternity. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Pentecost, Creation of the world, the end of the world, your birth, your baptism, your death, are all one single moment to Him, one reality, even though to us they are linear events, set in time. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday must be considered together. It is this omnitemporal reality that Jesus’ death makes the Lord’s Supper what it is; full of benefit and blessing for those who believe and receive His body and blood. All the promises and benefits of Good Friday must be in place to be contained and given in the Supper. Without His perfect death and His precious innocent blood, the Holy Supper is just one more Old Testament Passover; without Good Friday, the Lord’s Supper would just be one more imperfect and blemished lamb eaten in haste and we would still be hoping redemption.
By His suffering, death, His mutilated body and His torrenting, holy, sacrificial blood, we have been redeemed from sin and its curse from the need to sacrifice for sin. All of us know from experience how horrible the curse of sin is. Guilt weighs upon us. Shame. Fear and agony. Grief. Anger. Who has not felt the sting of sin? Everyone who has had a troubled conscience knows that sin prevents peace from possessing the heart. Our souls are endlessly disturbed and restless because sin is ever active; we are enticed to sin, evil is always making itself look attractive. We cannot find comfort from the burden of sin ourselves. No man can make satisfaction for sin or the consequences of sin in his life, or the lives of others around him, try endlessly though we will. A man cannot find peace by indulging in private mental warfare or turmoil, or setting his mind on success. Our life on this side of glory is an incomplete checklist of items that daily and perennially rob us of peace. Yet, none of us need despair, for the word from Christ’s cross is: It is finished! Another has come and made satisfaction for us, won true lasting comfort and peace for us. We are reconciled. He holds nothing against us and withholds nothing from us. For our benefit He became man so that He might fulfill for us the whole will and law of God, that heaven and are at peace, that all is finally finished.
As a pledge of this fulfillment and victory, out of compassion and love, He gives us His body and blood to drink. In this Sacrament, He has left us a remembrance of His passion. He has given to us in, with, and under the bread and wine the sacred mystery of His Incarnation, His Passion, and the fruits of redemption. To eat and drink in faith is to make His confession our own, “It is finished!” Was Jesus’ work was not complete, we could not eat drink of His sacrifice without offending God and remaining in sin. This Sacrament has been instituted for the special comfort of Christians who are troubled because of their sin, fear God’s wrath, and hunger and thirst for righteousness. In this sacred mystery of grace, God provides us with His spotless, guiltless, holy, precious, and innocent blood to eat and to drink that our sins may not rob us of any peace the Lord wishes us to have, to be assured our redemption is complete. That all sin is atoned for.
Through sin, death came into the world. Death is the enemy and terror of all the living. Anything that has breath on earth cannot be reconciled to God on its own. Death affects everything in creation. The world was subjected to futility; everything is truly falling apart, DNA is breaking down generation after generation; things are truly getting worse; creation is decaying. But to the believer comes the word from the cross: It is finished! Death and decay are overcome. Christ suffered it completely for us. Death has lost its sting. Even though death still makes us nervous, it is nothing more than a shadow. Since Christ truly tasted death, we are delivered from the fear of death. We will never experience what dying really means. Although we are born into a life that is subject to death, Christ has intervened and abolished it; death in its true form is an unknown terror. From what we still feel and experience with death, we only get an inkling of the real nature of this enemy of ours.
As a pledge and promise of this He gives us His body and blood to drink. “It is as if He said, I give Myself into death, shedding My blood to obtain grace and forgiveness of sins, and to comfort and establish the new testament, which gives forgiveness and everlasting salvation. We eat and drink of the body and blood of the living God, we eat and drink of the blood that is a foretaste of the imperishable nature that has been won for us. The same body and blood that was shed on the cross 2000 years ago, the blood of the Incarnate, of the God-man, who lives and reigns to all eternity is given to you here and now because He has defeated death by His death. The body and blood given to you from the altar endure as a true man unto eternity. His resurrected and glorified body and blood is the assurance of your eternity.
We are delivered from the devil. The devil has the power of death. Be nature and birth we are in bondage to the devil. Since we have all consented to the devil’s temptations, he has a claim upon us. When he accuses us, we must be silent because the word from the cross for us is: It is finished! The serpent’s claim is silenced, he has lost the battle for us. His kingdom, rule, and power came to end with Christ’s death. He has no power over us, not in life, not in death, not after death.
As a pledge of this He gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink. We eat and drink of the body and blood of God, the Victorious. This Sacrament has been instituted for the special comfort of Christians who are troubled because of their sin, fear God’s wrath, and hunger and thirst for righteousness. We could not partake of His victory if hell still had a right upon us. For our benefit He became man and took upon Himself our sin and punishment we deserve; His substitution makes our birth into original sin and the sins committed since a war we do not have to worry about winning. Now he gives us as His own body and blood food as for the fight. All our enemies have been vanquished; sin, death, the devil, have been judged and destroyed. Righteousness, perfect righteousness, which is pleasing to God, life, heaven, salvation, has been obtained for us. There is peace on earth and good will toward men. Our hearts shall rejoice forever. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
II.
All things are ready. We need but take and believe. Of course, he who does not believe will go away empty handed, but he who believes by faith, receives all that is earned by Christ’s death, is freed from all guilt and iniquity, this man is master over death and devil, and an heir of eternal life, this man receives justification. Whoever eats this bread and drinks the cup, confidently believing this Word and promise of Christ, dwells in Christ and Christ in him and has eternal life.
Faith in Christ, justifying faith, is not the work of man. We cannot even believe. All our works, even our attempts at faith, are as filthy rags, so we confess: I believe that I cannot believe. “I believe I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” But Christ crucified is the Author an Finisher and Perfector of our faith. Through the preaching of His cross, faith is generated, sustained, and nourished. When the sinner who is alarmed over his sins hears the word, It is finished! – he rises up out of the dust, takes new courage, casts off apprehension, and places His trust in what Christ has done and suffered for him. Believing this, the Gospel supports and strengthens our weak and wavering faith. As soon as we lose sight of the Gospel and look at ourselves, our sins and our weakness, we begin to tremble and give way to despair. But the more deeply we imbibe the mystery that Christ has accomplished all for us, the more joyful and confident we find ourselves. It is God’s will that faith be nourished and strengthened so that we may remain steadfast until the end; run the race marked out for us.
Faith manifests itself in sanctification. We daily confess our sins and in so doing resist the devil. The man who deliberately serves sin, who desires to remain a slave to sin, continues to obey Satan, and so nullifies the work of Christ for him and forfeits divine grace. It is not an easy thing to renounce sin and all evil lusts. But the sufficiency and power of Christ covers our weakness. Again and again, we find ourselves taken unaware by Satan and fall into sin. But in Christ and by His sacrifice, we rise to renewed resistance, extricate ourselves from the shackles of sin and overcome evil with good.
As a pledge and promise of this He gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink. So that we may more confidently believe this and be strengthened in the faith and in holy living, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat, this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ After the same manner also He took the cup when He had supped, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them saying, ‘Drink ye all of it; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins. This do as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”
He who believes in Christ manifests his faith with good works. It is the Lord’s will that we adorn our earthly life with the fruits of righteousness-that we faithfully pursue our calling and serve God, show our love to our brothers, and proclaim the Kingdom of God. We are enabled to do this by Christ. He who rejoices in this sacrifice and the redemption is willing to make great sacrifices of love and gratitude. It is a joy to the Christian to serve God and man.
Faith manifests itself in patience. The Christian’s path leads to and through suffering to glory. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And it is Christ’s suffering and death and infinite patience—with which He bore and accomplished what was necessary for our salvation—that strengthen our patience and enable us to endure all for His sake. He who believes knows earthly tribulations are not evidence of God’s wrath and punishment, but of His love and grace; and this man gladly bears the easy yoke of his Savior. He who is persuaded that Christ, through suffering, won life and salvation for him knows and is convinced that all his crosses will be changed into glory. He looks to the crown which he knows will be his after the battle and courageously continues on his course.
As a pledge and promise of His Holy will, He gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink. We do this in remembrance of Him, showing His death—that He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. He manifested His faith with the most perfect work, the last and final and perfect sacrifice made once for all for the sin of the world. The word from the cross is It is finished!
The blood shed on Good Friday is pure comfort for the weary Christian. Giving Him our most heartfelt thanks, we take up our cross and follow Him and, according to His commandment, love one another as He has loved us. For we are all one bread and one body. To eat and drink of our Lord’s perfect patience and suffering is heavenly refreshment and heavenly unity. The Christian delights in the rest, the temporary reprieve in with and under bread and wine that he finds in the Holy Supper with his fellow Christians. He refreshes himself and the whole church militant with food for the fight. He who believes His strength comes from God never tires and eagerly desires to avail Himself and renew in Himself the source of His life and strength. This death we proclaim without shame and without compromise and without end. The saving and forgiving power of Christ’s blood is inexhaustible; because Christ’s blood is God’s blood it teems and glimmers with God’s endless, eternal love because love covers a multitude of sins.
As a pledge and promise of His Holy eternal will, He gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink, this feast of victory. In this eating and drinking we behold the slain Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world, both on Good Friday and now in you, His New Creation, exalted forever. His sour wine is our heavenly refreshment, thus we cry out in festal joy: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain! Behold that Lamb that was slain who reigns without end! Blessing and honor and power and might and glory be unto Him without end. And surely He is coming soon to bring all things to their glorious completion!
It is finished! The Holy Supper is a foretaste of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb that has no end. From Christ’s bloody cross, to this altar under bread and wine, and unto eternity, this is what you were made and redeemed for. The Christian believes that when He eats and sups He is given a glimpse of the end of the earthly battle, a glimpse of the eternal victory, of the new Jerusalem, of the eternal Bride of Christ, of endless worship with the whole Church Triumphant, all who have gone before us in faith and died in Christ, and all the heavenly host. The entirety and fullness of Christ’s everlasting work is yours; it is the light and strength of your life. From the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself we receive all things from Him, will endure to our end and then finally unto eternity. Come, for all is ready, world without end, evermore and evermore.
May the almighty and merciful God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, accomplish this in us. Amen.
Recent Comments