Nunc Dimittis - Easter Morning - March 27, 2016 - Text: Luke 2:29-32

We great each other this morning with the usual custom of Christian throughout time. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
 

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we have been looking at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and see how the various parts reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. This morning we conclude our series by stepping back a bit to the Nunc Dimittis.
 

On Good Friday we moved back to the beginning of our service, as you recall our service usually begins with an invocation followed by our confession of sins and God’s Word of absolution on us, that is His forgiving our sins. In following our divine service it was fitting that on Good Friday, the day in which we commemorate the death of our Savior for our sins, that we were reminded of our sin and the very reason Jesus was born, lived, suffered and died, because of our sins. Thus it was fitting that we are reminded of this means of grace of Confession and Absolution.
 

This morning as the Sun rose we completed our service as we addressed the final blessing of the service, the Benediction and in particular, the Aaronic Benediction as it is called. This morning we move back a bit in the service to those words we say and sing following our participation in the Lord’s Supper, that is the Nunc Dimittis, or the Now Dismiss, the song of Simeon after seeing the baby Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the World.
 

The Nunc Dimittis or now dismiss is the song of Simeon. Perhaps you remember the historic account. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth then on the fortieth day after His birth Mary was able to go to the temple in order to offer the sacrifice for redeeming the first born son, the sacrifice of a lamb, or in the case of Mary and Joseph if a lamb could not be afforded two Turtle Doves or two young pigeons could be offered.
 

Before Mary and Joseph came to Jerusalem, in a dream the Lord had told the priest, Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s anointed, that is the Messiah which means anointed one, the one promised by God in the Garden of Eden and reiterated throughout Israelite history, the one who would save the world. Also we are told that Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit to enter the temple at the same time that Mary and Joseph entered the temple, not a coincidence, but the unseen hand of God bringing this event to fruition. As Simeon sees the child he takes Him in his arms and speaks the words of which we are quite familiar, the words which we sing following our dinning at the Lord’s Table and seeing our Lord, His body and blood in the bread and wine at His Holy Supper. Simeon says, “29Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30for my eyes have seen your salvation 31that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
 

In our Divine Service, we have heard the word of the Lord and have followed through from God’s promise to His fulfillment in sending our Messiah, our Christ, our Savior, Jesus. We have been reminded of our Baptism. We have confessed our sins, placing them on Jesus, the spotless lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, and heard the most beautiful words in the world, that is that God has pronounce that our sins are forgiven. We have entered into His presence singing, chanting, speaking back to Him the very words that He has given us to say.
 

We have seen the Lord’s life in His Holy Word. In our liturgy, in the readings from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospel we have witnessed Jesus perfect conception, His perfect life,  His fulfillment of all God’s laws as well as all His prophecies. He have heard His Word proclaimed and as it has been proclaimed, so it is, that is His Word gives what it says and does what it says. We have confessed our faith in Jesus, even in God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have offered our prayers and will offer our offerings, giving back to the Lord from what He has first given to us as an acknowledgment of gifts received.
 

As we prepare for His Holy Supper we are reminded of Jesus perfect suffering, suffering eternal spiritual death for us, hell for us in our place. We are reminded of Jesus perfect death once for all. And we are reminded of Jesus perfect resurrection so that death and the grave no longer have any power over Him, nor us.
 

As we prepared to come to His Holy Supper we prepare ourselves to come and taste His body and blood so that as we participate in this most sacred act, this Passover sacrifice fulfilled in Christ we are reminded that as we eat the bread we partake of the sacrifice of His body on the cross so that His sacrifice becomes ours as He becomes a part of us. And as we partake of the wine we partake of the blood of the lamb poured out on us to mark us as redeemed by Christ the crucified so that the angel of eternal spiritual death has no power over us.
 

Indeed, as we come to His table to partake of this Holy Sacrament, this Holy Mystery we marvel at how our Lord can give to us, through these simple ordinary means of bread and wine all the gifts and blessings He has to give. We might marvel at the love our great God has for us. So that as we partake, His life, suffering, death and resurrection have been made ours.
 

And then, following our being fed at His Holy table, having seen the Lord in His Holy Meal, having tasted that the Lord is good, we are then ready to be dismissed, that is we are, as Simeon was, ready to die and go to heaven to be with the Lord forever. That is the meaning, that is what we speak when we speak the Nunc Dimittis, the now dismiss. We have witnessed our Lord, His life, His suffering, His death, His resurrection, His giving us all the gifts and blessings He has to give. We have witnessed how our Divine Service points to and lays out all of history, all of Scripture that points to Jesus.
 

I pray that as we have followed through the Divine Service over the past seven weeks that you have come to appreciate our liturgy even more. I pray that you have come to see that our liturgy is not really an adiaphora, that is something that is neither commanded nor forbidden, rather that it is the Word of God, given to us by God in such a way that it not only declares to us the Biblical account of history and its fulfillment in Jesus, but also that it gives and bestows the gifts it speaks to us. Indeed, as we believe and confess so we worship and as we worship so we believe and confess, these go hand in hand. We know we believe, teach and confess what our sister congregations believe, teach and confess when there is likeness in how what is believed is acted out especially in the Divine Service. To say that another way, we should be able to tell if we are in a sister Lutheran congregation simply by their worship. I have seen clips of congregations in other parts of the world where they speak a different language, but I can know that it is a sister Lutheran congregation simply by hearing. Thus, if we all do believe, teach and confess the same doctrine of God, then we should probably look a lot alike in how we practice what it is we believe. And the liturgy we have, which has been passed down from generation to generation is a liturgy that has its roots back since the time of the apostles, and even before, even to the giving of the first ceremonial laws given to the children of Israel by God Himself in Leviticus, with the filled liturgy what we have today.
 

Our Divine Service and liturgy are not contemporary, that is with time, or said another way, they are not a fad, something here today and gone tomorrow. Our Divine Service and liturgy transcends time so that it is for all times. Our Divine Service and liturgy transcends generations, cultures, and forms because it is its own unique form. So, every Sunday morning we give up our favorite style and take part in what has been given and passed down through many generations and many cultures. And most certainly we find much unity in this uniting of our hearts and voices together.
 

Our God is a God of love and good order. He created all things perfect and humanity has since that time continued to mess up what God has given and yet, even though He knew that all this would happen He still created us. And now His desire is to continue to love us and to give to us all the gifts and blessings He has to give, through the very means He has given to give us those gifts and blessings. Our Divine Service is our expression of our confession of faith as well as the place where we are given the gifts of God. The more we know about our liturgy and Divine Service, its origins and history, its unique way of pointing us to Jesus, the more we rejoice and give thanks to God for this great and wonderful gift. As we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord on this Easter Sunday, we celebrate the fulfillment of all that God has promised. We celebrate how all of history and all of Holy Scripture, even how our liturgy points to this time and we give thanks. We worship a living God who gives us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give because of His great love for us. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
 

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Benediction - Easter Sunrise - March 27, 2016 - Text: Numbers 6:24-26

We great each other this morning with the usual custom of Christian throughout time. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
 

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we have been looking at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and see how the various parts reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. There are yet two parts of the service we have yet to discuss and we will discuss them out of order. In our late service we will discuss the Nunc Dimittis and in this service we will discuss the conclusion of the service with the benediction.
 

On Good Friday we moved back the beginning of our service, as you recall our service usually begins with an invocation followed by our confession of sins and God’s Word of absolution on us, that is His forgiving our sins. In following our divine service it was fitting that on Good Friday, the day in which we commemorate the death of our Savior for our sins, that we were reminded of our sin and the very reason Jesus was born, lived, suffered and died, because of our sins. Thus it was fitting that we are reminded of this means of grace of Confession and Absolution.
 

This morning as the Sun rises we actually go to the end of our service and the final blessing, the Benediction. Again, in our regular morning service we will address the Nunc Dimittis, or the now dismiss, Simeon’s song.
 

The Benediction is the final blessing of the service. Just as the Lord’s name was put on us, just as we invoked or invited the Lord to be with us, just as we were reminded of our Baptism and entrance into the Holy Christian Church at the beginning of the service with the invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” now here at the end of the service we have the three-fold blessing of Aaron, Moses’ brother, being pronounced on us, “24The Lord bless you and keep you; 25the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:245-26). Notice the three-fold use of God’s name, Yahweh, Lord. The final blessing is the Lord’s gifts to us, His blessings and keeping us in His care and protection, His face shining on us, watching over us and being gracious to us and His looking on us in order to give us peace.
 

So, as we have been following along in our divine worship service, all along we have been given the gifts of God. At the invocation we were reminded of our baptism and the fact that God’s name has been put on us so that He has claimed us and we are His. We were also reminded that in Baptism He has given us faith, forgiveness and eternal life so that our names are written in the book of life and heaven is ours.
 

We have confessed our sins, all our sins, our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of omission and commission, even those sins of which we are unaware. We have placed those sins at the altar, on Jesus and have, through the word of the Pastor, heard His word of forgiveness. This forgiveness being poured out on us enabled us to move boldly into His presence through the introit.
 

We have heard the word of the Lord both through the words of the liturgy as well as through the Scripture readings, usually an Old Testament reading, an Epistle reading and the Gospel reading. We have heard the word of the Lord through the hymns we sing and through the preaching of that very Word of God.
 

We have seen the Lord’s life through the Word and we prepared ourselves to see His life in His Holy Supper. Indeed in the Lord’s Supper we witness Jesus’ perfect life, that is that there was no sin in Him. He was conceived and born in perfection. He lived His life in perfection. He fulfilled all God’s commands, perfectly. He fulfilled all God’s promises, perfectly.
 

In the Lord’s Supper we have witnessed Jesus perfect suffering. Having lived the perfect life Jesus then took all our sins upon Himself. He who had no sin became sin for us. And He suffered. He suffered the death penalty, the price for sin, “the wages of sin is death,” He suffered hell for us in our place.
 

And in the Lord’s Supper we have witnessed Jesus perfect death. All the sins of all people, of all places, of all times, were paid for by Jesus suffering and death on the cross. And Jesus died. Yes, our God, in Jesus died. He died like you and I will die. When He died His body was placed in the ground and His soul separated from His body whereupon He went to proclaim victory over death and the devil. And yet, we know the rest of the story, we know how the story ends. And please forgiven me, but this is not just a story, for our Lord and His story are events that are ground in history, thus they are indeed provable facts. Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead victorious over sin, death and the devil. Other world religious leaders have grave sites, not so with Jesus, there is no grave, nor burial place for Him, because He rose from the dead. And His resurrection was witnessed by many people for forty days following His resurrection.
 

As we have witnessed Jesus perfect resurrection, we now come to His table wherein we taste His body and blood in His holy sacrament. As we pointed out, just as the one bringing the sacrifice partook of that sacrifice, so we who have put Jesus on the cross, come to partake of His body and His blood in His Holy Supper. Our participation is that we come and are given His body to eat and His blood to drink so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His perfect death becomes our perfect death. And His perfect resurrection and eternal life become our perfect resurrection and eternal life.
 

Following our partaking of our Lord’s body and blood in His Holy meal, we are moved to sing the song of Simeon, the song he sang after seeing and blessing the baby Jesus. Simeon had been promised that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s anointed so when he did see Jesus, he was indeed ready to die, but more on that in the late service.
 

In the divine worship service we follow the life of our Lord. In the liturgy of the Divine Service we see what we believe as we act out what we believe. In the liturgy of the Divine Service we learn what we profess and we confess what we believe. In the liturgy of the Divine Service we speak back to God the very words He has given us to say and so we know they are the best words because they are His Words. In the liturgy of the Divine Service our Lord takes our law words and makes them His Gospel Words. And so, in the liturgy of the Divine Service we are given the gifts that He has to give through the very means He has given to give us His gifts, the means of grace, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, the Word, and the Lord’s Supper. In the liturgy of the Divine Service God gives and we respond with hymns and songs, and offerings and prayers. There is no confusion of Law and Gospel. There is no confusion of justification and sanctification. There is no pointing to ourselves. There is always and only pointing to Jesus. We sin, He forgives. We struggle, He gives strength.
 

This morning as we celebrate our Lord’s fulfillment of all His promises, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, as we celebrate sins forgiven, we celebrate with all joy and confidence of our eternal salvation. And as we reach the end of the service and as we are getting ready to go out into the world, into our various vocations we are given our Lords’ blessing so that we are able to go out into the world and live a life pleasing to Him. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
 

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Confession and Absolution - Good Friday - March 25, 2016 - Text: 1 John 1:8-9

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we have been looking at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and seeing how the various parts reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. We have been following along with the parts of the Divine Service as they are in the hymnal however we have omitted one part which we take up today and that is Confession and Absolution. I felt that this part of the Divine Service was quite fitting as this is Good Friday, the day our Lord gave His life on the cross because of our sins so that as we confess our sins we rejoice in the forgiveness He has earned and paid for, for us.
 

Last night we looked at the words of the Lord’s Supper and connecting it to the Passover which is what Jesus was celebrating with His disciples. This evening we will move back to the beginning of our service, as you recall our service usually begins with an invocation followed by our confession of sins and God’s Word of absolution on us, that is His forgiving our sins. In following our divine service it is indeed fitting that on this Good Friday, the day in which we commemorate the death of our Savior for our sins, that we are reminded of our sin and the very reason Jesus was born, lived, suffered and died, because of our sins. Thus it is fitting that we are reminded of this means of grace of Confession and Absolution.
 

As we make profession in the fifth chief part of the catechism, confession embraces two parts, the first part is that we confess our sins. We might inquire that if God already knows our sins, then why would there be a need for us to confess? We confess our sins so that we acknowledge our part in Jesus’ suffering, so that we acknowledge and admit that we have sinned and for the simple fact that to not confess our sins is to refuse the forgiveness that is pronounced upon our confession. As we confess in our liturgy, “8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). Indeed, if we do not think we have sinned, if there is nothing for which we need to repent and confess, then there is no need for forgiveness.
 

So, the first part of confession is that we confess our sins and the second part is absolution that is that we are absolved, forgiven of all our sins, and really not just those we confess. Unfortunately, too often some of us have a hard time with this absolution part as well. For not only can we refuse forgiveness by not confessing our sins, but we can also refuse forgiveness by not believing that our sins are forgiven and we do that, not believe our sins are forgiven by continuing to dwell on those sins and continuing to confess them even though they have already been forgiven, indeed cast as far as the east is from the west, forgotten by God, forgiven by Jesus. So the devil would tempt us to believe we have no sin and when we do confess he would tempt us to believe that God could not and would not forgive such sins. And so this is why we live by faith and not by sight, this is why we do not trust our emotions because too often we may not feel very forgiven or very saved, yet that is when we kick our minds into gear and we know, because God has told us so in His Word, which does what is says and gives the gifts of which is speaks, and indeed as God has pronounced to us through the mouth of the pastor, we know that as God has spoken, so our sins are forgiven. Nothing more needs to be done.
 

Now, to suggest that there is a third part of confession, that is to suggest that one needs then to make satisfaction for sins, as some do, this making of satisfaction simply stated means that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough and that now there is something that I must do to earn forgiveness. This thought process brings several problems such as, if sins are forgiven then there is nothing more which needs to be done because there is no more sin. Of course we have Jesus’ word that He died, once for all and that His death was sufficient for us. We also have the difficulty of the fact that just as a drowning person cannot save himself and if he could he would not be drowning, so we who are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins cannot make ourselves alive because if we could we would not be dead. So we understand that there are only two things that are necessary, one is that we confess and two is that we are given absolution, the forgiveness of sins and we rejoice and give thanks because that is all that is necessary.
 

Why do we confess? We confess because we are compelled, not by the law, but by the Gospel to confess. Remember the purpose of the law it so show our sins and that is what the law does, it shows us our sins and just how sinful we truly are. The law is like a mirror showing how we have not kept any of the Ten Commandments. The law is rule measuring how far we have gone astray from God’s will. The law is a curb keeping us on the straight and narrow or at least attempting to, but please know this, the law does not move us to confess. If anything the law may lead us to works righteousness that is it may lead us to think we can earn forgiveness, that is that we might be good enough, or we might do some good things that will counter the bad things we do, but the question then is before us, “Have we done enough and how would we know?” Indeed there are those who would tell you that you can be the person God wants you to be, but if that were true then we would have no need for God and thus we would be lost and condemned persons.
 

If the law does not lead us to self-righteousness it might lead us to despair. We would despair because we might imagine that we have sinned so badly that there is no way that God could forgive us and so we would simply give up hope, denying forgiveness because we cannot believe that our sins are forgiven, such as was the case with Judas. He did not believe Jesus could forgive him and so he was condemned. Again the purpose of the law is to show our sins and that is what it does and it does so quite well.
 

On the other hand, the Gospel shows our Savior and leads us to confess. The Gospel announces, tells us, all that Jesus has done for us and given to us. The Gospel proclaims forgiveness and indeed as it proclaims so it is. Thus, to not confess would mean gift refusal, but to confess means gifts given, gifts received. Thus, it is when we know that our sins are already forgiven that is what leads us to confess our sins.
 

I have used this illustration before and I will use it again this evening because I believe it explains confession and absolution quite well. Mrs. Smith passed out a new box of crayons to all the children in the class. She told them to be careful, to not push to hard so they would not break their new crayons. As the class began coloring, little Johnny pushed too hard and broke his crayon. A little later Mrs. Smith told the children to put their broken crayons on their desk. Little Johnny, not wanting to get into trouble, placed the bottom part of his crayon in the box and the top part on top. No one would be the wiser he thought.
 

A little later Mrs. Smith came around the classroom, picked up the broken crayons and gave the children new crayons. All the children received new crayons except little Johnny who refused a new crayon by not confessing that he had broken his crayon. The same is true with forgiveness, when we fail to confess our sins, we refuse God’s forgiveness.
 

Now, if Mrs. Smith had begun by telling the students that she was going to give them new crayons for broken crayons, little Johnny may have been motivated to confess that he had broken his crayon. Here we see that repentance is motivated, not by the law, but by the Gospel. It is the Gospel message that we have forgiveness, already earned by Jesus that motivates us to repent. And with repentance is forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

This evening as we recount Jesus’ perfect life, His taking our sins upon Himself, His suffering the complete punishment for our sins, eternal spiritual death, and His dying on the cross for us and because of us, we are moved to confess, it is I who put Him on the cross and we know for certain also that even if I were the only person in the world, Jesus would have given His life for me because of His great love for me. And so we do confess, and so we do hear His words of love and forgiveness, “your sins are forgiven.” Thanks be to God and to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lord’s Supper - Maundy Thursday - March 24, 2016 - Text: Matthew 26:26-28

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we have been looking at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and seeing how the various parts reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. So far we have moved steadily through the Divine Service as we have it in the hymnal having skipped Confession and Absolution which we will take up tomorrow and the Lord’s Supper which we will fittingly take up today.
 

Last week we moved on in the divine service to the offertory and the preface for the service of the Sacrament. The offertory is that word of God that is spoken, sung or chanted as the offerings of God’s people are presented and as the Lord’s Table is prepared for the people of God. The preface are those words which prepare us for the words of institution and our reception of our Lord’s Holy Supper. Last week we began looking at the words of this Holy Meal and connecting it to the Passover which is what Jesus was celebrating with His disciples. This evening we want to continue with that connection and as we do we will come to understand that this meal, this supper is not simply an act of obedience, an acting out of what Jesus did, but indeed this is a most sacred act, even a sacramental act that is an act which is filled with the mysteries of God, the mystery of how He uses the common ordinary means of bread and wine and through these means gives to us the gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

In the divine service, the Words of Our Lord as they are called are what we call a conflation of the four readings in which we are told of Jesus giving us His Holy Supper, that is they are a “combining,” if you will, of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. What we hear as the words of institution is this: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks He broke it and gave it to disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is my body,” which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you, cup is new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
 

So, what is this thing the Lord Jesus is giving to us? Again let me remind you that Jesus was celebrating the Passover Seder with His disciples, for the last time. The Passover Seder was that meal, that celebration that God gave to Israel to celebrate the passing over of the angel of death as they were freed from their bondage of slavery in Egypt. As you might recall, they were to select a lamb, a spotless lamb; slaughter the lamb, catching some of the blood; put the blood on the door post and the lintel of the door, in essence making the sign of the cross, so that when the angel of death would pass over the land of Egypt all those in the houses marked by the blood of the lamb would be passed over and the first born would live. The lamb was to be cooked and eaten with the people dressed and ready to exit Egypt. After their exit the Lord gave Israel this celebration as a yearly celebration so they might be reminded of God’s rescue of His people, except that now they could celebrate in a more relaxed manner.
 

During the meal several important things happened, including the children asking questions which were answered by the father or the head of the family. At the beginning of the celebration three pieces of matzah bread are placed in a burse that is a bag with three compartments, however the middle piece of matzah was broken in half so that only half was placed in the burse while the other half was tucked away, hidden so to speak. Now, if you have never seen matzah bread or do not know what it is let me describe it for you. Matzah bread is very much like a large unsalted cracker. It is unleavened bread, that is bread without yeast. It has holes in it so that it does not expand and burst. It also has char marks on it from being cooked on a grill or griddle. During the Passover Seder celebration different foods are eaten as a reminder of what the Israelites went through as slaves in Egypt. Bitter herbs are eaten, parsley dipped in salt water is eaten as a reminder of the tears of labor, as well as the lamb is eaten. Also there are four cups of wine that are consumed during the meal. All parts of the meal are intended to be instructive and a reminder to the children of Israel of God’s grace and favor. It was while Jesus was celebrating this meal for the very last time with His disciples that He took from the meal and gave them and us something new, something better, something which gives us the fullness and the fulfillment of that first Passover.
 

Now, before I speak of Jesus’ meal, let me remind you of the ceremonial laws and sacrifices of the Old Testament. You may remember that a person would bring a lamb, a spotless lamb for sacrifice. They would lay their hands on the lamb, in essence transferring their sins to the lamb. The lamb would be slaughtered, cooked and then eaten by the one who brought the lamb, thus in the eating of the lamb they were participating in its sacrifice for their sins. In essence the lambs death became a part of them. We also remember that these sacrifices really did nothing for earning or paying for forgiveness of sins, they only pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice of the promised Savior and His work of earning and paying for our forgiveness. Now we fast forward to Jesus giving us the new sacrament from the one that pointed to it.
 

At one point in the meal, Jesus took bread, the middle matzah, blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples with the words, “Take and eat, this IS my body.” Jesus did not say that the bread symbolized His body, nor did He say the bread was changed into His body. Jesus took the bread so that He had bread in His hand and He gave it to His disciples and told them they were to eat the bread that He was holding because the bread was, is, His body.
 

Jesus then took the cup of wine, the third cup of wine, the cup of redemption, blessed it and gave it with the words, “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.” Jesus did not say that the cup of wine symbolized His blood, nor did He say the cup of wine was changed into His blood. Jesus took the cup of wine so that He had the cup of wine in His hand and He gave it to His disciples and told them they were to drink the wine from the cup that He was holding because the cup of wine was, is, His blood.
 

In his account Luke tells us that Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In the conflation we hear these words, “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” This word remembrance is not what we think of when we think of remembering something today. Today to remember something might infer that this act is something that should be acted out as a way of being mindful of an important event, yet, still this would not evoke any kind of thought that it is our obedience to act out this event that would bring anything to us. No, rather this remembrance is a participation in what is happening. Just as in the Old Testament, one would eat the lamb to participate in the lambs sacrifice, so that is what is happening in this mystery, this sacred act, this sacrament that the Lord is giving us. When we eat the bread/body of Jesus and drink the wine/blood of Jesus we are participating in His sacrifice for us, so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life; His perfect death becomes our perfect death; His perfect resurrection becomes our perfect resurrection and His perfect eternal life becomes our perfect eternal life. Just as the blood of the Passover lamb was put on the door post and lintel of the door, making the sign of the cross and marking the house so the angel of death would pass over that house, so Jesus’ blood is on us marking us so that the angel of eternal spiritual death will pass over us.
 

At the Lord’s Supper Jesus was present, a spotless lamb. Jesus was perfect having been born in perfection and having never sinned, living a perfect life. Then Jesus took our sins, all our sins, and the sins of all people, of all places of all times and He was slaughtered, sacrificed for us on the cross, once and for all. And now He comes to us to offer us to eat of His true body and blood so that we are able to participate in His life giving sacrifice. We do this, that is we eat His body and drink His blood, not as an act of obedience, but as a response to His desire to give to us the gifts and blessings He has to give, thus this is a means of grace, a way in which our Lord gives to us the gifts and blessings He has to give, forgiveness of sins, faith and strengthening of faith, life and salvation. And so this sacred act, this mystery, this sacrament is just that a sacrament, a way in which God comes to us through the simply earthly things of bread and wine to give us all the gifts and blessings He has to give and so in faith we come to be given to and to rejoice and say, thanks be to God and to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.