Why does Jesus institute this Holy Supper on this night? His Words give the answer: “Given and shed for you for the FORGIVENESS OF SINS.” The salvation He won at the cross is delivered in this holy meal to our mouths. When we eat and drink Christ's body and blood, we have the forgiveness of sins. We also have Jesus' promise that He lives in us and we in Him and He will raise us up on the Last Day. But too many people, dear Christians, you and I included, come up to this meal thinking that this forgiveness we are given here is only to benefit us and not for us to receive it in order to benefit our neighbor, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. On the night when He was betrayed, our Lord gave His disciples His body and blood to forgive their sins. But He also showed them what this body and blood are all about: that such forgiveness that they receive is passed on in the care and serving of others.
See how after the Supper, Jesus takes a towel and some water and begins washing the disciples' feet. Jesus is teaching us here that His purpose on this earth is to save us and to serve us. Salvation comes in the Supper when but then He also does this service of washing their stinky, nasty feet. In a similar way, the Lord is teaching us that His love doesn't stop with the Supper in our lives. We come and feast upon His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, but that forgiveness is then passed on from us to others. When we wash someone else's feet, it doesn't mean we have to scrub them with a bar of Irish Spring. It means we are forgiving them when they “step in it.” The point is that the service Christ is doing for His disciples in feeding them His body and blood doesn't end with the meal but continues as He washes their feet. Likewise, our connection to our brothers and sisters in Christ doesn't end when we stand up at the end of Communion. It goes on in our lives together as we serve one another and take care of one another.
When the Passover Lamb was sacrificed in Egypt, that Lamb was killed and then eaten and its blood was the mark that kept the Angel of Death away from God's people. The Passover Lamb was the Lamb who set them free from slavery because right after the Passover, the Israelites left Egypt. Just so Christ is our Passover Lamb. He is sacrificed on the cross and He is eaten in the Holy Supper that is celebrated in the church. And it is that Lamb of God who rescues us from our slavery. For we are in slavery not to Egyptians but to sin and death. But His salvation also ends our slavery to sins against others. Now we don't have to be slaves to other people's sins, holding grudges, acting as if someone is our brother or sister in Christ in name only. When we're slaves, we're looking out for number one, trying to survive, trying to keep ahead of and above others. But with Christ' freedom comes a freedom from such slavery in which we treat others like slaves. Christ's sacrifice on the cross, delivered in His Holy Supper frees us from the worthless lives in which we are only concerned about ourselves. Christ's salvation not only sets us free but makes us servants to care for others. We are free before God. No longer condemned. And now we are true servants to our neighbors, forgiving them and helping them.
St. Paul says that we shall eat and drink the body and blood of Christ in an unworthy way if we don't discern the body of the Lord. This means two things. It means we must never dare to eat and drink this Holy Supper as if it is not truly the body and blood of Christ given for the forgiveness of sins. You can't eat and drink Christ' body and blood if you don't believe that is what it is. That is to sin against Christ's body! But just as much as we shouldn't eat and drink without recognizing that Christ's body and blood are in, with and under the bread and wine, so we shouldn't eat and drink without recognizing that we are united with everyone else by that body and blood into Christ's body, the church. That is, if we eat and drink and then walk away and forget about those around us, being mad at them, hating them, ignoring them, or pretending they don't exist and are not our problem, we have despised Christ's body, the church. To eat and drink forgiveness and then to get up from the altar and then not pass that forgiveness on to others is contrary to what Jesus Himself is doing in the Supper! In the Supper we eat the true body of Christ and thereby we are His body the church, given to one another to serve and care for. To wash each others feet, that is, to forgive each other.
Now it's all well and good to say that Jesus gives us an example to follow. It's good to hear that when we get up from the Supper, we are to love and serve our neighbor. But when we don't? When we see that we don't want to smell someone else's feet, let alone wash them? That is why Jesus died. For your sins. That is why He gives you His body and blood. To take away your sins. That is why He went to the cross and left you a Holy Meal of salvation. When you fail at loving your neighbor, come and feast on Christ's body and blood. If you fail to forgive others, then come and receive forgiveness for that and with enough to spare to dish some out to your neighbor too. Here you see that these things go together: the Supper and loving others. Don't try to love others as if you have the strength and ability to do so on your own! Rather, you must live from the forgiveness that Christ gives in His Supper. Then again, don't come to the Supper with no intention of living to serve others, as if the Supper is just “you and God” and you don't need to worry about anyone else. The body and blood of Jesus are what set you right with God but also with your neighbor. Feast upon Christ's body and blood to know that you are forgiven. Feast upon Christ's body and blood to know that you are a part of His church in which you love others as Christ has loved you. When you sin, you need the Supper. From the Supper learn to serve your neighbor. When you sin in serving your neighbor, back to the Supper. And so it goes; that is our life as Christians.
Jesus' body and blood makes you a Christian. His death takes away your sins. His Supper delivers that forgiveness to you. But it is your loving your neighbor that shows the world you are a Christian. They can't see that just from you going to the Supper. So see how the Lord gives you your whole life on this night. He gives to you the holy food that delivers forgiveness and everlasting life. And He shows you how to live, not for His benefit, but the benefit and blessing or your neighbor. On this night, Christ gives you His body to eat for the forgiveness of sins. And He gives you His body, the church, to serve and love as you live in His grace and forgiveness. For your sake He goes this night to His suffering and death so that you might have new life in Him. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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