https://assets-cdn2.dropwave.io/086174f0-efbe-400f-a3e9-b91549a26ab7/media/Maundy Thursday AD 2026.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[86] We still stumble daily and transgress because we live in the world among people. They do us much harm and give us reasons for impatience, anger, revenge, and such. [88] There is here again great need for us to call upon God and to pray, “Dear Father, forgive us our trespasses.” It is not as though He did not forgive sin without and even before our prayer. (He has given us the Gospel, in which is pure forgiveness before we prayed or ever thought about it [Romans 5:8].) But the purpose of this prayer is that we may recognize and receive such forgiveness.

[89] The flesh in which we daily live is of such a nature that it neither trusts nor believes God [Romans 7:14–18]. [91] Let no one think that as long as he lives here he can reach such a position that he will not need such forgiveness [1 John 1:8]. In short, if God does not forgive without stopping, we are lost.

[92] It is, therefore, the intent of this petition that God would not regard our sins and hold up to us what we daily deserve. But we pray that He would deal graciously with us and forgive, as He has promised, and so grant us a joyful and confident conscience to stand before Him in prayer [Hebrews 10:22]. [94] Just as we daily sin much against God, and yet He forgives everything through grace, so we, too, must ever forgive our neighbor who does us injury, violence, and wrong, shows malice toward us, and so on. Large Catechism, Fifth Petition

[Trouble in the Corinthian church]

Whatever the Corinthian church celebrated when they gathered for worship, it wasn’t the Lord’s Supper. They disregard one another. Some get drunk. Others go hungry. They humiliate the poor and thus despise the Church of God. They treat this holy food as though it’s any common meal. They fail to discern the body. They have forgotten the Words of Institution.

Paul goes on to say that anyone “who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” (1 Corinthians 11:29-30). By their carelessness toward the Sacrament of the Altar, they deprive themselves of the Lord’s gifts in instead place themselves under God’s judgment. Many Christians among them became spiritual weak and sick. For some, their faith died. Eating the Sacrament unworthily has killed their faith.

[The Nature of the Sacrament]

Sacramental eating is never neutral. Sacramental eating means that what you eat and drink at this altar will have an effect on you — either to great benefit or to great harm. That’s because of what the Sacrament is. It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink. It’s not my faith or yours that makes this Sacrament valid. It is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why St. Paul recounts the Words of Institution and warns the Corinthians to examine themselves.

In this Sacrament, one receives from God either gift or judgment. Often we guard and warn against unworthy reception because we don’t want anyone to come under God’s judgment at the altar. But when we warn against the judgment of God, it’s not because we want anyone to merely be frightened of this judgment. It’s because we want everyone who comes to this altar to receive the benefits and blessings that Jesus proclaims. For a nourished and lively faith.

So if you want to receive this gift rightly, then heed the warning: examine yourself. No one will stop a hypocrite from coming forward. It’s the duty of the pastor and church to withhold the Sacrament from those living in open, unrepentant sin and from those of a different confession. But if, in your heart — where no one can see — you harbor sins against your neighbor, or cling to sins you love — If you’re despising the body and blood of Jesus in your heart, no one will stop you. And it will hurt you to receive Jesus’ body and blood.

That’s why St. Paul insists on self-examination. He wants you to receive God’s gifts to your benefit. Self-examination is more than introspection. It’s considering your place in life according to the Ten Commandments. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?

Examine your heart. What do you discover? Pride, resentment, selfishness, covetousness; greed and lust; a reluctance to forgive and full-grown grudges. It’s not a pretty sight. As Luther says, “When we examine ourselves, we find nothing in us but sin and death.”

[Comfort]

That’s why it’s so comforting to hear what Jesus does in tonight’s Gospel. Jesus loves His own ”to the end.” That is, He loved them to the uttermost, to the fullest extent. He loved them with His infinite love, poured out in greatest measure. He loved them all the way to His victorious cry of “it is finished.”

Jesus goes to the cross bearing all the sins of the whole world. Every betrayal. Every denial. Every selfish act. Every disordered love. Every grudge. Every sin committed against you. He makes the atonement that no one else could. No priest could offer enough sacrifices. No sinner could be his own substitute. None of us could pay the restitution required for our debt against God. But Jesus pays it all. Willingly. Even joyfully.

That’s why we hear in the words of institution: This is My body, which is given for you. This is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. By this institution, Jesus gives what He accomplished on the cross. He gives the Body that hung on the cross, the Blood that sealed the New Testament.

Imagine if His Supper were only a symbol. It would be like being named in a loved one’s will and receiving only a picture of a house, car, or inheritance instead of the real thing. How disappointing would it be if Jesus left us only a memory of His Body and Blood? Imagine going home to a loved one and merely looking at pictures of that person. Pictures are nice when you can’t be there. But when the real thing is there, you don’t need the pictures.

Jesus doesn’t want you to have only pictures or memories of Him. Jesus wants you to have His body and blood. That’s why He leaves His last will and testament. In His will, He hands over His very self. When Jesus died, His last will and testament went into effect, and you’re a beneficiary. He delivers the forgiveness of sins into your mouth.