Follow Jesus our Passover Lamb! (Exodus 12:1-14)

Maundy Thursday 

April 5, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

Back in March of 2006 a man named Jack Dorsey created and shortly after launched what we now know as Twitter.  Now, if you are not familiar with Twitter, it is an online social networking service that allows you to follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news, as they tweet or post their latest information online.  For example, as of 9:05 PM on April 3, there are 385,065 people following leadership expert, John C. Maxwell on twitter.  There are 13,704,986 people following President Obama, and there are 22,143,612 people following singer Lady Gaga.  Yet while it can be fun to follow people on twitter and find out what they are up to on a regular basis, as Christians, the person we want to be following is Jesus, our Passover Lamb.  In fact, as we study the lesson before us this evening we will take a closer look at the feast of the Passover as we follow after Jesus, our Passover Lamb.

Now, as we heard in our lesson a few moments ago, Israel is still in Egypt, suffering under the oppression of slavery.  Moses is going head to head with Pharaoh, and the Lord is preparing to send the tenth and final plague against the Egyptians.  As the Lord is preparing this, he relates to Moses and Aaron how he wants the people to prepare for their departure.  The Lord says, “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household…The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs… On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:3,5-7,12-14).

This meal of the Passover was first eaten by the Israelites in Egypt according to the Lord command.  On that night, they ate it with their cloaks tucked into their belts, their sandals on their feet, and their staffs in their hands.  They ate it in haste because the Lord had said they would be leaving Egypt that very night, and that is exactly what happened.  For on that night, the Lord did exactly has he had promised.  At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt from the house of Pharaoh to the house of the lowliest prisoner, as well as the firstborn of all their livestock.  But when the Lord saw the blood on the doors of the houses of the Israelites, he passed over them as he had promised.  From that time on, the Israelites had celebrated the Passover as the Lord had commanded them to.  They had gathered to eat roast lamb and bitter herbs and to tell their children the stories of how the Lord had delivered them from Egypt as he had promised. But while this was truly an important event in the lives of the Israelites, this meal of the Passover not only reminded them of their deliverance from the Egyptians, it also foreshadowed another important event.  If foreshadowed their deliverance from sin and satan, which found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb.

It is this deliverance that we are celebrating tonight, the deliverance from sin and satan that Jesus won for us as our Passover Lamb. Although we normally associate the Passover with Maundy Thursday, and Jesus’ crucifixion with Good Friday, the beautiful truth of God’s plan is that Jesus, our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for our sins on the day of the Passover.  On that evening, our Passover Lamb celebrated the Passover with his disciples, he instituted the new meal of the Lord’s Supper, and he was slaughtered to bring to fulfillment the forgiveness that was foreshadowed in the Passover meal. 

But now comes the question, “How could that be if Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples on Thursday night?”  To answer that question we must remind ourselves of how the Israelites counted their days; for them, when the sun set on Thursday evening, Thursday came to an end, and Friday began.  The setting of the sun marked the ending of their day.  Take for example our services tonight.  If we measured our days the way the Israelites measured them, we would be holding this service in the closing hours of Thursday evening.  In this way even though we would have started worshiping on Thursday we would have finished our service in the early hours of Friday morning.  So, when Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples at twilight, he was eating it in the first few hours of the day of the Passover.  When Jesus was crucified some 15 hours later, he was being sacrificed as our Passover Lamb, on the day of the Passover.

Thus, tonight, as we celebrate Maundy Thursday, we have followed our Passover Lamb to the upper room where he celebrated the Passover with his disciples.  We will shortly be dining with him as we come forward to receive his body and blood in the Sacrament, and tomorrow evening we will follow our Passover Lamb to the Cross.  We will again remind ourselves of how Jesus was pierced there for our transgressions.  We will remind ourselves how the Holy Spirit took some of the blood of our Passover Lamb and painted it on the door posts and door frames of our hearts to mark us as forgiven children of God.

This is why we have gathered here this evening.  We have gathered to follow Jesus our Passover Lamb; the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  He is the Lamb who was slain.  He is the Lamb whose blood has caused God’s great wrath to Passover us.  He is the Lamb who willingly gave his life in our place and gives us his body and blood to eat and drink to assure us that we have been completely cleansed of all our sins .  This is Jesus, our Passover Lamb whom we follow this evening.

Though I’m sure if we looked hard enough we could probably find a Twitter user sending out tweets as Jesus Christ, tonight we have chosen to follow the real thing.  Tonight we have followed our Passover Lamb to the upper room and to the cross.  Tonight we have been assured of the forgiveness he won for us and the wrath that has passed over us.  Let us continue to follow him as he leads us on the path from his empty tomb to our home with him forever in heaven.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Jesus Is Our Servant Leader (Luke 22:19-24; John 13:2-5, 14)

April 21, 2011
Maundy Thursday

Dear friends in Christ.

The phrase, “Servant Leadership” is a phrase that was originally coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in an essay that he published back in 1970. In that essay he said, “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” Since that essay was written there have been many people who have sought to practice principals of servant leadership in their homes, businesses, and industries.

Yet, throughout all of history, there is no greater servant leader than Jesus Christ, our Savior. For it was Jesus himself who told us that he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45) and that is exactly what Jesus did. He served the Israelites by traveling from town to town and proclaiming the message of salvation through faith in him, the Savior of the world. He served the people by meeting their needs with the condemnation of the law and the comfort of the gospel. He served his people, and indeed the whole world, as he prepared himself on this night to give up his own life so that we might live. In fact, as we meet Jesus in our lesson from John 13 we see him leading his disciples by serving them. For in John 13, Jesus and his disciples are in the upper room celebrating the Passover. But, as we find them, the disciples were all arguing about which one of them was the greatest. So Jesus showed them, through an act of servant leadership, what being the greatest was all about. Take a look at what John has to tell us in chapter 13, beginning with verse 2: “The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him…14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:2-5, 14, NIV84)

How humbling it must have been for the disciples, and how embarrassing, to see Jesus, their Lord and Master displaying his love for them by humbly washing their feet, even as they had been so recently arguing about their greatness. Yet, how often don’t we act exactly like the disciples did? How often don’t we jockey among ourselves to see which one of us is the greatest in the church? Oh, we may not openly argue about our own greatness, but how often don’t we subtly or even overtly point out our own over all service record? How often don’t we like to review how long we’ve served in one position or another, or even how long we’ve been members of this congregation? How often haven’t we, as volunteers, voiced our anger and frustration against all those others who simply don’t do anything for the congregation? How often haven’t we complained about the running of a committee or organization within the church, speaking about its members or leaders behind their backs? How often haven’t we expressed our own ideas in the church and then been hurt when our ideas are not used or voted down? How often haven’t we seen something that needed to be changed, but kept quiet about it, until finally we couldn’t stand it anymore and burst forth in anger, exercising authority over a situation with anger and frustration? How often haven’t we been just like the disciples, self righteously stepping ever closer to our secret desire to be called greatest in the Kingdom of Christianity?

Jesus knows exactly how many times we have done these things and even more than that, just as he knew it about his disciples. Yet, Jesus never switched tracks. He never deviated from his course. In fact, Luke 22 tells us that Jesus continued traveling the path that would lead him to the cross in just a few short hours. Luke 22 tells us how Jesus revealed the identity of his betrayer, how Jesus was setting in motion all the events that were unfolding before him, even how he instituted a new meal of forgiveness for his disciples who were still struggling to understand what servant leadership was all about. Take a look at Luke 22 and well read verses 19-23: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. (Luke 22:19–23, NIV84)

In such an amazing way, as they partook of that holy supper, Jesus gave them to eat and drink the very events that would play out before them in roughly 12 hours time. He gave them his body together with the bread. He gave them his bold together with the wine. He gave it to them for the forgiveness of their sins. He gave it to them to help them understand what his mission was all about. He gave it to them to help them grow in their faith, be strengthened in their faith, and be moved to live in their faith in Jesus, their Servant Leader.

In the same what that Jesus gave this special meal to his disciples, he made sure that they passed it down from generation to generation so that we too could participate in the events of Good Friday. He made sure that through the Apostle’s preaching, we too would learn about this marvelous meal of Christ’s body and blood given and poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins. For tonight, as you approach this table to eat the bread and wine—in a special way I cannot understand but only believe because Jesus tell me that this is how it is—you will be eating the very body that was broken for us on the cross. You will be drinking the very blood that Jesus poured out for us for the forgiveness of all of our sins. In this meal, Jesus body together with the bread, and Jesus blood, together with the wine, come together to assure us that our sins have been completely and totally washed away. Those sins of jockeying for position with our words; those sins of voicing our anger against all those who don’t volunteer as often or as willingly as we do; those sins of complaining against others and speaking behind their backs; those sins of feeling unduly hurt when our own ideas are not accepted; those sins of bursting forth with rage and anger rather than working to fix a problem; all our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. All our sins are forgiven by Jesus’ body given for us. All our sins have been forgiven because the Son of Man came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

What greater attitude of servant leadership could there be than that of Jesus’ willing sacrifice for our sins! Though he knew what was to come, he willingly went forward to the cross in our place. Though the phrase “Servant Leadership” was only really coined some 40 years ago the concept has been around since even before the time of Christ. Yet as we have studied the People of the Passion, we can truly see how Christ our Savior stands out as our Servant Leader. So, as you leave here today with the taste of your Savior still on your tongues, live in the forgiveness that he has so lovingly bestowed upon you and seek to emulate him with your lives.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN