Sermon Illustrations for Maundy Thursday (2021)
Illustration
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
Remembering links between The Lord’s Supper and the Passover Seder celebration can pry us Christians loose from the dangerous tendency many of us have to reduce the sacrament to just something between Jesus and ourselves to think of it as just having to do with our salvation. That way of thinking denies the supper’s Jewish roots. Consider what Israeli rabbi Yaacov Cohen says about the Seder Meal:
The main objective of the Seder, the first night of Passover, is to educate to freedom…. This is true freedom: Our ability to shape reality. We have the power to initiate, create and change reality rather than only react and survive it. How can we all educate our children to true freedom? Teach them not to look at reality as defining their acts but to look at their acts as defining reality…. That’s education to freedom; that’s the message of the Seder. (“Can You Educate to Freedom?”)
A 2011 article on Passover in the Huffington Post provides similar insights:
Today, Passover is used as an opportunity to reflect on the things that plague our world, to seek justice for the still-oppressed, and even to bring together multi-faiths family and friends under the common banner of universal freedom.
The Lord’s Supper, then, is an opportunity for the followers of Christ to reflect on and work against the things that oppress and divide. It’s a meal that makes you and me yearn for freedom. If we don’t leave the altar with those feelings and renewed commitment, we really have been April fools (not to mention dishonorable to our Jewish roots).
Mark E.
* * *
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
This reading accents the celebration of the Passover in the lives of the enslaved Israelites. The celebration is important and is celebrated annually among Jewish communities. It is a story of escape, of blessing, of readiness to act as God commands. It is a reminder that God is with the people, all the people, even in the darkest days and saddest times. I have participated in Passover Seders; traditional Jewish celebrations and the modified celebrations Christians celebrate. In all instances, it is the symbology that speaks to my heart and mind, to all my senses really as I see the foods, hear the story, taste the meal, smell the aromas, touch the hands of those gathered. My whole self is engaged in the knowledge that God is the freedom-giver, the provider of the feast and of the joy. That is worth remembering now and always.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Memorials are built to help those who come after to remember a particular event or person. A few years ago, I visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It is a place of quiet reflection that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers whose lives were changed forever on April 19, 1995 at or near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. I remember the feeling I had while there. Awe, sorrow, humility, and love ran through my mind while visiting that powerful memorial. I suppose most memorials inspire those same kinds of responses. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. must elicit that same response.
Memorials cause us to remember the sacrifice, life and sometimes death of people who’ve mattered. Michael Shannon wrote, “Is it possible that what begins as a memorial can become a presence? Imagine if you stood before the Washington Monument and suddenly the father of our country was at your side. Imagine if you stood inside the Lincoln Memorial and suddenly heard a deep voice intoning, “Four score and seven years ago.”
Communion or the Lord’s Supper is a memorial. It is a time to remember Jesus’ death. Unlike memorials who celebrate the dead, the Lord’s Supper celebrates a Savior who conquered death and the grave. When we gather at the Lord’s Table, we come to a memorial of the dying Christ and find ourselves confronted with the living Christ. It is his table. He is there.
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Personally, I’d just as soon clean up these verses when we gather for communion. This is a joyful ceremony where we become more than historical re-enactors. We are actually there, at the first breaking of the bread, when the observance of Passover, our release from slavery into a new nation, is transformed into communion, our release from the slavery of sin to become children of God. We celebrate a key event of the past right here in the present in anticipation of when we shall perfectly live this in the future, in the presence of God at the feast of the lamb.
Which is why I’d just as soon remove that clause about the betrayal. It’s such a downer.
But that won’t work. That would be removing this moment from its historical anchor, which embeds us in a heavenly moment fraught with sin. This is how it happened, and regardless of our sophisticated technology, it is not our place to airbrush Judas out of the picture. He’s one of us. He is us. And it cannot be communion unless those of us who are sinners are there.
Which, of course, is all of us.
Frank R.
* * *
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
One of the most profound experiences of my life as a pastor was the celebration of Maundy Thursday and the foot washing ceremony. There is power in kneeling before those whom you serve, pouring water over their feet, blessing them, and drying them. It is a profound gift of love to offer this and to receive it. Many congregation members are reluctant to have their feet washed, to have their pastor kneel before them, so some pastors have modified the ceremony to wash the hands of their congregation. While I understand the reluctance, it is truly a gift to allow a pastor to serve. I understand Peter’s reluctance, but the gift of service and the receiving of service is truly a gift from God.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
The lesson, like the entire Passion account, is a story of divine humility, a humble love. In referring to the humble love of God for us, Jonathan Edwards spoke of the humility we do well to feel in serving him:
Especially have we reason to wonder that God will employ... feeble, frail, sinful worms of the dust in this work, who need redemption themselves... (Works, Vol.2, p.964)
The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper itself witnesses to this sort of humility. Jesus’ use of feeble, ordinary bread and wine to come to us is another instance of God’s humility. This kind of humble love is likely to reflect in us the more we hang around Jesus, the more we receive him through the humble means of bread and wine, water, or the preacher’s words. Sociologist Alan Wolfe has claimed that without humility we play God, wind up taking a position of moral superiority to the offender, which makes real forgiveness impossible (Moral Freedom, p.163). An ancient African monk Macarius the Egyptian made a similar point about why humility is so essential to Christian living:
The person, however, who truly loves God and Christ, even though he may perform a thousand good works, considers himself as having done nothing because of his insatiable longing for the Lord. (Pseudo-Macarius, p.89)
Think self-esteem is what life’s all about? April Fools!
Mark E.
Remembering links between The Lord’s Supper and the Passover Seder celebration can pry us Christians loose from the dangerous tendency many of us have to reduce the sacrament to just something between Jesus and ourselves to think of it as just having to do with our salvation. That way of thinking denies the supper’s Jewish roots. Consider what Israeli rabbi Yaacov Cohen says about the Seder Meal:
The main objective of the Seder, the first night of Passover, is to educate to freedom…. This is true freedom: Our ability to shape reality. We have the power to initiate, create and change reality rather than only react and survive it. How can we all educate our children to true freedom? Teach them not to look at reality as defining their acts but to look at their acts as defining reality…. That’s education to freedom; that’s the message of the Seder. (“Can You Educate to Freedom?”)
A 2011 article on Passover in the Huffington Post provides similar insights:
Today, Passover is used as an opportunity to reflect on the things that plague our world, to seek justice for the still-oppressed, and even to bring together multi-faiths family and friends under the common banner of universal freedom.
The Lord’s Supper, then, is an opportunity for the followers of Christ to reflect on and work against the things that oppress and divide. It’s a meal that makes you and me yearn for freedom. If we don’t leave the altar with those feelings and renewed commitment, we really have been April fools (not to mention dishonorable to our Jewish roots).
Mark E.
* * *
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
This reading accents the celebration of the Passover in the lives of the enslaved Israelites. The celebration is important and is celebrated annually among Jewish communities. It is a story of escape, of blessing, of readiness to act as God commands. It is a reminder that God is with the people, all the people, even in the darkest days and saddest times. I have participated in Passover Seders; traditional Jewish celebrations and the modified celebrations Christians celebrate. In all instances, it is the symbology that speaks to my heart and mind, to all my senses really as I see the foods, hear the story, taste the meal, smell the aromas, touch the hands of those gathered. My whole self is engaged in the knowledge that God is the freedom-giver, the provider of the feast and of the joy. That is worth remembering now and always.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Memorials are built to help those who come after to remember a particular event or person. A few years ago, I visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It is a place of quiet reflection that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers whose lives were changed forever on April 19, 1995 at or near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. I remember the feeling I had while there. Awe, sorrow, humility, and love ran through my mind while visiting that powerful memorial. I suppose most memorials inspire those same kinds of responses. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. must elicit that same response.
Memorials cause us to remember the sacrifice, life and sometimes death of people who’ve mattered. Michael Shannon wrote, “Is it possible that what begins as a memorial can become a presence? Imagine if you stood before the Washington Monument and suddenly the father of our country was at your side. Imagine if you stood inside the Lincoln Memorial and suddenly heard a deep voice intoning, “Four score and seven years ago.”
Communion or the Lord’s Supper is a memorial. It is a time to remember Jesus’ death. Unlike memorials who celebrate the dead, the Lord’s Supper celebrates a Savior who conquered death and the grave. When we gather at the Lord’s Table, we come to a memorial of the dying Christ and find ourselves confronted with the living Christ. It is his table. He is there.
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Personally, I’d just as soon clean up these verses when we gather for communion. This is a joyful ceremony where we become more than historical re-enactors. We are actually there, at the first breaking of the bread, when the observance of Passover, our release from slavery into a new nation, is transformed into communion, our release from the slavery of sin to become children of God. We celebrate a key event of the past right here in the present in anticipation of when we shall perfectly live this in the future, in the presence of God at the feast of the lamb.
Which is why I’d just as soon remove that clause about the betrayal. It’s such a downer.
But that won’t work. That would be removing this moment from its historical anchor, which embeds us in a heavenly moment fraught with sin. This is how it happened, and regardless of our sophisticated technology, it is not our place to airbrush Judas out of the picture. He’s one of us. He is us. And it cannot be communion unless those of us who are sinners are there.
Which, of course, is all of us.
Frank R.
* * *
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
One of the most profound experiences of my life as a pastor was the celebration of Maundy Thursday and the foot washing ceremony. There is power in kneeling before those whom you serve, pouring water over their feet, blessing them, and drying them. It is a profound gift of love to offer this and to receive it. Many congregation members are reluctant to have their feet washed, to have their pastor kneel before them, so some pastors have modified the ceremony to wash the hands of their congregation. While I understand the reluctance, it is truly a gift to allow a pastor to serve. I understand Peter’s reluctance, but the gift of service and the receiving of service is truly a gift from God.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
The lesson, like the entire Passion account, is a story of divine humility, a humble love. In referring to the humble love of God for us, Jonathan Edwards spoke of the humility we do well to feel in serving him:
Especially have we reason to wonder that God will employ... feeble, frail, sinful worms of the dust in this work, who need redemption themselves... (Works, Vol.2, p.964)
The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper itself witnesses to this sort of humility. Jesus’ use of feeble, ordinary bread and wine to come to us is another instance of God’s humility. This kind of humble love is likely to reflect in us the more we hang around Jesus, the more we receive him through the humble means of bread and wine, water, or the preacher’s words. Sociologist Alan Wolfe has claimed that without humility we play God, wind up taking a position of moral superiority to the offender, which makes real forgiveness impossible (Moral Freedom, p.163). An ancient African monk Macarius the Egyptian made a similar point about why humility is so essential to Christian living:
The person, however, who truly loves God and Christ, even though he may perform a thousand good works, considers himself as having done nothing because of his insatiable longing for the Lord. (Pseudo-Macarius, p.89)
Think self-esteem is what life’s all about? April Fools!
Mark E.
