Sermon
for Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025
The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
Psalm
51:10-13 10
“Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew an unwavering spirit within me.
11Do not cast me from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your
salvation. Sustain me with a willing
spirit. 13I will teach rebels
your ways, and sinners will turn to you.” (EHV)
Dear
fellow redeemed,
In many ways, Maundy Thursday always
seems like a somewhat somber occasion.
We are reminded of so many harsh and tragic things that would soon
happen in the last days of Jesus’ earthly life, and knowing Jesus as our great
Friend, that feels somewhat gloomy. On
top of that, we have been reminded throughout the season of Lent that it is
because of us and our sins that Jesus had to face the awful pain of the abuse
and crucifixion in our place.
It
might surprise us, then, to be reminded that for Jesus, this night was a high
point of His mission. As Jesus reclined
at the table for the supper in that upper room, He said to His disciples, “I
have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell
you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
(Luke 22:15-16) It kind of blows my mind
that Jesus eagerly desired to eat that last meal. He eagerly desired the service and sacrifice
He would give to rescue you and me. Yes,
maybe there is more going on there than just eating a meal.
In
fact, in the progress of that evening, Jesus was answering David’s prayer in
our text: “Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew an unwavering spirit within me.” Whether we realize it or not, David prayed to
be Renewed through the Gospel. Already
way back a thousand years before Jesus entered our world or any of the New
Testament was written, David understood that he couldn’t fix the damage sin had
done in his whole being. Only God could restore
righteousness in David.
There
are lots of religions and lots of faithful people who imagine that they can do
something to make themselves righteous before God, but as we have been shown
throughout this Lenten season, our corruption was total, our depravity too deep
for us to repair. In his letter to the
Roman congregation, St. Paul was moved to summarize several of the prophets
concerning the condition of man: “There is no one who is righteous, not even
one. There is no one who
understands. There is no one who
searches for God. They all turned away;
together they became useless. There is
no one who does what is good; there is not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) Not one person among the billions who have
lived on this earth, or yet will, is able to make himself holy. Our only hope comes from above, from the very
source of all that is good, “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!” (John 1:29)
Several
hundred years after David wrote this psalm, the Lord would speak through His
prophet, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you.”
(Ezekiel 36:26) The message is
consistent throughout the Bible. It is
always telling us how God Himself would remedy our fallen situation. Though we could never begin to approach God
in His holiness, God came down to earth to do for us what needed to be done to
save sinners, including you and me.
Now,
David used a verb form here that is only used for God’s creating work in making
something new out of nothing. It is the
word used when the book of Genesis tells us, “In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
David pleaded, “Create in me a pure heart, O God.” Using the part for the whole, David pleads
for God to make him newly holy and wholly righteous. It is a plea for a complete transformation—a
recreation to holiness anew. Through
Jesus, God makes us, who have nothing good in us, a new creation. Paul wrote, “So then, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation. The old
has passed away. The new has come!”
(2 Corinthians 5:17)
The
question for us, this evening, is “How is this transformation accomplished?” In answer, we should understand David’s
second plea, “Do not cast me from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” Two points I need to make. First point: God had a plan in place from the
beginning to rescue us from condemnation.
Yet, that plan doesn’t follow our impatient timeline. Before Adam and Eve ever sinned, God knew His
plan would have to be accomplished for anyone to have fellowship with Him. God didn’t ordain sin, but He knew we
would. Still, He desires to have a
fellowship of faith, so He had to create mankind with the ability to fail—to
sin against God and fall into death, with the provision that through repentance
and faith, peace between God and people would be restored.
Therefore,
God doesn’t immediately destroy sinners.
Rather, as Peter explained, “The Lord is not slow to do what he
promised, as some consider slowness.
Instead, he is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to perish, but
all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
God was patient throughout all the ages of history. His meticulous plans were accomplished
exactly as God intended so that His Son, Jesus, would regain righteousness for
mankind, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, righteousness is given to us as we
are Renewed through the Gospel.
Through
the first half of the Church year, our focus is directed mainly on Jesus coming
into the world and all He did to accomplish everlasting peace between God and
His people. During the second half of
the Church year, beginning after the Easter season, the focus tends more toward
the work of the Holy Spirit in us. That brings
us to my second point of how our transformation from sinner to saint comes
about. It is through the Spirit’s work
in us that we are justified by faith through the gift of the Spirit in the
Gospel. Justification always comes with
sanctification, and our sanctification is an ongoing process.
After
he was brought to repentance, David prayed, “Restore to me the joy of your
salvation. Sustain me with a willing
spirit.” We are restored in the joy
of salvation when the Lord pours out on us all the Good News of what Jesus did
for you and me and everyone. It comes to
us through the proclamation of the Gospel and the absolution by which (through
His messengers) God Himself announces the forgiveness of all our sins so that
we are Renewed through the Gospel.
We
are Renewed through the Gospel by the water and Word applied to us in
Baptism through which God rescues us from death and restores life to formerly
lost souls. By the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, Paul wrote to Titus,
When the kindness and love of God our
Savior toward mankind appeared, he saved us —not by righteous works that we did
ourselves, but because of his mercy. He
saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that,
having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the
hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
Even
though we are granted new life and membership in God’s eternal kingdom, He
doesn’t usually immediately take us out of this world to heaven. He leaves us in this world to serve the Lord
for His ongoing purpose which is to bring life and salvation to all people who
will hear, repent, and believe. How we
all fit in that plan is as varied as people are varied. However, because we live in a sin-damaged
world, we need continual sanctification as long as we remain in this hostile, foreign
place. Yes, heaven is our home, but
until we get there, we need our Lord’s ongoing care—which brings us to Maundy
Thursday.
As
I said, in the first half of the Church year, we focus on Jesus’ life on
earth. Tomorrow, we will concentrate on
His sacrifice and death to pay for our sins.
On Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’ glorious victory over sin, death,
the devil, and the grave. Tonight, we
rejoice, because Jesus was eager to set in place another way for Him to keep us
set apart from the world and purified by His blood.
I
suspect that as I read our sermon text, those words seemed quite familiar to
you. That familiarity comes because it
is so often our prayer after we have received in the sermon the Gospel of what
Jesus has done to save us. It is often
our prayer just before we enter the communion portion of the liturgy. There, we too pray for God to create new
hearts in us and to sustain us along our way.
Jesus was eager to eat that last Passover meal, because He was
transforming that Old Testament memorial meal into a new celebration that
brings forgiveness and peace to us personally, again and again and again.
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and
broke it, and gave it to the disciples. He said, ‘Take, eat, this is my
body.’ Then he took the cup, gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it all of you, for this is my
blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.’” (Matthew 26:26-28) As the Passover had so long predicted, Jesus
was going to the cross to save us by His death.
In the Lord’s Supper, we eat His flesh in the bread just as the Israelites
in Egypt ate the flesh of the Lamb whose blood kept them safe from the angel of
death. In the consecrated wine, we drink
Jesus’ blood so that it sprinkles our souls like the lamb’s blood marked the
doorposts of Israel protecting those inside the house as God’s chosen people.
My
friends, our dear Savior invites us to eat and drink His body and blood often,
because He knows we are bombarded daily by the temptations of the devil, the
world, and our own weak flesh. Jesus
invites and commands us to come to Him for this healing medicine because it
brings in physical form the Gospel of Jesus’ sacrifice for sinners. Our Lord encourages us to come to Him because
He knows we cannot sustain ourselves without His help and power. Thus, by the Holy Spirit working in us
through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, our eternal lives are kept secure, as
by the Lord’s hand and command, we are again and again Renewed through the
Gospel.
When
King David prayed this prayer in faith, he recognized that God calls for His
beloved people to share His mercy with others in this troubled world. Like David, as sinners restored and renewed
by faith, we too want to serve the Savior who rescued us from sin and eternal
condemnation by proclaiming the joy of our salvation to others, so that they
learn of Jesus for their forgiveness and peace.
Eager
to see all his people enjoy the grace of God, David declared, “I will teach
rebels your ways, and sinners will turn to you.” David confidently reminds us that there is
only one way that anyone we love will enter heaven, and that is by hearing the
Gospel of our God, “because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
who believes.” (Romans 1:16) This is
how we can bring true joy and everlasting peace to those around us, for through
the proclamation of the Gospel and right administration of the Sacraments, the
Holy Spirit grants forgiveness and salvation to many more sinners who are made
saints as they are Renewed through the Gospel. Amen.
God will fully supply your every need, according to his glorious riches
in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and
Father be glory forever and ever! Amen.
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