This is My Body... This is My Blood A Sermon for Communion Sunday Mark 14:22-26

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1 This is My Body... This is My Blood A Sermon for Communion Sunday Mark 14:22-26 Rev. Michael D. Halley May 1, 2016 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Sixth Sunday of Easter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The scene is the Upper Room 1. Jesus had gathered there with his disciples to celebrate the Passover 2 meal. During the meal, Judas left to go and make arrangements to betray Jesus. As we pick up the story here in Mark chapter twelve, we find Jesus and the other eleven disciples. The Passover meal was instituted way back in the history of the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. God had instructed them to eat this meal on the evening before they made their escape to freedom. Every year since then, even to today, devout Jews gather with family and friends to remember the bondage of their ancestors and thank God for their freedom. As far as his disciples knew, this evening s supper would be just like many they had experienced in their lives. But Jesus had a surprise or two he was about to share with them. He was about to shock them as he changed the Passover tradition right before their eyes. One commentator suggested that if the Jewish leaders had been in the room that night, they would have torn their clothes in half and started screaming at the top of their lungs that he [Jesus] was a heretic. 3 To understand this, let s take a brief look at the original order and meaning of the Passover meal. 1

2 Page -2- There were two things God commanded his people to do at Passover. One was that they celebrate this meal every year, and the other was that they celebrate it in the same way, every time. This was a very highly ritualist meal for the Jewish people, even in Jewish households today. The head of the household, the host for the meal, walks the family through the various elements of the Passover meal, each step reminding them of the exodus and the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Since, of course, Jesus disciples were Jewish, they would have known the meaning of every part of the meal. In fact, they could have led the ritual of the meal themselves. Yet, on this night Jesus, the head of the household, stood up and for the first time in the history of the Jewish people broke tradition and did Passover completely different than it had ever been done before. The Passover meal had four cups of wine on the table. Each cup had a meaning and represented one of the four promises God made in Exodus 6: Let s look at each promise. The head of the household, in this case Jesus, would hold up the first cup and remind his family that God was going to rescue them from Egypt and then he would pass the cup around. Each one would drink from the cup and remember this promise from God. Then he would pick up the second cup and remind them of the second promise, that God would free them from slavery, and then pass this second cup around. Before he picked up the third cup, the host would take some bread. He would hold the bread up and break it, reminding his family that the bread stood for affliction. It was unleavened bread, just like their ancestors ate. Unleavened bread is more like what we would call a cracker. Each person in the family would get a piece and eat it, pausing to remember the affliction of their ancestors in slavery in Egypt.

3 But this night, during this Passover meal, Jesus broke with tradition when he said, Take and eat this bread. It is my body (Mark 14:22, ERV 5 ). Imagine the disciples shock when Jesus broke from the long-standing tradition. From now on, Jesus is telling them, the broken bread no longer represented the affliction of their ancestors. From now on, the bread would represent Jesus body, as Jesus himself would take on the affliction of the people of God so that we would not have to suffer anymore. After the bread was eaten, Jesus picked up the third cup, a reminder that God was going to redeem his people by his own power. What does it mean to redeem? Page -3- In its simplest definition, to redeem is to buy back. God is saying that he will pay the price to buy his people back from a life of sin and destruction. And God does that through Jesus, whom we often call our Redeemer. As Jesus held this third cup, he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. It is his blood, he is saying, the blood that would redeem God s people. This was yet another totally shocking statement from Jesus. Passover would never be the same again. The main course of the Passover meal was the lamb. At the first Passover, in Egypt, it was the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorposts of their houses that saved them from God s terrible punishment on the Egyptians. Each year since then lambs were sacrificed and eaten at this meal to remind them of God saving their ancestors from destruction. Although Jesus did not talk about the lamb that evening, it is clear that from now on Jesus would be the Passover lamb, slain once and for all to redeem -- to buy back -- his people from sin. Finally we come to the fourth cup of wine. The fourth promise of God in Exodus 6:6-7 was the promise that one day God would completely restore

4 Page -4- and renew the relationship he has with his people. However, Jesus did not pass this fourth cup around. Instead, he told them, Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And so there is coming a day when all the people of God, redeemed through the blood of the Lamb, are going to be around the great table for what the Bible calls the marriage supper of the Lamb 6. At that time we will lift up the fourth cup and drink it anew with Jesus. The Communion Service ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jesus said: I am the bread of life. All who come to me shall not hunger, and all who believe in me shall not thirst (John 6:35). With Christians around the world and throughout the centuries, we gather around these symbols of bread and wine -- simple elements that speak to us of nourishment and transformation. Let us pray. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, send the power of your Holy Spirit upon us, that we may experience anew the suffering, death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ. May Your Spirit help us to know, in the breaking of this bread and the drinking of this cup, the presence of Christ, who gave His body and blood for all. May we receive in spirit and in truth the body of your dear Son and the merits of his shed blood. Being washed and made clean through his precious blood, may your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in service to all the world. Amen. 7 We remember on the night when he celebrated the Passover with his disciples, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and gave it to the disciples, saying This is my body, which is given for you. Take and eat it, and as often as you

5 Page -5- do, remember me. In the symbol of the broken bread, we participate in the life of Christ and dedicate ourselves to being his disciples. In the same way he took the cup, and after giving thanks he passed it to his disciples, saying: Drink this, all of you. This cup is the new covenant 8, poured out for you and for many. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. In the symbol of the cup, we participate in the new life Christ brings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Almighty God, we thank you for this bread, and for all you provide to sustain us. Above all, merciful Father, we thank you for Christ your Son, given for the life of the world. Amen The body of Christ, bread from heaven. Almighty God, we thank you for this fruit of the vine, and for every good gift that gives us joy. We thank you above all for Christ our Lord, by whose blood you have bought us and bound us to be your people in an everlasting covenant. Amen Let us pray. The blood of Christ, shed for you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We give thanks, loving God, that you have refreshed us at your table. Strengthen our faith; increase our love for one another. As we have been fed by the seed that became grain, and then bread, may we go out into the world

6 Page -6- to plant seeds of justice, transformation, and hope. In the name of Christ we pray, Amen. 9 +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. An interesting article about the upper room may be found at 2. Passover commemorated the final plague on Egypt when the firstborn of the Egyptians died and the Israelites were spared because of the blood smeared on their doorposts (Exodus 12). Passover was also called the feast of unleavened bread (Exodus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:16 ), because only unleavened bread was eaten during the seven days immediately following Passover. Unleavened bread reflected the fact that the people had no time to put leaven, or yeast, in their bread before their hasty departure from Egypt. The New Testament identifies Christ with the Passover sacrifice: For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). See Festivals, by Larry Walker, in Holman Bible Dictionary, edited by Trent C. Butler, c Dr. Matt Carter, Understanding the Lord s Supper, a sermon preached at The Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, Texas, on November 24, 2013, Dr. Carter serves there as Pastor of Preaching and Vision.

7 Page Exodus 6:6-7: I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. (New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.) 5. Easy-to-Read Version (ERV), copyright 2006 by Bible League International 6. Revelation 19:7 9: Let us rejoice and be happy and give God glory! Give God glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. And the Lamb s bride has made herself ready. Fine linen was given to the bride for her to wear. The linen was bright and clean. (The fine linen means the good things that God s holy people did.) Then the angel said to me, Write this: Great blessings belong to those who are invited to the wedding meal of the Lamb! Then the angel said, These are the true words of God. (Easy to Read Version, cited above) 7. This prayer is taken from a communion liturgy of the Free Methodist Church, 8. The new covenant was first spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah, The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.... But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people " (Jeremiah 31:31, 33). The old covenant was written in stone, but the new covenant is written on our hearts, made possible only by faith in Christ, who shed His own blood to atone for the sins of the world. See the article, What is the New Covenant?, 9. This communion liturgy was adapted from A Brief Communion Service, written by the Rev. Dr. Jeanyne B. Slettom, found at Dr. Slettom is co-pastor of Brea Congregational United Church of Christ in Brea, California.