Exodus 24:3–11

Maundy Thursday

A Mealfor the Wounded

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do." And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under His feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like

the very heaven for clearness. And He did not lay His hand on

the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate

and drank. (Exodus 24:3–11)

Did they realize, did they have the first clue, what they were agreeing to? "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." We do not need to think about all the Lord had commanded to realize the hopelessness of their response. We can think merely of the two chief commandments, as our Lord gives them from the Law: love the Lord your God with your all, and love your neighbor as yourself. "We will do, and we will be obedient." We say.

Really? With your all? And from the depths of your being? Have you ever tried it? To love God with your all, I mean. Your heart undivided by competing loyalties, but given to God and to Him alone. Your only desire to enjoy His presence and to do His bidding. Your only fear that you will cause Him some displeasure. Go give it a whirl, and let me know how it goes! And then there is your neighbor, the one made in God's own image. Love this one as yourself. Or, again, as our Jesus paraphrased it, "do to others as you want others to do to you." Have you given it a yeoman's try? You most certainly should!

But I am afraid you and I would end up about as successful as the people of Israel who put up the big promise, then promptly fell flat on their faces. Their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land was hardly characterized by love of God above all and love of neighbor as self. Instead, there was grumbling against God and the way He led them; distrust that He would provide them with water, with food; neighbor squabbling with neighbor and wearing Moses out as he sat on the judgment bench from dawn to dusk to try to settle their petty squabbles.

"All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." So despite their words, despite their foolish trust in themselves and in what they could muster, the covenant was sealed with blood. Part of the blood went on the altar; part, on the people. And with the blood went forgiveness. For there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. And it was as blood sprinkled the people that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel climbed the mountain to see the wonder of God's glory. They saw Him, and the beauty wounded their hearts. There He was upon His throne, and at His feet was a pavement as of sapphire, blue and crystal clear as the sky above. And in God's presence, as the blood-covered ones, they were able to sit down and to eat, and they did not die, but lived—though they knew they had no right to see such holiness and continue living.

They lived despite the fact that they did not keep their end of the covenant. They lived despite the fact that love for God did not characterize their lives. They lived despite the fact that they did not love their neighbor as themselves. They lived because they were under the blood, and under that blood the presence of God came to them as an experience of life, not death.

Today is Maundy Thursday. We are well aware that we have failed to keep this covenant of the Lord. The Ten Commandments, which spell out the shape of love in our lives, accuse us without end: No, we do not love the Lord with anything close to our all. No, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Like Israel of old, we have not kept the words of the Lord to do them, no matter how many times we have promised to do better, to change.

Yet Jesus still comes to us this night and readies a gift for His people that has been on the heart of God from before time began and that will go on sustaining His own until the day of His glorious appearing. He would provide a meal for His wounded people, His broken people who do not live up to the covenant of love. He would feed them with His own body and blood so that they might live, so that

they might be forgiven, healed, and restored.

And do you realize why there is life in that body and blood? Because it is the body and blood of the One in whom there was nothing but love—love for His Father with all His heart, mind, soul, strength, with His all. And just as surely, there was love for the neighbor, for you and me and for every member of our fallen race. Jesus loved us as Himself, indeed more than Himself. For us He will allow that body to be nailed to the tree and that blood to stain the earth, wiping out the curse of the Law that is against us. You see, the Law can never condemn Him, for His whole being—His every word and thought and action—was always and only love.

And He calls us to live under that blood. To live under that blood is to taste something better than the food Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the other seventy elders of Israel ever knew. We not only eat and drink in the presence of the All-Holy One, but also through our faithful eating and drinking, He—the God of Israel, who appeared in glory to the ancients, who is now made flesh—comes to us, to enter us with His forgiveness, and to plant within us, a wounded people, a life that death cannot overcome. We live because of what He gives us to eat and to drink: the body and the blood of Him who is Love—Love incarnate, Love crucified, Love risen and triumphant and coming in glory.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you" (John 13:34). The strength of your love for one another and for Jesus will now always pour into you from this gift of His love for you. His gift in the Eucharist guarantees that what you now enjoy in a hidden and mystical way will be your eternal joy in the life to come. His gift gives you the courage and strength to sing and pray, even as death comes to you:

Be Thou my consolation,

My shield, when I must die;

Remind me of Thy passion

When my last hour draws nigh.

Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,

Upon Thy cross shall dwell,

My heart by faith enfold Thee,

Who dieth thus dies well. (LSB 450:7)

Enfolded in His cross, marked with the blood of the covenant, fed

with the body of Him who is immortal Love, you will be prepared for

your passion, suffering, and death whenever it comes. You will be held

by a love that is stronger than death and a forgiveness that is greater

than all your sin. To Him alone be glory forever—our Lord Jesus, who

gives us this meal to heal the wounded with His love.