Today is Maundy Thursday. This is a special day of festive celebration during Holy Week when we celebrate and receive the Lord's Supper. The same Body and Blood that was delivered up for our trespasses on the cross is the same Body and Blood that is delivered into our mouths in the Sacrament of the Altar for the forgiveness of our sins. The bread and the wine are now, because of Jesus' word and promise, they are His Body and Blood. There is not distinction between the Body and Blood as if someone faith or failure makes it the Body and Blood, or just plain bread and wine. No. The Word of Jesus declares the bread and the wine to be His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all who receive it worthily. To receive the sacrament worthily has nothing to do with sinfulness or progress in righteousness, but rather has everything to do with believing in these words, "given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins." Believing that it is Jesus true Body and Blood, and that it is for the forgiveness of our sins, this is what makes us worthy and prepared to receive this meal for our eternal life and salvation.

Because it is faith that makes us worthy to receive this meal, this meal becomes a great leveling meal for us. No matter who you are in the civic realm, be you a king or servant, employer or employee, teacher or student, parent or child, all in faith are equal as they approach the table of the Lord. Walther put it beautifully when he said, "We all come together as children of the same family, to the table of our common, heavenly Father. As great as the distinction between communicants in civic life may be, in the Holy Supper all distinctions evaporate."

The Lord's Supper is that great family meal in which we love one another in our confession and reception of the Lord's Body and Blood. We depart from the altar receiving the same Jesus and in our life together we bear each other's burden's as Jesus Himself does.  From the table we receive the same forgiveness, the same Jesus, the same righteousness, the same life. In our reception we love one another, not by an act of our own, but by the act of Jesus forgiving us all of our sins.

Let us rejoice in the reality that Jesus is bodily present in the bread and the wine for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. In short, Jesus is going to be present bodily at church today and whenever and wherever His Gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered in accordance with the Gospel. Jesus is present for your forgiveness, so come and be fed in the Body and Blood of Jesus so that you may depart this life in joy and peace in the knowledge and comfort that you depart to enter through the portal to life immortal.

Peace be with you. May the devil be silenced, the world be hushed, and the Old Adam be drowned anew so that you hear only the voice of your Savior Jesus who says, "Take eat, this is My Body. Take drink, this is My Blood, for the forgiveness of all of your sins," Amen.

Jesus' Sheepdog,

Pastor Hull