Today’s Reading: Exodus 24:3-11
Daily Lectionary: Exodus 12:1-28; Hebrews 5:1-14
“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.” (Exodus 24:8)
What a scene that had to be at the base of Mount Sinai! Bright blood, and lots of it, splashed against the stone altar and sprinkled on the people. But the law, mediated through Moses, could not save the people from their sins. Only the new “covenant of blood,” the promise of salvation, could save them. And so, Jesus humbled Himself, became man and stepped between a sinless God and a sinful people, on the Cross.
That required blood for “a will is in force only when somebody has died...this is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.”(Hebrew 9:17) No death; no inheritance! Christ’s death put God’s blessed promise of forgiveness into effect fully and for all.
Moses and a group of Israel’s leaders climbed part way up the slope of Mount Sinai to sit down for a meal in the presence of the Lord. God dimmed His glory for them to see Him, and they ate and drank in His presence! God also dimmed His glory in the person of Jesus, in His state of humiliation, who with His disciples just before his death said: “This cup is the new covenant of my blood, which is poured out for you,” (St. Luke 22:20).
As we enter the holy of holies of Holy Week, Christ restores you through this Sacrament of His very Body and Blood. Here you are also sprinkled with His Blood. But this is no symbol. It is real. Here you are free to recline and eat and drink in His presence where you receive forgiveness, life and salvation. He comes as God's own dearly-loved Passover Lamb whose Body is given us to eat and whose Blood is given us to drink as God's own last will and testament. Through this Blood, you have forgiveness from God and you have fellowship with God.
In this Meal, Christ, Himself, gives you His Body to eat and His Blood to drink. As Luther reminds us, “Our Lord is at one and the same time chef, cook, butler, host, and food.” Jesus has done it all. This is no ordinary dinner. And He prepared it for you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“O Lord, who left to us in a wonderful Sacrament a memorial of Your Passion, grant we implore You that we so use this Sacrament of Your body and blood that the fruits of Your redemption continually may be manifest in us; who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for Maundy Thursday)
Today's Reflection is written by the Rev'd Marcus Zill (zill@higherthings.org) of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church & Student Center in Laramie, Wyoming.