The King’s Feast / Mark 14:12–26 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Maundy Thursday March 28th 2024 / Season of Lent / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Maundy Thursday March 28th 2024: Season of Lent / Mark 14:12–26 “The King’s Feast”

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, [Jesus’] disciples said to Him, “Where will You have us go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

And when it was evening, He came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with Me.” They began to be sorrowful and to say to Him one after another, “Is it I?” [He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with Me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 

And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is My body.” And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. 

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. A tale of two tables: A feast for two kings. The first was a table set in the shadow of a tyrant, an evil king who held the Children of Israel in captivity in Ancient Egypt and the second table we see set before us is the table we celebrate and remember tonight, one where the King of Kings is present and accounted for, the King who was about to set, not just the Children of Israel free, but the King who was about to set you and I free with them. The one feast is connected to the other, they’re not disconnected. The first feast after their Exodus from Egypt and their rescue from the evil king and tyrant, the Egyptian Pharaoh, became for the Children of Israel an annual feast, the Passover. The second feast after the King of kings, our Lord Jesus, is risen from the dead becomes the Lord’s Supper the meal we share together this night. Sometimes it’s tempting to feel separated from those events but is this really the case?  

With the Jewish Passover Meal we have hints of what is to come: There was the part about the bread. They had to eat unleavened bread, because they didn’t have time to wait around for it to rise. Then there was the part about the dish with bitter herbs, reminding them that God was delivering them from the bitterness and misery of being slaves in Egypt to the evil king Pharaoh. There was also the part where they had to eat their feast in haste, with their belts tightened and sandals on their feet and a staff in their hand. That’s because they had to be ready to follow their Shepherd Moses into the wilderness.

The central item on the menu for that meal was the lamb for the feast. And how was it to be prepared? They were not to eat it raw or boil it; they were told to eat it roasted. And there were to be no leftovers. Everything down to the lamb’s blood was to be used for the feast. Nothing was unused. They took a hyssop branch and painted the blood of the lamb on the door frame of their houses. This is where the name of that first feast came from. You see God promised that He would see that blood and save their firstborns from death. God would see that blood and He would pass over them. Whoever didn’t do this showed God that they had no faith in Him or in what He commanded them to do and as a result He would not pass over them. The enemy of God, the evil king, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, who had hardened his heart and opposed God would not be spared like the faithful Children of Israel: because the one who had made life miserable for God’s people by enslaving them, and drowning their baby boys in the Nile River, the one who was using God’s people for His own glory would not paint his door frame in the blood of the lamb, he wouldn’t share in the meal. Instead he was to be punished for his misdeeds along with all his people.[1]

Where the Children of Israel were helpless to defend themselves against this enemy God fought for His oppressed people, and just as He had promised He struck down the firstborn of that evil king, and all the Egyptians, even their livestock, all while the Israelites having finished their Passover Feast made their getaway. And when that evil king Pharaoh truly began to understand what had happened and His ego became bruised and enflamed by what had been done to him, he cried out, “I’ll catch them; I’ll pursue them; I’ll overtake them.” But he was going down. God blew open a path in the Red Sea for His people, and they went through on dry ground. And as the evil king sought to pursue them through the miraculous path that the Lord made for their escape God brought back the water and plunged the evil king and His army into the sea, so that he sunk in those waters like a stone.[2] And when the water became still again all that was left was for God’s people to sing to the Lord and dance,[3] for God had brought them triumph just as He promised them: a tremendous conclusion to that first Passover feast.[4]   

Behind that evil king Pharaoh was an even bigger enemy to fight. One crueler, more hateful, and more evil than Pharaoh: it was that enemy named Satan who didn’t like this defeat one bit. And along with Satan there were other enemies who had failed in getting what they wanted regarding these Children of Israel. The chief of these was Death, the final enemy of man? In due time the table would be set again and these enemies would meet their match and so it was on on this holy night, that we celebrate this evening what began with the feast of the Passover meal finds it’s fulfillment in the meal hosted by the King of kings. If you thought the first Passover was the night of nights, this night is even better: this night, Holy Thursday. The night where the Spirit has gathered you to hear what Jesus did for you. For on this Passover which we remember, He will go forth to fight not only for the Children of Israel but for all sinners. He celebrates this Last Passover with His Twelve disciples in complete control of the situation. Your King of kings is not caught by surprise.

Fittingly, tonight’s account even began with a question: “Where will You have us go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?” Before they’d even asked it turns out that Jesus had already arranged for the Upper Room to be ready. As He said, it was His time. Like the first Passover feast, the bitter herbs were also at this second greater feast and when everything was prepared they all at of it and as they did Jesus warns them saying, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” In shock and sorrow they each ask “Is it I?” and Jesus says to them “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with Me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Saint Matthew tells us that this was Judas Iscariot; Judas’ hand was in the dish with Jesus’ as those thirty pieces of silver rest hidden from his brothers in Judas’ money bag.  

How much of this did Judas know? To what extent was Judas aware of the gravity of his betrayal? Among those who have betrayed a friend Judas is king of such men. A sad crown to wear this is true. He’s the bad guy of this second feast as much as Pharaoh was the bad guy of the first Passover feast, and behind Judas and behind Pharaoh you see the devil, you see Satan. If anyone deserves to be struck down in this account like Pharaoh was, it’s Judas, that greedy, hardened betrayer, that instrument of the devil. Yet, if God deals with Judas the way He did Pharaoh, then He should strike us down too. We like Judas have all betrayed Jesus in thought, word and dead. Haven’t you like Judas at times, likewise, been overly concerned with money? Consider how often you’ve let greed have dominion in your heart. Consider your own deceit, your own lies; your own calloused heart. Have you betrayed friends? Betrayed confidences, even been a traitor to the Lord? Consider how often your own sinful flesh has gotten the upper hand, and how God would be perfectly justified to go after you and demand your blood. What is Jesus’ disposition towards Judas? What is His disposition towards you? Jesus loves Judas just as He loved all His disciples. He’d warned him, Jesus even speaks tenderly and kindly to him, and when Judas comes under cover of darkness after the feast is over and Jesus and the rest of the disciples had go to the Mount of Olives to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says to Judas as Judas arrives to betray Him, “Friend, do what you came to do.”[5] Even then, as Jesus is betrayed with a kiss, Jesus still calls Judas “friend.”  

A tale of two tables: A feast for two kings. The first was a table set in the shadow of a tyrant, an evil king who held the Children of Israel in captivity in Ancient Egypt and the second table we see set before us is the table where we celebrate and remember a feast where the King of kings is present and accounted for. And at this second table Jesus is both host and meal. The unleavened bread is there just as it was at that first Passover feast, and they likewise had the cup of blessing at this second table just as the Children of Israel had at their first Passover. And most importantly the lamb was there. Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World, the Lamb who will go uncomplaining forth, led away to His death upon the cross. The Lamb who’s blood will not be painted on the door frames of the house of the Children of Israel but will instead be stained and smeared upon the wood of the Roman Cross of His crucifixion. And more than that the Lamb who’s blood is not just on the beams of the cross but is in the cup and not just that cup that night but in our cup this night.

Jesus is not in any way a cruel king like the Egyptian Pharaoh, He isn’t a King of lies like the devil or a king of betrayal like Judas. He’s the King of love. The words from His lips were never deceitful, never self-serving, but always in the best interest of sinners. Yet those lips are the ones that drink from the cup of God’s wrath, that your lips might sip the cup of blessing, the blood of the covenant, which gives you forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And now at the rail you bend the knee for your King of kings and the power of death passes over you because it didn’t pass over Jesus. Death passes over you because the gift of Baptism has marked your bodies with His blood just like the doorframes were marked with the blood of the Passover lamb at that first feast before the exodus. Damnation passes over you because Jesus is your Crucified King, whose blood makes this meal a royal feast of feasts. What makes this night different from all other nights? This is a night that we not only get to hear the story of how Jesus instituted a new and better Passover, but we also get to participate in it. For, as Saint Paul asks, “the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”[6] Yes it is. We are not separated from the Children of Isreal and their exodus, we are not separated from that first Passover Feast, and we are not separated from Jesus’ Last Supper in the night in which He was betrayed by Judas, as we drink from the cup as we eat the bread we are one with them in Christ. Come; participate in the King’s feast spread out here for you this night. Amen.

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

(Adapted from the Maundy Thursday Sermon provided in the 2013 Concordia Publishing House “The Crucified King” Lenten Series)

[1] Exodus 12:1-28
[2] Exodus 14
[3] Exodus 15
[4] Exodus 12:29-42
[5] Matthew 26:50
[6] 1 Corinthians 10:16

Photo Credit: Main photo detail of "The Communion of the Apostles" (La communion des apôtres) by James Tissot from brooklynmuseum.