At the Supper Christ established on Maundy Thursday, you receive the fruits of that sacrifice: his body and blood given for you.
The readings for Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday run along two different tracks, but whichever way the preacher goes, the central theme is the new covenant promised by our Lord, delivered to His disciples, and handed over to the Church in the Lord’s Supper. One option changes up most of the readings in the Three-Year Lectionary. The gospels across Years A, B, and C are the pericopes which include our Lord’s words of institution at the last supper from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, respectively. The Old Testament matches this in Years A and B, with Exodus 24 (Moses sprinkling the blood of the covenant, and they saw God and ate and drank) and in Year C with Jeremiah 31:31-34 (a new covenant). The epistles follow suit. Year A has Hebrews 9:11-22 (Jesus as mediator of the new covenant, the sprinkling of blood, and the like). Year B is 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (the cup of blessing we bless, the bread we break). Year C is Hebrews 10:15-25 (the new covenant again, the body of Christ entering the holy places, sprinkling again, washed with pure water, and stirring up one another to love and good works). The preacher can also opt, instead, for “option 2” which puts the mandatum of Maundy into the Thursday. This would be the John 13 foot washing episode where Jesus says, “A new command I give you, love one another,” matched with the Exodus 12 institution of the Passover, and the Pauline exposition of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. Whichever way you go, then, the texts lead you to confess the institution, the covenant, and the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
With such a singular focus on the Lord’s Supper across the readings, the preacher may be tempted to devote pulpit time to a doctrine lesson or highlighting distinctions of belief among confessions and denominations. Certainly, catechesis has a place in preaching, but the opening of the triduum (the extended “three-day” service that encompasses Thursday evening through Sunday morning) is not it. The context of extended meditation on the passion of our Lord invites contemplation and proclamation, not pedagogy and pointers about polity. Save that discussion for Bible class (and, of course, one-on-one conversation with your “less-than-frequent” faithful who happen to gather this weekend for family dinner at the altar!). Let the exhortations and teaching baked into the traditional liturgies associated with the day suffice for the teaching. You, on the other hand, focus on proclaiming Christ as the gift-giver, the covenant-guarantor, the one who institutes the Sacrament of the supper for His loved ones, His disciples, His brothers and sisters, His Church, for you (and if you and your church are not as familiar with liturgical traditions associated with Maundy Thursday, dig a little and use your research to mark the occasion as something special for you and your people!).
Body and blood, blood and body, all the assigned texts this year are juicy, material, and in-your-face presentations of a corporeal Christ, a sanguine Christ. This is true whether they are directly and overtly sacrificial in their content or are teaching what it means for believers to partake in the body as the body (even if you do not preach 1 Corinthians 11 this year, review there the multiple valances of “body” that Paul uses to confess the gift given in the Lord’s Supper). Here are a couple of notes particularly tuned to the Hebrews 9:11-22, the epistle selection for Year A.
Observe first that Hebrews 9 sets up the contrast between the earthly tabernacle (9:1-10) and Christ’s typological fulfillment of the promises foreshadowed there in the heavenly tabernacle (9:11-28). Appreciate that the author of the epistle is not just noting a linear A to B progression from one historical moment to another or making remarks about disconnected “dispensations” of how God works with His people of a certain time and place. All of the letter and this section of it, and, indeed, all of Christianity hinges on this: That Christ is the center of the scripture and Christ is the center of salvation history for all. This is the Christ who tabernacled among us (John 1:14), embodying and fulfilling the tabernacle itself, where God sanctifies His people.
This is the Christ who tabernacled among us, embodying and fulfilling the tabernacle itself, where God sanctifies His people.
Hebrews is all about Christ’s superiority. Jesus is bigger than angels, prophets, and others who mediate the counsel of God (Hebrews 1-2). Jesus is bigger than Moses; He is not a servant, but a son (Hebrews 3). Jesus is bigger than the Sabbath (Hebrews 3-4)! Jesus is bigger than the priesthood of Aaron, than the tabernacle and temple (Hebrews 4-8), and the specific point in Hebrews 9: He is the embodiment and fulfillment of the sacrificial system administered by that priesthood in that place. Because of this, the entire pericope is an argumentum a fortiori,[1] even peppered with the kind of language such an argument employs; for example, when it says, “How much more will the blood of Christ purify” (Hebrews 9:14). The structure of the argument in the pericope suggests a structure for your sermon as well, from type to fulfillment, from shadow to reality, from exclusion to participation.
Again, since this is not a simple, linear A to B progression, but a text that points up Christ as center. The Christ needs to be the center of gravity, the bit around which the sermon revolves. I would suggest a theological spiral that repeatedly returns to Christ’s priestly work for your people as its central claim. Start with a descriptive exposition of sacred space: Tabernacle and temple architecture, with the outer course, holy place, and holy of holies. This will function rhetorically as scene-setting and symbolic framing, and your hearer will be invited to imagine the structure of holiness and restricted access to God. This points up the problem of human exclusion. Stress in your sermon that Jesus Himself never entered the holy of holies during His earthly life because He was not a Levitical priest. Even Jesus appears outside the system! Developing this direction emphasizes the distance between ordinary people and God’s presence. It is what makes the Christological reversal so surprising: Jesus is not a space invader, but a space creator. The temple is a shadow or blueprint. Christ is the true sanctuary and true high priest.
The priestly office of Christ is the perfect space to expand on the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus for the sins of the world. Hebrews 9:22 is key here, the link between the shedding of blood and the forgiveness of sins. Whereas in the old covenant, however, the sacrifices were repeated and provisional, Christ’s sacrifice is once-for-all and eternal. They ratify the new covenant established by God for your hearer. This is the center of gravity, the doctrinal core of the entire sermon. From here, the Lord’s Supper connections are the natural application, from the inside out. What Christ accomplished in the heavenly holy of holies now flows outward to the congregation. The Supper becomes the distribution point for all of Christ’s heirs to receive what He has bequeathed His Church. Quite simply, the sermon moves just like the epistle pericope does, from shadow to fulfillment to gift.
Consider the outline below as a starting point to develop the message for the afternoon or evening as you begin to craft your holy week sermons!
Where God Holies You
1. The Pattern of the Holy Place
a. Israel’s tabernacle and temple revealed a progression of holiness – outer court, holy place, and the holy of holies (qadosh qadoshim).
b. These structures, given through Moses, were shadows pointing toward the true dwelling of God.
2. The Limits of the Old Priesthood
a. Only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, and only once a year, with the blood of animals.
b. Ordinary people, and even Jesus during His earthly life, did not enter. Access to God remained restricted (might feel like that to ordinary people like you and me today, but...).
3. Christ the True High Priest
a. Jesus does not approach God from the outside in through ritual like the priests descended from Aaron.
b. Instead, He enters the true sanctuary – the heavenly reality – through His own blood, fulfilling what the earthly temple only foreshadowed.
4. The Once-for-All Sacrifice
a. As Scripture declares, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” the old covenant repeated sacrifices continually.
b. Christ offers Himself once for all (for the world, for you!), establishing an eternal covenant and ratifying God’s promise by His own death.
5. The Gift Given From the Inside Out
a. Because Christ has entered the true holy of holies, forgiveness, inheritance, and access to God flow outward to his people – to you!
b. At the Supper he established on Maundy Thursday, you receive the fruits of that sacrifice: his body and blood given for you.
Conclusion:
The temple pointed forward. Christ fulfills it. The sacrifice is complete. The High Priest now serves His people by delivering the gifts of forgiveness and life from the holy presence of God to you.
[1] Argumentum a fortiori is a logical reasoning method that draws a conclusion from a stronger claim to support a weaker one. It literally means "from the stronger reason" in Latin and is often used in legal contexts to argue that if one situation is true, then a related situation is even more likely to be true.
