Luke 22:7-20
Hands that Bless!
It’s my family’s custom that we pray whenever we’re going to eat. We pray just like most Lutheran’s do… “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.” It’s a simple prayer and doesn’t take long to say. Yet, what we mean by saying it is that we ask God to bless the food we’re about to eat. We want him to bless it in such a way that it nourishes us and helps us stay healthy and strong. We even petition Jesus to “be our guest.” Sit at the table with us that we may dwell together in Christian unity. But perhaps you use the other common Lutheran Prayer. “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we’re about to receive through thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen!” In the same way, we ask a blessing upon us and the food “we’re about to receive through Thy bounty.” We recognize in this way that even the food on our table is a gift from God and so we give thanks for it. We also ask again for a blessing that it may feed us properly. But there’s one other thing that we come to understand from praying. I can’t bless the food. I can ask God’s blessing, but the blessing cannot come from me. Yes, I have no power within myself to make food blessed. I can’t endue food with some spiritual or physical benefit on my own. When it comes to us, food is just food.
But tonight, the hand of our Lord gives his blessing to simple food. He has the power to do more than just feed our stomachs, but also to feed our souls. On this night when our Lord shall be betrayed, he institutes for us a new feast, one that is divinely blessed. So let us learn tonight:
THESE ARE THE HANDS THAT SHALL FEED US WITH LIFE!
I.
This wasn’t the first time that Jesus had celebrated the Passover with his disciples. We might even say that it’s possible it was in this same room, that they had been here before to do this exact same thing. We don’t know for sure, but it’s certainly possible. For we know that the Passover was the main feast in Israel. It was a remembrance of God’s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and slavery. Of course, it was far more than that on the first night... the night when Israel was still in Egypt. It was the night of the final plague; the Spirit of Death would come to kill the firstborn in every household not marked with the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. Consider then this night, “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed,” Luke 22:7. This was the night that marked the killing of the firstborn, or rather, for those who offered the sacrificial lamb, the deliverance of the firstborn from death. That first Passover, that first meal was eaten not in the Promised land, but in the land of slavery. It was eaten not in freedom, but still under the arm of captivity. But it was eaten with a promise from God, a blessing even that following this meal, there would be salvation.
The Passover was a meal of bitterness. Every year when Israel would eat again the Passover feast, it began with the bitter taste in their mouth of the slavery they endured. So too, we may not be enslaved by any earthly power, but we’re slaves in this world. We’re slaves of sin and death. We’re enslaved to the powers and principalities of this world. Like the Passover, we find ourselves sitting at a table in our land of slavery, still waiting, still hoping for our deliverance to come, waiting to get rid of that bitter taste. But it pervades all that we do. It leaves us hungry for true food and true drink. For on this night, the disciples sat down with Jesus just as they had before. They thought to celebrate again this feast, to bring to remembrance not only their past slavery in Egypt, but the deliverance brought about by God.
II.
Yet, Jesus wouldn’t do what he had before. Rather, this night would be different. It might have been the Passover that they were celebrating, but it no longer was the same feast. Jesus spoke during the meal of betrayal and death. He spoke of denial. But then he did something that set this night apart from every other. He took the food and he blessed it! “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me,” Luke 22:19. His body? What do you mean Jesus? I thought it was just simple bread? But he gave it to us, from his own hand. He fed us this new food, his own body as he said, and it wasn’t bitter. Rather, it tasted different. It was sweet. It made us whole. And the cup! “And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,” Luke 22:20. A new covenant... in Jesus’ blood. Shall he be the new Passover lamb? Is he the one who shall deliver us now from our enemies, from the house of slavery?
Yes! On this night, when our Lord shall be betrayed, he feeds us. He gives us not a second Passover. But a new feast. A feast that feeds our body and soul. In, with, and under this bread and wine, these simple things, is the blessing and promise of Jesus’ own body and blood. Yes, he gives us his own body to eat, and his blood to drink, not to our detriment, but for our good. For this is now the food of immortality, the food of the lamb that shall deliver us from death. It’s from Jesus’ hands alone that this can come... this blessing, this food, this promise. For his hands that feed us shall be the same hands that shall bleed for us. They’re the same hands that shall carry our sins for us. They’re the same hands that shall take our sins away and offer us forgiveness and life! No longer do we taste the bitterness of sin, but now shall we eat of the sweetness of paradise, a heavenly feast!
For here at our Lord’s table, he invites us to partake of his food, to receive his blessing. Our Lord feeds us in the way that only he can... bread and wine, body and blood—together in this mystery feast. So, may we come to the table and be our Lord’s guest, as he serves us from his hand the very food of life! In Jesus’ name! Amen!