A Meal for the Wounded
Exodus 24:3–11
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of Yahweh. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to Yahweh. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under His feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… You have to wonder: did they realize, did they even have a clue as to what they were agreeing to? After all, they SAID, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do.” But we don’t need to think about all that God had commanded to realize the hopelessness of their response. We can think merely of the two chief commandments, as Christ Himself gives them from the Law: love the Lord your God with your all, and love your neighbor as yourself. “We will do it, and we will be obedient.”
Really? With your all? And from the depths of your being? Have you ever tried it? To love God with your all, I mean. Have you ever been absolutely certain that your heart was perfectly undivided and given to God and to Him alone? Has your only desire ever and always been to enjoy His presence and to do His bidding? Has your only fear ever and always been that you will cause Him some displeasure? Go on, take a whack at it; let me know how that works for you.
And then there is your neighbor, the one who is made in God’s own image. Go ahead, love this one as yourself. Or, again, as our Lord paraphrased, do to others as you want others to do to you. Have you given it the good old college try? You most certainly should! But I am afraid you would end up about as successful as the people of Israel who put up the big promise, then promptly fell flat on their faces.
Their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land was hardly characterized by love of God above all and love of neighbor as self. In fact, it wasn’t even close. They grumbled against God for the way He led them. They did not trust that He would provide them with water or food. Neighbor was squabbling with neighbor, and they were wearing Moses out as he sat on the judgment bench from dawn to dusk trying to settle their petty squabbles. “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient?” Not so much.
But, despite their words, despite their foolish trust in themselves and in what they could muster, the covenant – God’s agreement with them – was sealed with blood. Part of the blood went on the altar; part of it on the people. And with that blood went forgiveness, for there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood.
And it was as the blood was sprinkled on the people that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel climbed the mountain to see the wonder of God’s glory. Indeed they saw Him, and the beauty of it wounded their hearts. There He was upon His throne, and at His feet a pavement as of sapphire, blue and crystal clear as the sky above. And in God’s presence, as the blood-covered ones, they were able to sit down and to eat, and they did not die, but lived – though they knew they had no right to see such holiness and be allowed to continue breathing.
But they lived, and this was in spite of the fact that they did not keep their end of the bargain. They lived in spite of the fact that they did not love God with their all. They lived in spite of the fact that they did not love their neighbor as themselves. They lived, dear friends, because they were under the blood; and under that blood the presence of God came to them as an experience not of death, but of life.
Today, of course, is Maundy Thursday. And we are well aware that we have failed to keep this covenant of our Lord. The Ten Commandments, which spell out the shape of love in our lives, accuse us without end. No, we do not love the Lord with anything close to our all. No, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Like Israel of old, we have not kept the words of the Lord to do them, no matter how many times we have promised to do better, no matter how many times we have vowed to change.
Yet Jesus still comes to you this night and prepares a gift for His people – a gift that has been on God’s heart from before time began, a gift that will go on sustaining His own until the day of His glorious appearing. He provides a meal for His wounded people – His broken people – who do not live up to the covenant of love. He feeds you with His own body and blood so that you might live. He feeds you with His body and blood so that you might be forgiven. He feeds you with His body and blood so that you might be healed and restored.
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And do you realize why there is life in that body and blood? Because it is the body and blood of Christ, the One in whom there was nothing but love – love for His Father with all His heart, mind, soul, strength – with His all. And just as surely, there was love for the neighbor, for you and me and for every member of our fallen race. Jesus loved us as Himself, indeed more than Himself. For us He will allow that body to be nailed to the tree and that blood to stain the earth, wiping out the curse of the Law that is against us.
You see, dear fellow redeemed, the Law can never condemn Him, for His whole being – His every word and thought and action – was always and only love. And He calls us to live under the protection of His blood. To live under that blood is to taste something better than the food Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the other seventy elders of Israel ever knew. For, we not only eat and drink in the presence of the All-Holy One, but also through our faithful eating and drinking, He – the God of Israel, who appeared in glory to the ancients, who is now made flesh – He really and truly comes to us; He really and truly enters us with His forgiveness, and He plants within a wounded people a life that death can not overcome.
We live, dear friends, because of what He gives us to eat and to drink: His own body and blood: Love incarnate, Love crucified, Love risen and triumphant and coming again in glory.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The strength of your love for one another and for Jesus will now always pour into you from this gift of His love for you. His gift in the Holy Supper guarantees that what you now enjoy in a hidden, mystical, and sacramental way will be your eternal joy in the life of the world to come. His gift gives you the courage and strength to sing and pray, even as death comes to you, these words:
Be Thou my consolation, My shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee, Who dieth thus dies well. (TLH 172:10)
Enfolded in His cross, marked with the blood of the covenant, fed with the body and blood of Him who is immortal Love, you will be prepared for your passion, suffering, and death whenever it comes. You will be held by a love that is stronger than death and a forgiveness that is greater than all your sin.
Jesus’ body and blood is given here for you this night. It is your forgiveness. It is your strength. It is your good. It is food which sustains you for your journey from this life to the next.
Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus, who gives us this meal to heal the wounded with His love.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
