Mementos of Christ’s Passion – Part VII
A CUP OF BLESSING
Maunday Thursday – April 18, 2019 Written by Pastor Mark Weis
Download: 2019 Midweek Lenten Sermons
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
For the past six weeks, we’ve discussed various mementos of Christ’s passion: the Alabaster Jar with which Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus for burial; the Thirty Silver Coins Judas Iscariot was paid to betray Jesus; the Crown of Thorns mockingly placed on Jesus’ head; the Old Rugged Cross on which Jesus died; the Seamless Garment Jesus wore; and the Soldier’s Spear that pierced Jesus’ side.
Tonight, the seventh memento of Christ’s Passion; namely, a Cup of Blessing. And while this cup is mentioned in the Gospel records of Maunday Thursday and the Last Supper, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 will be our text. Paul wrote: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
Clearly, Paul was describing the Lord’s Supper. And he had an important reason for doing so. Whether through ignorance or indifference, the Christians in Corinth were misusing the Lord’s Supper, in essence turning it into a gluttonous church picnic and suffering dreadful consequences. Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 11:20-21, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.”
Yet, the phrase “cup of blessing” also has another important context; namely, the Jewish Passover. Remember, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on Maunday Thursday, the night of His betrayal, He was celebrating the Passover with His disciples. In fact, before eating the Passover Meal, Jesus told them: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,” Luke 22:15.
According to the Mishna, a collection of Jewish traditions from as early as 450 B.C., four ritual cups of red wine were used during the Passover. These four cups were considered so important to the Passover celebration, that the Mishna urged even the poor to sell all their possessions, if necessary, to provide these four cups of wine for everyone in the house.
At each cup of wine, the father of the household read a portion of Exodus 6:6-7. Each cup had a purpose. The purpose of the fourth cup was to bless and praise God for His goodness and grace in making the Israelites His people. “I will take you as My people,” God said in Exodus 6:7, “and I will be your God.” Blessing or praising God is why the fourth cup of wine in the Passover was called “the cup of blessing”. And it was almost certainly this fourth cup that Jesus used when instituting His Holy Supper.
Predictably, over the centuries the original Cup of Blessing—like the crown of thorns, cross, seamless garment, and soldier’s spear—became an object of myth, superstition, and veneration. According to one legend, Joseph of Arimathea retrieved the cup from the Last Supper and filled it with the blood dripping from Christ’s crucified body. According to another legend, anyone who drank from this cup was granted complete healing, eternal youth, and everlasting happiness.
By the Thirteenth Century A.D., the Cup of Blessing was the focus of many King Arthur legends and his endless quest to find the “Holy Grail”—as the cup or chalice came to be called. Even today, the quest for the Grail continues. As recently as 2014, two historians claimed to have found this long-sought cup in Leon, Spain. The problem is, two hundred other organizations claim to have the same cup.
And of course, the Grail or Cup of Blessing has been the subject of many movies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975; Excalibur, 1981; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1989; and The Fisher King, 1991. It was also the focus of Dan Brown’s religious fairytale The Da Vinci Code; though, in a bizarre twist, the receptacle in this novel was not a cup but the womb of Mary Magdalene—again, the blasphemous notion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and produced the royal dynasties of Europe.
Such nonsense aside, what may we learn from this memento of Christ’s Passion? Of what does the Cup of Blessing remind us? To quote Jesus Himself: “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” As always, there are too many lessons and too little time. So, in the time allotted, I will focus on three.
First, the Cup of Blessing is a cup overflowing with forgiveness. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper. as we will again tonight, according to the words and promises of Jesus Himself, we will receive the very body and blood, given and shed, for the forgiveness of our sins.
The bread and wine do not become the body and blood of Christ, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches. Nor do they merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, as the Reformed Church teaches. Rather, as Scripture teaches, when the Lord’s Supper is celebrated according to Christ’s institution, His body and His blood are really present along with the bread and wine. Hence the term “real presence”.
Luther rightly explained: The Sacrament of the Altar “is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, for us Christians to eat and to drink, instituted by Christ Himself.” And again, when discussing the benefits of the Lord’s Supper, Luther said: “That is shown us by these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the remission of sins’; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”
Human reason cannot grasp how the body and blood of Christ are really present in the Lord’s Supper, along with the bread and wine—any more than human reason can grasp how God created all things from no things, or how God is Triune, or how Jesus Christ is both true God and true Man. Yet, we believe and accept these truths because Scripture clearly teaches these truths.
Say what one will, but there is no mistaking the simple meaning of Christ’s words when He instituted His Holy Supper. Taking bread, He said, “This is My body.” Taking the cup of wine, He said, “This is My blood.” Or as Paul wrote in our text: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
And dear friends, it is precisely because the Lord’s body and blood really are present in His Holy Supper that the practice of “open communion”—essentially, turning the Lord’s Supper into a gluttonous chuch picnic, a smorgasbord, as the Corinthian Christians were doing—is so wrong and so unloving. Regardless of the complaints and accusations of others, never fall for the argument that “open communion” is loving. It is not. It’s the very opposite of loving and caring for the spiritual well-being of every communicant.
Because to eat or drink of the Lord’s Supper without understanding its nature is to eat and drink judgement instead of forgiveness. These are no my words, but Paul’s. The apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 11: “But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”
So tell me, given the plain teaching of Scripture, is open communion really loving? No. And of course, the ability to examine oneself requires knowledge, and knowledge requires learning, and learning requires time. This is why our confirmation classes are often two years and not two minutes. This is why we don’t practice open communion at St. Luke’s Lutheran—not because we want to exclude people, but because we want them to partake of the Lord’s Supper to their blessing and not to their harm.
Tonight, as you in faith partake of the Lord’s Supper, remember the words of Jesus as “He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body,” Matthew 26:26. Remember the words of our Savior as “He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins,’ ” Matthew 26:27-28.
Approach the Lord’s Supper in repentance and faith; and leave it in the certainty of your forgiveness; in the personal assurance of Christ Himself that He died to atone for all your sins. The Cup of Blessing is a cup overflowing with forgiveness.
Second, the Cup of Blessing is a cup overflowing with love. Surely, God’s great love for us is evident in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; in the body broken and the blood shed for the remission of our sins. And therefore the Lord’s Supper is not only a Meal of God’s Forgiveness but a Meal of God’s Love.
This is why the early Christian Church often referred to the Lord’s Supper as an Agape Feast. AGAPE, that deep, committed, undeserved love of God that took into account everything wrong with us and insisted on loving us anyway. Insisted on sacrificing that which was nearest and dearest to God the Father, that is, the life of God the Son. You know the passages as well as I do. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” John 3:16. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us,” 1 John 3:16.
Yes, we know these simple, beautiful passages; but how often do we actually apply them to the hurts and heartaches of our everyday lives? Thankfully, Paul applied them for us. In the willing death of Jesus Christ for each one of us, Paul saw the undeniable, irrevocable, unchangeable proof of God’s love and God’s providence from cradle to grave, from time to eternity.
And so Paul said what you and I should say each time we feel hurt, helpless, alone, even forsaken by God: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Indeed, on the same night in which Jesus instituted His Holy Supper, only hours before His own death and as that Cup of Blessing rested, waiting, on the Passover Table; Jesus Christ, God the Son, the Creator of the Universe; the One of whom we confess on most Communion Sundays in the words of the Nicene Creed: “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God”—this Jesus Christ stood, removed His outer garment, wrapped a towel around His waist, stooped down, and washed the filthy feet of His disciples.
Think of it, dear friends. God on His hands and knees. God doing the menial work of a servant. What kind of God is this? What kind of love is this? A God, a love, clearly revealed in the coming, suffering, dying, and rising of our Lord Jesus Christ. A God, a love, that spared no cost in saving us from our sins.
Yes, there are moments when our problems and predicaments and Satan himself tempt us to question God’s love. But precisely then must we hasten to the cross. For who can stand beneath the cross of Christ; see Him bleeding and dying; hear Him crying out in pain, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”—and somehow doubt God’s love? That Cup of Blessing is a cup overflowing with love.
Third and finally, the Cup of Blessing is a cup overflowing with fulfillment. In the strictest sense, the Lord’s Supper, grounded as it is in the death of Jesus—the body broken and the blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins—is an ongoing illustration of the fulfillment of every promise God has ever made about redeeming lost humanity through the death of Christ; from the multitude of prophecies in the Old Testament to their complete fulfillment in the New Testament; from the countless lambs slain during countless Passovers, to the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was slain once-for-all to atone for the sins of every sinner; from the blood of the paschal lamb on the doorposts in Egypt to the “blood of Jesus Christ His Son” which “cleanses us from all sin,” 1 John 1:7.
Do we realize that, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are also celebrating and illustrating the fulfillment of all God’s promises of salvation through the death of Jesus Christ? As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For whenever you eat of this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
God is a God who fulfills His promises and keeps His word. Think about that on the drive home from church tonight. Think about that the next time you face some crisis—from a life-threatening illness to a heartbreaking loss—and question whether God really will deliver you, support you, provide for you, save you, deliver you from grace to glory, and all the other promises He has made to you in the black-and-white, read-it-and-believe-it pages of Scripture.
“For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you,” Genesis 28:15. God said this to Abraham. God promises this to us too. And the death of Jesus Christ for our sins is the ultimate proof that God is a God who keeps His promises. That Cup of Blessing is a cup overflowing with fulfillment.