Dear Christian friends:

Which is more important Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, or Easter? Many will say Good Friday, perhaps most will say Easter. They are all three very important days and they cannot really be separated. One without the other is useless. Easter is worthless without Good Friday and Good Friday is nothing without Easter. But Maundy Thursday is very important, too because that is the night Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.

On the cross on Good Friday Jesus made or won forgiveness of sins for us, but in the Lord's Supper He offers it to us in a very strong and wonderful way. In the Lord's Supper Jesus offers and seals to us the fruits or blessings of Good Friday and Easter. And He offers these blessings in a very impressive way. He makes a short drama with His disciples. He takes bread and tells them to eat; then He takes wine and says some very wonderful words about that bread and wine and about their eating and drinking.

So tonight on this Maundy Thursday let us from our text and with God's Holy Spirit consider:


He offers us His body to eat and His blood to drink. We read in our text, "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26)

When we eat bread or meat that bread or meat becomes part of our body united with us. So in the Lord's Supper we are united with Him and He with us. We are also united with all the other Christians who come to the Lord's table.

We then read, "Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:27-28)

So with the cup Jesus offers us His blood to drink and swallow. When a man in the hospital is weak, the doctor often orders the nurse to give the dying man a blood transfusion. The blood gives new life and strength to the man. So in the Lord's Supper. Jesus offers His blood for the forgiveness of sins.

And when we have accepted forgiveness of sins we also have new life and eternal salvation. We receive strength and power to die to sin and live to God.

So in the Lord's Supper Jesus offers us very great and wonderful things. And this offer in the Lord's Supper is very valuable because of what Jesus did in the Garden on Maundy Thursday and because of what He did on the cross on Good Friday.

After Jesus gave them His body and blood to eat and drink He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:24-25)

What should we remember? We should remember His death and the shedding of His blood. When Jesus went into the garden He prayed: " “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." (Matthew 26:39) Well, we know that Jesus had to drink that bitter cup, He had to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. God said there is no other way. So Jesus drank that cup and died. So we by faith, with the eyes of faith must also drink that cup of the Lord's Supper.

It means that we die with Him. Paul says: "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

When we eat His body and drink His blood we die to sin, but live to God. That means we confess our sins and put them on Jesus and let Him carry them away. There we hate sin and turn from sin and with love to God cheerfully and eagerly serve and obey Him. Paul says this in beautiful words, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)

Isaac Watts says it very beautifully in the Hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"

"When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride."

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

That's what you and I should think and remember when we come here to eat His body and drink His blood. We join with Him and die with Him so we can now arise from sin and death to live for Him.

This we can only do with the new eyes of faith. May God help us to see and do.

Amen.