[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon HOLY THURSDAY 20 March 2008 "One of You Will Betray Me" Matthew 26:17-30 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

I suppose that I am a bit dense sometimes, even after all these years of hearing the account of the night on which Jesus was betrayed. It's the part where Jesus announces to the disciples,

"Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." (Matthew 26:21, ESV)

"And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?"" (Matthew 26:22, ESV)

Note that Judas does not call Jesus "Master" or "Lord" here, but "Rabbi," "teacher." Perhaps Judas reasoned within himself that it would be easier on his mind if he betrayed his teacher and not his Lord. Even here Jesus was trying to pull Judas back from his horrific deed.

Yet, it is also true that every one of the Eleven would betray Jesus, too, but in a different way. Peter would deny him three times when asked his connection with Jesus. All of them would run away when Jesus was arrested later that evening in Gethsemane [Matt. 26.56]. Even this denial was in fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures [Isaiah 53.3, Zechariah 13.7].

Have you betrayed Jesus? Be assured that you have not sinned in the same way that Judas sinned; you did not personally deliver up Jesus to death by sneaking around with his enemies and conspiring with them, but you have betrayed him in other ways. You did not cause his death, but you have been like the Eleven. You have denied him. We all have, despite our protestations to the contrary. As testimony, every confirmand of an orthodox Lutheran Church has been asked if he will confess Christ even if he must die for the confession. If you have been admitted to the Sacrament you have made that promise, but have you kept it? There can be no doubt that none in this sanctuary can claim innocence. I'm not talking about whether or not you have sins; we know that you do. But I am asking if you have had that self-realization that you are capable of betraying Jesus.

We are no better than the Eleven. We have folded like a deck of cards and given enough pressure we will do so again. We cannot stand on our own. Not even these eleven men who spent three years in the physical presence of Jesus in the most intimate conversations were immune from such temptation. When it came down to their own physical safety they were quick to disown Jesus. They all had said the same thing that you said in your confirmation vows. Listen as Matthew writes about what happened once the supper was ended and then had sung a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus announced that they would all fall away that very night:

"Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" And all the disciples said the same." (Matthew 26:35, ESV)

The sad truth is that you and I have denied our Lord on more than one occasion. It is not merely saying the same thing as Peter, "I do not know the man" [Matt. 26.72]. You may very well have spoken such words, perhaps not. There is the story of a seminarian who got a summer job in a logging camp. He had been warned that loggers can be a particularly rough group of men and that they might make his life miserable if they knew he was studying for the ministry. When he returned to the seminary in the fall, some of his friends asked him how it went and how he was able to counteract the logger's taunts and profane ways. "What did they say when you told them you were studying to be a pastor?" they asked. "Oh," he said, "they never knew. I didn't let on that I was studying to be a pastor." Was that a denial? Of course it was! It is no different than Peter's "I do not know the man" [Matt. 26.74].

Think of the circumstances of your own life. Think of the ways that you have actually taken steps to guard yourself from others whom you worried would know that you are a Christian. Maybe it is being too embarrassed to bow your head and pray before a meal in a restaurant. You don't even have to pray aloud. Maybe it is giving others the impression that you are as wild and crazy as they are with no reference to your Christian morals, getting drunk and carousing. Perhaps you join in blasphemous words and songs. You can figure it out! You know that you have betrayed Christ by your words and actions in front of others. Some of it may have been irresponsible and some of it downright deliberate. Like Peter, when he remembered that Jesus told him that he would deny the Christ three times before the night was over, you should go out and weep bitterly, shedding tears of genuine sorrow.

What does all this have to do with the institution of the Sacrament of the Altar? It is just this, that our Lord Jesus Christ instituted this Sacrament for people such as us, people who have betrayed and denied him before the world. We come to this Blessed Sacrament only after we have examined ourselves, that is, put our lives under the microscope of God's Law, hearing how far we have strayed from defending our Lord and confessing his holy name. Then we should confess our sins, receiving Christ's Absolution again, especially in Individual Confession and Absolution. Then we should receive Christ's body and blood for the assurance that he has forgiven us our sins of denial.

In the midst of all that is happening in this week, Jesus takes time to fulfill the Passover, to celebrate it for the last time, and indeed, that Passover in the upper room in Jerusalem was the last time it was ever rightly celebrated. There could be no more Old Testament Passovers, even though Jews and even some Christians re-enact it. When Jesus celebrated it that night, it was the climax, the akron, of all of them. So the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says:

"But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." (Hebrews 10:12-14, ESV)

The chief benefit of this Sacrament is the forgiveness of sins which Jesus inaugurated that very evening, the forgiveness of sins that comes through his body and blood given on the cross and given repeatedly until this world ends in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Perhaps this question should be raised: Did Judas receive the Sacrament? Did he receive forgiveness before he betrayed Jesus? First, Judas had not yet actually committed the deed. It was in his heart, but he had not yet accomplished it. If Jesus were to refuse to commune Judas knowing that he would betray him, or any of the Eleven, would Jesus allow any of us to commune? The Evangelist John, who does not record the institution of the Sacrament, has Judas leaving during the Passover meal. Luke seems to have him leaving after the Sacrament has been distributed. The Lutheran Confessions, along with Luther himself, think that Judas communed and ate and drank judgment on himself. The Apostle Paul seems to underscore this when he writes:

"Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself." (1 Corinthians 11:28-29, ESV)

The point is not that we sin, but whether or not we confess our betrayals and denials. It seems fitting, then, that all Christians should receive Holy Absolution and the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood during Holy Week. Receiving Christ for the forgiveness of our denials of him is the very reason our Lord has instituted it. So, tonight then, having examined yourselves and confessed your sins, receive Christ's true body and blood for your forgiveness. "For you" tells you that this is your Lord's will that you receive him. Come, the Supper is almost ready.