A New Covenant – April 14, 2022, Maundy Thursday

Genesis 17:1-8, Luke 22:7-23
April 14, 2022, Maundy Thursday

We’re talking about “A New Covenant” this evening.  That’s the title of this message.  And as we do so, I wanted to be sure to read to you from Genesis, and to remind you of the Old Covenant, the covenant God made with Abram.  “I will make of you a great nation.” he said.  “And this moment is so important, that no longer will you be called ‘Abram,’ but ‘Abraham.’”  “I will make this covenant between me and you and your descendants, that I will be your God and you will be my people.”

That’s the great covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants.  That’s what established the special relationship he had with them.  It wasn’t just a big event in their history.  It’s what made them who they were.  It gave them their identity as God’s people.

A Covenant is an agreement, a mutual promise.  Each side has an obligation.  “I will be your God and you will be my people.”  When God gave Moses the Torah, the Ten Commandments, that was a physical representation of his covenant with them.  It was like their written contract – chiseled in stone!  We’d like to have some of our contracts chiseled in stone, wouldn’t we?  That written contract helped the people to better understand God’s covenant with them.  They had those tablet to remind them.

I wanted us to remember that Covenant, because that’s what these disciples would have been thinking when Jesus talked about “A New Covenant.”  He was using a word that was very important to them!  From an early age, they were taught about the history of their people, about the patriarchs, and about the events that made them the people they were.  As I’ve said before, the Jewish people have always had a greater connection with their history than we have.  So, these men dining with Jesus that night would have known all about the covenant with Abraham!

And so, as I’ve also said before, when Jesus used the words he did about the Passover they were celebrating, it had to have been shocking to them!  “This bread,” he said, “is now for you my body.”  The bread, which had great meaning to them in the story about their history, now was about him and his sacrifice.  “This cup…”  Some scholars have said this was the last cup they drank at Passover.  It was the cup of praise.  But now Jesus has the audacity – the chutzpah – to change its meaning and make it not only about himself, but about a new covenant!  We can only imagine what those disciples were thinking when he said that!

And if that wasn’t enough, Jesus used another of their important words that night, the word “Commandment.”  “A New Commandment I give unto you,” he said.  “That you love one another as I have loved you.”  They were thinking about Abraham before.  Now they were thinking about Moses! The word “commandment” evoked his story, the story of that written contract with the people.

What was he saying?  Did Jesus really mean that his “commandment” was to be number Eleven?  Did he mean it to be included right there in the list?  Was there enough room to chisel it in at the bottom of the tablet – on the left side, of course.  (Remember, they wrote from right to left!)  Or was he just using that word for its impact?  Was he using it to convey the importance of what he was saying to those men, men who would have known the importance of that word?

Whatever the reason, that statement was so big that we have referred to this day, ever since then, as “The Thursday of the Commandment” or “the Maundatum” in Latin.  Or “Maundy Thursday.”  That’s how important the Church has seen that statement over the years!

I think this word “covenant” is on that level of importance.  Either this was a new covenant with God, on the magnitude of the covenant with Abraham – to be listed among the great covenants God made with his people – or Jesus was using that word for its impact?  He was using it to tell them how important that night was.  And actually, I think it’s both.

Those men would have been taught from their youth about their covenant with God.  They believed it to be part of who they were.  Because again, they felt that greater connection with their history.  And it is my hope that we can make that kind of connection, as we celebrate this sacrament, all these years later.  God made this new covenant there at the Last Supper of our Lord.  Our “fathers” Peter, James, and John were there with him.  “We” received that covenant right along with them that night.  And we’ve remembered it this way ever since.

Think about those things this night as we move to this time of communion.  Let us picture ourselves being with Jesus as he introduced this new covenant with them – and with us.

Prayer

Our Lord, we thank you for your presence here with us in this sacrament.  Help us to prepare our hearts and minds to hear these words again, and to remember Jesus’ sacrifice, the way he himself taught his people so long ago.  May we be aware of the covenant you have made with each of us.  And may we be reminded of that as we share these elements together.  For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.