Death and Life: The Lord's Supper (Sermon for April 9, 2025)
- Cody Schrepferman
- Apr 10
- 6 min read
Texts: Psalm 43
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Almighty Father in heaven, we give You thanks that this day You have brought us together, that we may hear Your words and learn that You have given us that food of life, which is Your body and Your blood, through Your own sacrifice and death to strengthen and preserve us to life everlasting. We pray that You would continue to grant us this strength and preservation through every day we live on earth. We pray all this in Your holy name. Amen.
There are many artists throughout history who have been regarded as one of, if not the greatest, Michelangelo, Raphael, and many others. And all of them start with a blank canvas or a simple block of marble and a plant. And from that plan, each and every move, every stroke of the brush, every chip of the chisel drives to that point. Likewise, throughout this Lententide, our series has focused on the all-important fact that the Christian life is rooted solely in Christ. But in Christ, the Christian life is one of life and death. We've adventured through this theme of St. Paul's that “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5), and that we must keep this idea of life and death at the heart of our life as Christians. Thus it is fitting, therefore, that we began this Lententide speaking of fasting and now in this final week before the passion we end with feasting and how our Lord has always fed us and strengthened us so that we may sustain our lives through the gifts He has given us.
From the very beginning when our Lord made all things that are He took special care of us. He spoke all other things into existence, and yet He carefully formed us with his own hands. His words were words of creation for all other things, but His words were conversational with us, instructional. He gave us all in the garden for food, that we might be strengthened in our life and preserved, eating our fill and all that we need. Our Lord gave us life through the fruits of the garden. With only one rule, there's only one tree we were to not eat of. And yet our first parents, Adam and Eve, with all the life-giving fruit, chose that one death-bearing. Where life abounded, man chose death. It was not our Lord's plan that we should choose death, but our own. Our first parents thought they were better than God and so ate freely of their own choosing and brought death into creation.
Yet our Lord graciously postponed their death. As they hid in the garden, He killed a sheep. The lamb in the garden is killed for their clothing, so that they could be clothed with skin rather than leaves. But this is not the end of the story, but rather the beginning, for our Lord still plans to feed us and to sustain us until that day where we may be reunited with We were never meant to permanently be separate from God. And so now the garden no longer freely bears fruit, but that we may sustain our lives through toil and trouble, through blood, sweat and tears, the earth now yields fruit. Yet still our God continued his preservation of us. He promised them life through their Offspring. He gave that first covenant to Abraham that He would make them a mighty nation, that our Lord would still strengthen and preserve Abraham, that He would continue to feed his faith.
And it did so through a drought, chasing Abraham’s children into Egypt. Into Egypt where there was no lack of food due to God’s hand of provision through Joseph, where they may be brought into a great nation. and when they were sustained and strengthened so that they may stand on their own, our Lord witnessed their wickedness. Our Lord brought them to Egypt to strengthen them. And again, they chose to turn their backs on Our Lord. Yet He chose to rescue them, showing His great power through ten signs, hardening the heart of Pharaoh and showing His strength. He gave them one final plague, the death of the firstborn. But for the people of Israel, they were given one feast, one meal, that they were to sacrifice a lamb, and they were to eat this sacrificial lamb. And by painting this lamb's blood on their doorposts, they would be spared death. Our Lord would preserve them, passing over them. And this meal became a meal of remembrance. Year after year, a lamb was sacrificed, and the people of Israel ate the flesh of the lamb. And yet, the people of Israel still turned. Furthermore, this lamb that was killed year after year after year could not fully sustain the forgiveness of their sins. It forgave their sins time after time, but it was still sacrificed year after year after year. It was to be a remembrance of the salvation which Israel had when they were brought out of Egypt, when they were baptized through the crossing of the Red Sea and brought into the promised land. But it was also to point to that greater feast which was yet to come. That greater lamb which they were to feast on. Our Lord upheld this covenant to strengthen and preserve his people, to make them a mighty nation that they may praise him and they turn their backs on him.
And so our Almighty Lord, who made heaven and earth and everything therein, came down to us. We who were unable to go to him, now entertain our Lord in our own flesh. He wandered with us. Our Lord Himself hungered and thirsted with us. He ate with us and He taught us. Until on that night in which He was betrayed. It was His will, His entire purpose, that purpose from the moment we fell into sin until now our Lord had planned this very path. Our Lord would become all that we are yet without sin, and give His life for us on the cross, God killing the Lamb once for all. Now in the eating of His body and the drinking of His blood, we may become all that He is. Our Lord took on our flesh so that we may be reunited through His sacrificial offering, that through the very bread given, we receive His body, that through the very wine we drink, we receive His blood. Not as a one-time forgiveness of sin that must be repeated year after year after year with a new sacrifice, but as a one-time sacrifice which is all sufficient. Our Lord does not die over and over again for our sins, but He died once and for all, that our sins may be forgiven.
We learned about confession. We confess our sins and we receive forgiveness because of the covenant our Lord has made in the giving of His body and his blood. He has promised to hear us, to listen to us, and to forgive our sins because He has sacrificed himself. Now this is the very bread of life, this is the Sacrificial Lamb not of earth, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Our very God who takes away our sins through His death. Now in our eating, the very act through which sin entered the world, sin is now forgiven. As the tree bore death, now the new tree of the cross bears life through Christ. We are saved. We are brought back into unity. That unity which was shattered in the eating is now restored for all eternity, for those who believe and those who eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.
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