by Zach Roll

Maundy Thursday.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link

“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'” Matthew 26:26-28 English Standard Version

These are the words that Jesus spoke, to his disciples, the night he was betrayed. His time had come, and the cross was before Him. Soon, Jesus was to give His life, and blood, on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of mankind.

Jesus did not symbolically die on the cross for us, Jesus truly, actually, physically died and shed His blood for us on the cross. When he invites us to partake in His body and blood in Holy Communion, he is truly delivering Himself to us.

How this is I cannot claim to know, but you can be confident that since Jesus died on the cross for us, He gave His true body and blood for us just as He did for those in his time.

Jesus rose from the dead. He is now with the Father, until His return, and we have the Holy Spirit with us. We partake in Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of our sins, for it is only in the shedding of Jesus’s blood on the cross that we find forgiveness, redemption, and life.

What an amazing God! He is a God who delivers Himself to us in the elements of communion so that we, who live in the time after the death, resurrection, and before the second coming, may be cleansed and forgiven by the blood of Christ.

In this Christ unifies the church. What a beautiful and sacred gift God has given us. Amen.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO