Rev. Rolf Preus| Maundy Thursday| April 2, 2026| 1 Corinthians 11:26<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.\u201d 1 Corinthians 11:26<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you come up to the Communion rail and eat and drink the body and the blood of Jesus, you say nothing except Amen. You don\u2019t preach, teach, announce, declare, or proclaim. You just eat and drink. Right? Not quite. Whenever you eat and drink Christ\u2019s body and blood you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. You assert it. You declare it. You announce it. You confess it. You are saying something when you commune and proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, you are saying that the bread and wine that you eat and drink is Christ\u2019s true body and blood, and not just bread and wine. Eating and drinking Christ\u2019s body and blood is proclaiming his death. You\u2019re not ssaying anything about bread and wine. You\u2019re talking about what Christ\u2019s words make that bread and wine to be, namely, his body that was nailed to the cross and his blood that was once and for all shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said, \u201cThis is my body.\u201d He said, \u201cThis is the New Testament in my blood.\u201d That is what you are saying whenever you eat and drink. When you proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes you are confessing that the bread and wine that you eat and drink really are the body and blood of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it isn\u2019t Christ\u2019s body and blood, then it\u2019s not the Lord\u2019s Supper. Those who gather to observe a religious ritual that reminds them of the absent Jesus are not celebrating the Lord\u2019s Supper. They\u2019re observing their own supper, something that Jesus did not institute. Jesus was facing death. He was giving to his church a sacrament that would provide the full benefits of his death. Only his body and blood would do. It was in giving up his body to be crucified and shedding his blood on Calvary that we were rescued from our sins. Mere bread and wine can\u2019t provide the forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this brings us to the second thing you are saying every time you commune and proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes. You are saying that you are a sinner who needs the forgiveness of sins and that in this holy meal your Lord Jesus is forgiving you all your sins. The Lord\u2019s Supper is for sinners who need the forgiveness of sins. Jesus says so. He says, \u201cGiven and shed for the forgiveness of sins.\u201d The Lord\u2019s Supper is not for those who don\u2019t believe they are sinners who need God\u2019s forgiveness. It is not for those who don\u2019t believe that the Lord\u2019s Supper gives them forgiveness. If you have sinned against God, feel the burden of guilt in your conscience, and believe the words of Jesus, \u201cgiven and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,\u201d this Sacrament is for you. It is not for those who think they can make themselves righteous. It is for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The forgiveness of sins is the chief benefit of this sacrament. This sacrament doesn\u2019t just remind you of the forgiveness of sins. It bestows it. We read in the Catechism,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is the benefit of such eating and drinking? That is shown us by these words, “Given and shed for you for the remission of sins”; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Catechism cites the word of Jesus. Jesus said that the bread and the wine are his body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said it. That settles it. So, we proclaim it every time we go to the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third thing we say whenever we commune and proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes is that Christ\u2019s death on the cross was necessary. A strange doctrine has been floating around in the religious air for centuries now. It\u2019s a false teaching called absolute grace. You might ask, but isn\u2019t God absolutely gracious? Shouldn\u2019t we affirm absolute grace? No. The word absolute means not qualified in any way. It means existing independently. To speak of absolute grace is to teach that God could have forgiven us all our sins without the death of his Son. It\u2019s saying that Jesus didn\u2019t have to die. God could graciously forgive us and save us without laying our sin on his beloved Son so that he could die in our place. There is no absolute grace. Grace requires the death of Jesus. Whenever we commune at the altar, we say this. There is no salvation for me or anyone else without Jesus dying for the sin of the world. For only Jesus can take away sins. There is no grace of God apart from Christ\u2019s sacrifice on Calvary. This we proclaim when we proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth thing we are saying when we commune and proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes is that we are in communion with everyone at the altar at which we commune. We are one in faith and in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are one in faith. We all proclaim the same thing. It\u2019s not like Bill has one gospel, Jane has another, and Fred has another. All who commune at the altar proclaim the same gospel truth. We are united with the altar. We are one loaf, one body. We are united in faith. To be united in faith is to be united in doctrine. Pure doctrine is a gift from our gracious God. It is not the philosophizing or intellectual constructions of fallible men. It has been fashionable within the more progressive churches for over a century now to denigrate pure doctrine as if to insist on it is a legalistic intrusion on our freedom in the gospel. Nothing could be further from the truth! Unity in the heavenly teaching of our Savior is a blessing from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is why we do not invite people to commune at our altars if they are also communing at heterodox altars, that is, at altars that teach a different doctrine. For where you commune that is what you confess. If you commune at a church that teaches we evolved from the animals, that God blesses a sexual union of two men or two women, that one need not believe in Jesus to be saved, and that the Bible has all sorts of errors in it you are personally confessing that we evolved from the animals, that God blesses same sex sexual unions, that you don\u2019t have to believe in Jesus to be saved, and that the Bible is full of errors. Where you commune is what you confess. When you commune at an altar you express your agreement with the teaching of that church. You are proclaiming the doctrine of that church as your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are one in love. Our unity in faith and confession is not just checking a list of doctrinal items we\u2019ll go along with, as if the pure doctrine is a list of rules and requirements. No, God\u2019s teaching of the gospel elicits love. If we are united in faith, we are united in love. When we come to the altar to receive God\u2019s forgiveness for our many sins, we come with forgiveness in our heart, forgiving those who have sinned against us. We are reconciled to everyone at that altar. We come in penitence, confessing our sins to God. We don\u2019t come judging our brothers and sisters. We come to receive the forgiveness of our sins. To proclaim Christ\u2019s death is to forgive those for whom he died. We come to the altar forgiving those who have sinned against us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We commune and proclaim Christ\u2019s death until he comes. That means, till the end of time. Some customs come and go. Foot washing, women wearing head coverings, having the men and women sit on different sides of the church, men wearing suits to church every Sunday, and the list goes on. Customs come and go. The Lord\u2019s Supper is not just a custom. It has Christ\u2019s command and promise. Baptism happens but once in a person\u2019s life. You cannot be rebaptized. But the Lord\u2019s Supper is to be repeated again and again. We must not lose sight of the great benefit this Sacrament provides. You proclaim the Lord\u2019s death till he comes every time you commune. This means that the center of our faith, our confession, our preaching, and our teaching is Christ crucified for sinners. It means that we must not be distracted from this heart of the faith, permitting other matters to distract us from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We eat, we drink, we preach. We preach that the bread and wine of the Lord\u2019s Supper are the true body and blood of Jesus. We preach that this body was given for us and this blood was shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We preach that we need Jesus because we are sinners and he is our only Savior from sin. We preach that God has united us who commune together in the same faith and in love for one another. We don\u2019t need eloquence or great skill in speaking. We preach a beautiful sermon every time we eat this bread and drink this cup. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rev. Rolf Preus| Maundy Thursday| April 2, 2026| 1 Corinthians 11:26 \u201cFor as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.\u201d 1 Corinthians 11:26 When you come up to the Communion rail and eat and drink the body and the blood of Jesus, you…<\/p>\n