"THANKING THE LORD FOR HIS GOODNESS"
Holy (Maundy) Thursday
April 13, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Psalm 116:12, 13 (ESV)
These two verses from Psalm 116 comprise one those Old Testament passages that just seems to jump out at you if you are a Christian and (I suppose) especially if you are a Lutheran Christian with a sacramental theology. I say this because these verses (written centuries before Jesus instituted the Sacrament of His body and blood) are loaded with all kinds of imagery that reminds us of the Lord's Supper, as it no doubt reminded the original readers of this psalm of the Passover Seder meal. It is clear in these verses that the speaker is participating in some kind of religious ritual here--a ritual in which he is on the receiving end of something good from the Lord. The participant's only real part in this ritual is to receive the Lord's goodness, to benefit from it, and to give thanks for it. For those of us who regard celebrating the Lord's Supper to be one of the most important things that we do together as the assembled people of God, the imagery is striking.
But there is a lot more here than just imagery. If indeed this passage is a prophetic allusion to the Sacrament of the Altar (as I believe it is), there is also a lot here that reinforces what we believe, teach, and confess regarding this Sacrament. Clearly the Lord's Supper is a means of grace--a way in which we receive the blessings of salvation from the Lord--since the psalmist tells us here that we receive the Lord's "benefits" through "the cup of salvation." The act of lifting up this "cup of salvation" is connected with "call[ing] on the name of the Lord," suggesting that the Word of God is connected with the sacramental action, and that all of this takes place within the context of the public worship of God's people. The rhetorical question at the beginning of our text ("What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?") lets us know in no uncertainty terms that there is no way that we can possibly repay the Lord for His blessings--that all we can do is eagerly receive those blessings with thanksgiving. As we commemorate tonight our Savior's institution of the Sacrament of His body and blood, let's examine this Sacrament in terms of both the Lord's "benefits" and our thanks.
What are the Lord's "benefits" that come to us in "the cup of salvation?" As Lutheran Christians we believe that in the Sacrament of the Altar we receive, in some way that is beyond our understanding, the true body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ--the very same body that was pierced and broken and the very same blood that was poured out and shed when He was crucified at Golgotha to make atonement for the sin of the world. We do not believe that we are sacrificing Christ again on the altar, since Jesus very clearly said from the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30) and since the writer to the Hebrews tells us emphatically that "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10). But we nevertheless do believe that the body and blood of Jesus that He offered to His Father "once for all" (Hebrews 10:10) to make atonement for human sin is given to us in, with, and under the visible elements of bread and wine that we receive at the Lord's Table.
What makes the Lord's "benefits" especially good for you is your knowledge and realization that the Lord Jesus did all of this "for you" (Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Corinthians 11:24). Those may be only two little words, but without them the Gospel will not do anything for you or change anything in your life. God became Man for you. He was born in poverty for you. He lived a perfect life for you. He was rejected for you. He was mocked and tortured for you. He was crucified and died for you. He was raised from the dead for you. He ascended into heaven and sent His Holy Spirit for you. And by the power of that same Spirit He gives His body and blood to eat and drink for you--for the forgiveness of your sins. All of this has been given freely for you. No wonder the psalmist throws up his hands in resignation and asks: "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?"
And "what shall [we] render to the Lord?" How can we repay Him? We can't. But we certainly can respond to His goodness with thanksgiving. The Lord is glorified in "His benefits." And nothing glorifies and pleases Him more than when the people to whom He gives all "His benefits" claim them as their very own and make use of them for their spiritual growth and well-being. The Lord Jesus certainly did not enjoy His humiliation, but He does enjoy the salvation of sinners so much that He finds His glory in that humiliation. The Lord is glorified whenever sins are forgiven in His name--whenever the Spirit of God touches sinners to create faith in their hearts--whenever a child of God dies trusting in His redeeming grace. The best way to thank "the Lord for all His benefits" is to make use of those benefits, daily kneeling at His cross and confessing our sins, receiving in faith His Word of forgiveness, and often kneeling at His altar to receive His body and blood as the pledge and seal of our forgiveness and as the spiritual food that we need for our journey of faith.
The Lord is also glorified and thanked "for all His benefits" when those "benefits" are evident in the words and deeds of those who have received them. God's grace is given freely in His Son, but that redeeming grace of God in Jesus Christ is given for a purpose. We have been redeemed from sin and death so that we might live in this world as the redeemed--as a living testimony to the goodness of the One who in mercy has redeemed us. Because we have received the Lord's "benefits," people who hear what we say and see what we do ought to be able to notice those "benefits" of the Lord' goodness in us. They should know us as people who love because we have been loved--people who forgive because we have been forgiven--people who give because we have received. And because we partake of the Lord's body and blood Christ Himself is in us a very special way, and that presence of Christ in us should be evident to everyone who we meet.
One of the names that Christians use for the Sacrament that we are commemorating this evening is the Eucharist, perhaps a strange-sounding word for many of us. It's actually a transplanted Greek word that means thanksgiving. When we gather together around the Table of the Lord to eat His body and drink His blood, part of what we are doing is giving thanks to Him for what He did for us--most especially for the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, which He offered to God on our behalf on the cross. The best way for us to give thanks to Him and glorify His name is to receive what He has given us and to put it to use in our lives. Our entire lives, being fed constantly with Word and Sacrament, are "a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1) of thanksgiving to the One who offered His body and shed His blood for us to redeem us and all sinners, to restore us as God's dear children, and to proclaim His redeeming grace in and through us.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.