Prophecies Fulfilled, Maundy Thursday

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

You heard again this evening the events of Maundy Thursday. This evening, and over the next two days, I’d like you to focus on the many Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. One by one, they point us to Jesus as the Christ, and to the great works He accomplished for us and for our salvation.

We already saw a great prophecy from Zechariah fulfilled on Palm Sunday: the King’s arrival in Jerusalem, righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey. On Maundy Thursday, we see at least four prophecies being fulfilled.

The first is the prophecy of the betrayal of the Christ. I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.

That’s a prophecy from Psalm 41, a Psalm of David, whose life was, in many ways, a type or a foreshadowing of the life of the Christ, the Son of David. Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. And a similar prophecy in Psalm 55: For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. It hurts to be attacked by an enemy. But it hurts far more to be betrayed by someone close, someone who was supposed to be on your side, someone you thought of as a friend, a friend who turns out to be your bitterest enemy. That’s the kind of betrayal Jesus, the Christ, suffered for us, betrayal by one of His twelve chosen apostles, who worshiped with Jesus and who literally shared bread with Jesus, not only over the previous three years, but on that very Maundy Thursday night, betrayed by a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. Don’t feel bad for Judas. He did what he did by his own will and choice. Instead, think of the pain it caused our Savior. He walked knowingly into a trap laid for Him by His friend so that He might save us from the devil’s trap, who was created to be a friend of God and of the human race, and yet betrayed both God and man and made himself into our bitterest enemy. Only by suffering betrayal from the hand of Judas could the Christ save us from the great betrayal perpetrated by the devil.

Then there’s the prophecy of the New Covenant or the New Testament that Jesus instituted on that very Maundy Thursday night, the New Testament in His blood. It was Jeremiah who foretold it: Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” And so we have in the Sacrament of the Altar a covenant or a testament, not of blessings in return for obedience, but of forgiveness for disobedience, that we might now walk according to God’s commandments, not in order to win heaven for ourselves, but gladly, willingly, as those who rely on Christ Jesus, who won heaven for us by giving His body and shedding His blood on the cross, and who gives the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, right here in this Sacrament of His true body and His true blood.

Third, there’s the prophecy from Zechariah of the attack against the Christ and the scattering of the sheep that would happen as a result. All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. And so we see Jesus, the Good Shepherd, doing exactly what He said a good shepherd does, standing between the wolf and the sheep, so that the wolf strikes the shepherd instead of the sheep. The sheep, the disciples, are allowed to scatter while the wolf is busy attacking the shepherd. That was cowardly on the disciples’ part. It was a “stumbling,” as Jesus called it. But the Good Shepherd didn’t come to be rescued by His sheep. He came to rescue us from sin, death, and the power of the devil, from our own shameful weakness and cowardice. So learn to overcome cowardice and to embrace courage in your walk as Christians as you see Jesus standing up courageously in the face of His enemies, and ours.

And finally, Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be thus? Now, which Scriptures have Christ being led away violently, and yet quietly? Well, I think of the verse from Isaiah 53, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In fact it was that very verse from Isaiah where the Evangelist Philip began to explain to the Ethiopian eunuch how Jesus had come in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, how He was the promised Christ, and how He had earned salvation for all by His atoning sacrifice on the cross. And which Scriptures have God the Father giving the Christ this bitter cup to drink? Again from Isaiah 53: The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

See how all these miraculous, divine prophecies come together, one by one, to point to Jesus as the Christ who would suffer by God’s own design, not for His sins, but for ours, to earn us a place by His side in His glorious kingdom. Let these prophecies and their fulfillment serve to prove God’s love for our fallen race and His desire that all people, including you, should repent and believe in His Son. Amen.