Sermon for Trinity 14, September 6, 2026
The God of love and peace will be with you. Amen.
1 Corinthians 11:23-32 23For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25In the same way, after the meal, he also took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the Lord’s body and blood. 28Instead, let a person examine himself and after doing so, let him eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29For if anyone eats and drinks in an unworthy way because he does not recognize the Lord’s body, he eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30Because of this, many among you are weak and sick, and quite a few have fallen asleep. 31But if we judged ourselves, we would not be undergoing judgment. 32However, when we undergo judgment, we are being disciplined by the Lord so that we may not be condemned with the world. (EHV)
Prepare yourself to proclaim the Lord’s death.
Dear fellow redeemed,
What do you do to prepare yourself for a feast? Imagine you are a college student away from home, and the food at the cafeteria is good, but it’s definitely not home cooking, and now your heading home for Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s house. Can you just imagine all the delightful things that are on the menu when you get there? Do you remember your favorite pie, or how delicious the whole house will smell as you walk through the door? Given those memories and the joy of being together with family after your time away, what do you do to prepare?
Now, the question isn’t what is your grandmother, mother, or other host doing to prepare, but what should you be doing? Will you fast that day until the big meal? Will you get all cleaned up and dressed in your best for the reunion? Are you trying to decide what to eat first? Do you worry whether you will be welcome with everyone else there? I suppose this illustration will limp more than a little, but as we prepare for the feast of a lifetime, Prepare yourself to proclaim the Lord’s death.
On our menu this morning is the Lord’s Supper, and generations have wondered how best they should prepare to partake of this holy meal. Sometimes, portions of the Church have insisted that you should fast before eating and drinking the bread and wine. Most of us would say it is highly recommended that we clean our consciences with repentance before partaking of Jesus’ body and blood in this meal. Therefore, let’s take some time this morning to see what makes this meal so special, and then what Paul means when telling the people to eat and drink in a worthy manner.
The first thing that is made clear through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is that to pretend that this Supper is anything but both bread and wine and body and blood is to make the Triune God a liar. Jesus’ words could not be clearer. When He says “This is,” we simply have to take it to mean it really is. Furthermore, another statement from our God couldn’t be any clearer: “If anyone eats and drinks in an unworthy way because he does not recognize the Lord’s body, he eats and drinks judgment on himself.” This is one of the big reasons why we practice closed communion. We don’t want anyone who might be unsure whether Jesus’ body and blood really is consumed in, with, and under the bread and wine to fall into judgment.
Here, God’s prophecy through Isaiah stands out. The Lord declared, “On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of aged wines, with the best cuts of meat, and with the finest wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples, the burial cloth stretched over all nations. He has swallowed up death forever!” (Isaiah 25:6-8) If you think Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s house was something really special, let me tell you, it can’t hold a candle to what Jesus has prepared for us. In this prophecy, the Lord uses the picture of a royal banquet to teach us the treasure that is served to us in His Supper.
But, what does that mean? In this type of comparative prophecy, the Lord isn’t speaking about material food that you could pick up at the grocery store. The food and wine stand in for what is really prepared by the Lord of Armies, and that is righteousness, forgiveness, salvation, and peace. This is what Jesus offers us in His holy Supper. Remember what Jesus said when He instituted this banquet feast; “He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:27-28) Thus, what are we receiving in the Lord’s Supper? We receive bread and wine, but along with those earthly elements, we receive by sacramental miracle, Jesus’ true body and blood, the glorified elements of the body and blood He sacrificed to satisfy the demands of the law.
What this all means is that each time we come to the Lord’s table, He serves the holy meal He has prepared with all the love of God poured into each morsel. In these fine foods, yes we receive bread and wine, but we also receive forgiveness of all sins, the body and blood of life, peace with God, and the promise of an eternal home in heaven. Though to our mortal tongues, this food might taste ordinary or even rather bland, it is but a foretaste of the wedding banquet of the Son of God through which we who believe in Him will be united with God in joy and peace and everlasting harmony in which no one will ever again suffer sorrow, pain, illness, death, nor sin.
Now that we have established that the Lord’s Supper is truly a banquet made in heaven for those who believe in the Son, how are we to prepare for the meal. By that, I am not concerned with who bakes the bread, or who sets up the communion trays. Neither do we need to insist on a certain brand of wine, because the real food is Jesus and the forgiveness He won for us on the cross.
So, how should we prepare ourselves? Paul wrote, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the Lord’s body and blood. Instead, let a person examine himself and after doing so, let him eat of the bread and drink from the cup.” How are we to examine ourselves to see whether we are worthily prepared? Martin Luther outlined worthy advice in the catechism. “Before coming to the Lord’s Table we should examine ourselves to see:
Whether we truly repent of our sins,
Whether we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior,
Whether we believe that He gives us His true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and Whether we have the sincere desire, with the aid of God the Holy Spirit, to amend our sinful lives.”
Imagine attending Thanksgiving dinner at your parents’ or grandparents’ home yet demanding that they prove they really are who they say they are. Imagine insisting that the good food they have prepared for you isn’t fit for you to eat. Imagine throwing that beautiful, delicious food against the wall in a rage. That is about how a person is acting who denies what Jesus says about this meal. No wonder Paul says eating or drinking unworthily brings judgment on the person.
Still, what if I am loaded down with sin, guilt, and shame, dare I come to partake of this holy meal? If it is your intent to boldly continue in those sins without repentance then, of course, no, don’t waste your time. However, if you are coming to communion sorrowing for those sins and repenting before your God, and pleading for His mercy, grace, and help in correcting the sinful ways, then by all means, this is exactly where you want to be, because Jesus prepared this feast to show you that He really, truly, loved you all the way to the cross, to death, to hell, and to victory over the devil, sin, and death.
Paul wrote, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” This Supper is often called the Eucharist, which is a fancy way of saying it is a meal of thanks. By trusting Jesus’ words and believing that His true body and blood is provided in, with, and under the bread and wine, and that along with this holy meal, we also receive forgiveness of all sin, life, and eternal salvation, we are giving thanks to the Savior who loved us with an unending love. And by our active trust in His Word and partaking of His body and blood, we are telling the world around us of the great love and mercy God has shown us through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Dear friends, though the world around us may mock and deride Jesus’ words as pure fantasy, you and I have a Savior who would never deceive us, nor would He ever let us down. By offering His holy body and blood as the sacrifice of the Lamb of God in our place, Jesus has won for us the forgiveness of all our sins and peace with His Father in heaven. The gates to that heaven are open to all who believe in Jesus, and in the Sacrament of the altar, we receive a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that Jesus has prepared to feed and care for us for all eternity. Partake of that holy meal with full confidence in Jesus’ love and in the sacrifice He made so that you are counted as holy and pure in God’s eyes. Coming before the Lord with trust in His Word, you Prepare yourself to proclaim the Lord’s death. Amen.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.