And now for a bit of Canadian content: to be preached from the pulpit of Prince of Peace, Burlinton ON, at the Divine Service of Maundy Thursday 2026 by Revd Fr David Zakel
In the name of ✠ Jesus, Amen.
Maundy Thursday – 3 April 2026 Readings: Ex 24:3-11
Focus: Lead Us Not into Temptation Ps 116:12-19
1Co 11:20-32
Jn 13:1-15, 34-35
May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my rock, and my redeemer. Amen. Grace to you and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. Amen.
(The preacher acknowledges drawing somewhat freely on what he has learned from Prof Dr John T Pless; well, that’s koinonia/communio, is it not?)
Throughout the season of Lent, we have meditated on the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer with the accounts of His Passion. This evening, as we remember the night on which He was betrayed, our focus comes turns to the sixth petition.
Lead us not into temptation.
Temptation’s target is always the First Commandment.
They are always a betrayal of trust in the Lord and His Word.
Temptation is rarely so crass, abrupt, and noticeably evil. No faithful Christian will ever easily and quickly deny our Lord and God, outright. The Apostle Paul says, no one speaking in the Spirit of God, ever says, ‘Jesus is accursed!’ That’s not how temptation works.
Rather, temptation works gradually and persistently… one little step, one harmless little concession, one slight movement after another: a minor glance, a sniff, a nibble. Temptation seeks to move the goal posts, so that, little by little, faith is weakened, love grows cold, and in the end, Christ is denied.
Temptation’s aim is to get us to fear, love, or trust in something other than the holy and living God. It gets us looking and listening to something else, or something in addition to the Lord God and His Word. It entices us to expect all and every good from some created thing rather than from the Creator.
Whatever it is that we fear,
… that we love,
… that we trust,
that it is which we worship – for these three verbs triangulate worship according to the First Commandment… for, in having no other Gods, we are to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.
True Christian worship and its purpose is that we humbly receive the gifts which the only living God gives to us, through His Son, Christ Jesus… as He ordains and gives them to us and intends for us to receive and use them. And for these, in the full assurance of faith, we rightly respond with thanksgiving and praise.
To be sure, God’s gifts are manifold and well ordered. He cares for us body and soul, granting us our daily bread and sustaining our body. He uses His creation to care for us, thus whatever good we receive from His creation finds its origin and source in His fatherly divine goodness and grace.
But the gifts which are especially singled out, which we receive in true Christian Worship, are not only temporal but also eternal… they are both physical and spiritual… just as we are body and soul, one person, God’s gifts are given for us, body and soul.
The most precious gifts we receive from God are His word and His holy Sacraments.
Through these as through means the Holy Spirit works to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify us in the True Faith. Keeping us with Christ Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation which He won for us on Golgotha.
Now, the devil works exceedingly hard, and is assisted by our fallen creation, to keep us from receiving these precious gifts that our God gives in a worthy manner… from receiving them as the Lord would have us receive them, in faith; trusting that they are given for our good and not our harm. He twists and tempts us to abuse and misuse the gifts of God, every single one of them. So that we do not receive the comfort and benefit which God bestows through them.
Crassly, temptation leads us along a path away from our Lord God and His Word, into manifest pagan idolatry. The worship of mammon and any created thing, expecting from these the good which we are to expect from our Creator. Again, this happens one small shift at a time… Even if we are not tempted to set up idols and burn incense to them, we can easily be tempted towards the modern-secularized-pagan worship of self that is so prevalent in our age.
On the other hand, and more insidiously, temptation can lead us to worship the true God, falsely. That is, outwardly we can be saying the right things, doing the right things, but inwardly and from a heart which has increasingly been hardened, drifting from God and His Word… Jesus says, through the pen of Isaiah, this people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. This happens whenever we piously add to or subtract from the Word which has been given to us…
Against all of this, a heavenly warning sounds in the last chapter of Revelation.
The dynamics of temptation and the result of falling to it are best summarized with the warning words of St. James… each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. What beastly imagery! Here brother James does not intend for us to understand it purely as physical death, but rather the spiritual death which occurs when one is separated from God, tempted away from Him and His Word, by one’s own desires.
We see this played out in Genesis 3… and like a broken record, it has looped, every single day of human history.
Did God really say?
Just look at it… He knows you will be like Him when you eat of it…
I won’t tell you to eat it, just suggest that perhaps you could choose for yourself…
You likely know what is best for you… better than God anyway…
He’s keeping you back from achieving your full potential…
Yes, the serpent, that old ancient foe, tempts us to give into our fleshly desires… and our flesh plays along. He sows thorny seeds of doubt deep in our hearts, and implanted, they take root.
Doubt which causes us to distrust God’s Word.
Doubt and worry which causes us to look and listen to anything else; but most especially to our own perceptions, our own desires, our own felt needs.
Doubt which turns us inward, afraid of our neighbours.
Doubt which causes death.
Yes, you will face temptations, you know this all too well. The Apostle writes, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. Therefore, let anyone who things he stands take heed lest he fall. Take heed to what? Honestly, the same thing that Jesus took heed to when He was tempted in the wilderness. The clear Word of God.
St. Paul repeats himself and continues, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. The Word of God is our only way of escape from the snares which Satan lays for us. The only means of victory over temptation that we have been given, reside solely in Christ Jesus and His Word.
Let us then, as the Apostle says, flee from idolatry… from every temptation and desire which would lead us away from Christ Jesus and thus, return to our Rock and Refuge, the great High Priest of our Confession and to His Word.
Jesus is our great High Priest, says the book of Hebrews; listen to what it says, He is not unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, He has in every respect been tempted as we are, yet He was without sin. He perfectly fulfilled the First Commandment – fearing, loving, and trusting in His God and Father above all else and in everything. In great love, He does this for you and for me and for all. But especially for all who will believe. His great and earnest desire for us, is that we would abide in Him and His love…
that we would keep His commandments…
and thus, love one another, as He has loved us.
Only in Him, can we with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need… both, defense and relief, from temptation.
Knowing our frailty and weakness of faith, Jesus places Himself and His every heavenly grace in earthly and accessible means. Sacramental means. Word and Water; Bread and Cup.
Here the devil works exceedingly hard, tempting us to doubt… he knows his time is short.
He tempts us to do things our own way, pridefully and lovelessly…
to look out for ourselves…
to be our own priests… rather than cast ourselves on the mercies of God, trusting His clear Word and using His Sacramental gifts as He has given them…
This is what happened in Corinth.
This is what happens in our churches.
We can be tempted into thinking that the only thing that matters in the Holy Communion is the relationship between me and Jesus, my High Priest… the vertical aspect of Communion. As such, we tend to individualize the Supper and ignore the horizontal aspect, the communion that we have with one another. Thus, we run the risk of despising the church of God… as some did in the Corinthian church.
Yes, we might kneel at His altar and participate in it alongside one another…
But if we come fearful of our brother or sister,
afraid of what the Lord offers as He institutes, in bread and cup,
do we come rightly fearing, loving, and trusting God above all else?
and loving our brother or sister as Christ would have us?
No.
Question 18 of the Christian Question and Answers, prepared by Dr. Luther for those who intend to go to the Sacrament, asks, “Finally, why do you wish to go to the Sacrament?”
Most of us would simply say something like, because I need the forgiveness of sins Jesus offers there. That He gives forgiveness in the Sacrament is true. However, that is not the answer given to Question 18. The answer given is this, “That I may learn to believe that Christ, out of great love, died for my sins, and also to learn from Him to love God and my neighbour.”
We demonstrate our love of God and our neighbour, as we faithfully believe, teach, and confess what the Scriptures say… when what we believe is confessed through what we do… and what we do reinforces that which we believe and confess.
Lex orandi, Lex credendi, Lex vivendi.
As Christians, we are always to speak the truth in love,
even if this might challenge and upset people whom we love…
even when a practice that is an abuse of God’s Word, and of Christ’s intent and institution, has been permitted to exist in our churches for as long as it has. Unquestioned and unchecked.
Even though people have grown accustomed to it and have grown to prefer it.
So that there is no doubt what I am now talking about, let me make it clear: I am speaking about the abuse of individual cups in Holy Communion. These should never have been permitted to be used in any faithful church.
I have taught clearly and written clearly on this in the past year.
So, what I will say, has been said clearly and ought not be a surprise.
Again, hear me clearly; Yes, you have received Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Such a mighty gift of grace is given!
It is apart from faith, partaking unworthily, that there is great harm.
Hear me again clearly, the devil and our own sinful flesh have tempted us to try and find wiggle room in Christ’s words, so that our fears, perceived needs, and selfish desires might be met. This is nothing new, there have always been temptations to celebrate the supper in some other way than the way the Lord institutes… and this to the harm of either faith and love, to God and to our brothers and sisters.
Can you imagine using straws to receive the Lord’s precious blood?! Yes, that happened, just as assuredly as the cup was withheld from the laity for centuries during the middle ages.
The devil goes about it always using the same lie, did God really say?
Faithful Christians must always be brought back to the Word, St. Paul does this with the Corinthians, who had misused and abused the blessed Sacrament, making of it an individual meal.
This is what faithful pastors, loving their people, must do and must instruct and encourage Christ’s flock towards. This is, by God’s grace and with His help, what I have been doing for as long as I have been with you… in the face of every temptation, we must cling to, contend for, and confess the Word of God as it has once been delivered to the saints – not creating exceptions for ourselves – this is how we demonstrate our love for God, and or love for our brothers and sisters.
Listen again, carefully, to the Words of Institution.
Christ’s words.
Your God’s words.
Words which the Apostle says, he received from the Lord… and then faithfully, delivered to the Church. Words which have the Divine Majesty’s stamp of approval.
Words which our Catechism says, were written, by the holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul, Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it – in order to distribute it, He had to break it into smaller pieces – and gave it to the disciples – breaking the bread is a necessity for distribution, but not for the bread to be the Body of Christ. Christ’s Word, which makes the Sacrament, come next – and He said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.”
In the same way also He took the cup after supper – His cup, the cup of blessing the Apostle calls it, singular – and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them – there is no need for a cup to be divided for distribution, all gathered, like the true family members they are in Christ Jesus drink from the same cup – saying, “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it – the grammatical referent of ‘it,’ is Christ’s cup, shared by those communing – in remembrance of me.
In this we are actively remembering our Lord’s Words, His sacrifice and passion. His great life-giving love for us. And we are learning to truly love our brothers and sisters. The vertical aspect of communion and the horizontal aspect of communion are confessed in this way.
Now, let me encourage you once again, with Luther’s faithful words, [brothers and sisters] we must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body also is relieved. Why then, do we act as if the Sacrament were a poison, the eating [and drinking] of which would bring death?
To be sure, it is true that those who despise the Sacrament and live in an unchristian way receive it to their hurt and damnation. Nothing shall be good or wholesome for them. It is just like a sick person who on a whim eats and drinks what is forbidden to him by the doctor. But those who are mindful of their weakness desire to be rid of it and long for help. They should regard and use the Sacrament just like a precious antidote against the poison that they have in them. Here in the Sacrament, you are to receive from the lips of Christ forgiveness of sins, [Iife, and salvation]. It contains and brings with it God’s grace and the Spirit with all His gifts, protection, shelter, and power against death and the devil and all misfortune.
Here, God tempts no one. Here, by His Word, He guards you and keeps you so that the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature may not deceive you or mislead you into false belief, despair, or other great shame and vice. Though you are attacked by these things, here you will find relief. For here on your tongue and in your ears, you have Christ’s victory and are made to be, more than conquerors in Him. Here in Christ Jesus, at the rail, you are trained in the First Commandment and true Christian Worship.
For, as by the fruit of the tree, man ate, and death entered the world;
So also, by the fruit of the cross, life has been restored to man, that he may eat of It and live.
In T Jesus name. Amen.
✠ Soli Deo Gloria ✠
