Holy Week of Easter

Maundy Thursday church service was quite emotional for me. At least that is the way things hit me with Pastor Steve's sermon. He did a series of "The Last Seven Words of Jesus" and this one was "It is Finished." What did Jesus mean with these words? What is finished? Does it mean that now His life is finished? Ended? Not necessarily. The word 'finished' can mean consumated, done, completed. What Jesus is saying is that the work of salvation has been completed. There is nothing more to be done for salvation. There is nothing we can do for salvation. It has been done already.

After that we had communion and it just meant so much more to me and brought tears to my eyes. Jesus said when He broke the bread, "Take, eat. This is My body. Do this in rememberance of Me." Then He took the wine and said, "Drink, this is the blood of the covenant. Do this in rememberance of Me." Jesus is not just saying to remember who He is, but to remember what He has done for our salvation. He allowed His body to be broken, like He broke the bread, so as we eat that morsel of bread, we need to remember what that bread represents in regard to our salvation. And the wine is poured out, like Jesus's blood was poured out to take away our sin. If you study the book of Hebrews you see that Jesus's sacrifice for sin was done only once and done for all. For all believers, and for all time. His work is done and that is why He is seated in heaven. And if you study covenants, you discover that blood is a very important part of a covenant. This first Lord's Supper is the inauguration of the New Covenant, the covenant of Grace.