April 17, 2025 – Maundy Thursday Texts: Deut. 6:4-9, 1 Cor. 11:23-26, Mark 10:13-16
Dear Friends in Christ,
Tonight and tomorrow night we get to two soap operas that I probably am most familiar with. That is because these were two of the soap operas that my mom and sister watched in my formative years. Tonight is the ABC soap “All My Children.” It was on for 41 years and was set in the fictional town of Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. The character most identified with the show is Erica Kane. In the days of VCR’s it was the most recorded TV program in the United States. Agnes Nixon, the creator of “All My Children” said this which is appropriate for tonight. “The great and the least, the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, in sickness and in health, in joy and sorrow, in tragedy and triumph, you are all my children.”
Those are words that could have been uttered by Jesus when speaking about us, His children. Like a parent with their child, Jesus is always there for us. Tonight, we look at a holy meal that binds us together in the Lord’s family. The Lord sacrificed for . . .
“ALL MY CHILDREN”
The words children and child are scattered throughout all of Scripture. It began after Adam and Eve sinned and the Lord told Eve that she would have pain when she delivered children. From the beginning the Lord was involved.
The Lord in Deuteronomy, our Old Testament lesson, instructed parents in how to teach God’s Word to their children. They are to do it faithfully and repeatedly. In the house, when walking along the road, when lying down, like before be, and when the children get up. As parents we take every opportunity, no matter how mundane to discuss what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.”
He does love all His children, don’t you know? He gets a little perturbed when the disciples try to hinder the children from coming to Him in our Gospel. The disciples did not think that children were important. Jesus makes clear that they are. They are part of “All My Children.” The youngest to the oldest. From every nation and continent. Every person who has ever been born is the direct result of a creator God.
What is the beauty of a child. Their trust. They trust what they are being taught. They are not afraid to express their faith in Jesus. Somewhere along the way, we lose that childlike trust. It is nice to have independence but not when it makes you independent from Jesus. We need to trust the Lord like a child trusts a parent. All people, like helpless children, receive Jesus’ blessing and enter the Kingdom through faith in Him.
One of those blessings is the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The apostles passed this teaching of Christ on to the Apostle Paul, and he wrote it down in our Epistle from 1 Corinthians. This sacrificial meal looks ahead one day to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. When he broke the bread it parallels the sacrificial breaking of Christ’s body on the cross. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” What do we remember? The shed blood of Jesus during his trial and crucifixion. It all points to our forgiveness and salvation.
As we commune, we do so as God’s family. We make a confession of our faith. A foretaste of the feast to come. We are given this privilege by our Savior. His Scripture gives us these promises. “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12). “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)
This meal is for us his children. It is not about what we are doing, it is about what He is doing for us. His body and blood being handed to you is His service to you. It is His love to you. Come all my children, the feast prepared for you.
Tomorrow is one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar . . . Good Friday. Join us on this same station for . . . “One Life To Live.”
Amen.