epistle reading is from the fourth chapter of the book of Acts. Hear God's Word. When Peter and John were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." This is the word of the Lord. And our gospel reading and sermon text is from Luke 22, where we see Jesus and Peter and John keeping the feasts. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put Jesus to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was a number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him in the absence of a crowd. Then came the day of unleavened bread. on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it. They said to him, Where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters, and tell the master of that house, the teacher says to you, "'Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover "'with my disciples?' "'And he will show you a large upper room furnished. "'Prepare it there.' "'And they went and found it just as he had told them, "'and they prepared the Passover.'" When the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.' And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "'This cup that is poured out for you "'is the new covenant in my blood. "'But behold, the hand of him who betrays me "'is with me on the table. "'For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, "'but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.' "'And they began to question one another, "'which of them it could be who was going to do this.'" This is the gospel of our Lord. Thank you, Lord Christ. Please pray with me. O God, guide us by your word and spirit, so that in your light we may see light, in your truth find wisdom, and in your will discover peace. Add your blessing to the reading and the hearing and the preaching of your word, and grant us all the grace to trust and obey you and all God's people said. Amen. I'm gonna give you kids a little quiz this morning, and you can say yes or no depending on what you think the answer is. I want you to imagine in your head four Sunday school stories that I'm sure you all know, and I want you to picture the animal that is either in the story or missing from the story, and then I'm gonna ask you what animal you have in your head. So first, think about the story of Cain and Abel and what animal was missing from Cain's sacrifice. Now, think about Abraham and Isaac and what animal Isaac asked about being missing from the burnt offering. Think about the story we just heard about the night before the exodus and what animal was being eaten. And last, think about the story we just heard where Jesus and his disciples were eating Passover and what animal was missing from the meal. So Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Moses and Israel, and Jesus and his disciples. Picture the animal. Is the animal you're picturing a bear? Okay, good. Is it a lion? No. An eagle? Is the animal you're picturing a lamb? Yeah. Sunday school's working. Thank you, Sunday school teachers. Yes, you're picturing the right animal. In the Cain and Abel story, Abel's offering was accepted because Abel brought God the firstborn of his flock like God required. But Cain, the firstborn son, thought he could worship God however he wanted and didn't bring a lamb with him to church. In the Abraham and Isaac story, Isaac asked his father, where is the lamb for our offering? Abraham told him God would provide the lamb, and you know the story, he did. And in the Moses story, the families were supposed to kill a firstborn lamb and put its blood on the doorposts so that God would look at the blood of the lamb and not kill the firstborn son as a part of the plague. In all those stories, God's faithful people trusted God to provide a lamb for them, and then they offered that lamb back to God as an act of faith. But did you catch the difference between those first three stories and the story we read about with Jesus? In the first three stories, the firstborn lamb is present, but in the Jesus story, it sounds like the lamb is missing. Now, if you think a little harder, I bet you all can guess why none of the gospel writers record a lamb being at a meal where having a lamb was so important because you know what they wanted you to know all along. Jesus is the lamb. At the end of our time today, I want to encourage you all that just like it only seems like the Lamb was missing from their table that night, it still only seems like Jesus is missing from this table. The Lamb, the firstborn Son of God, really is present with us today in amazing ways. It's getting a little ahead of ourself, though. Before we get to that part of the service, we're going to walk through the story that we read today, sometimes in painstaking detail because so much of it is foreign to us, but we're going to do that so that when we get to the Lord's Supper, we can joyfully and gratefully eat and drink with an even greater faith and therefore greater efficacy than we have before. So let's get going. Look with me at verse 1 of chapter 22, Luke gives us a time marker for when these things are happening and a helpful clarifier by writing that the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was drawing near. Now that little phrase, which is called the Passover, is an important one to put in your back pockets. because it helps provide an answer to the accusation that John and the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, have contradicting timelines for when these things took place. Critics of the Bible point out that John says Jesus was handed over and crucified on the day of preparation of the Passover. But the synoptics record Jesus as celebrating the Passover with his disciples. So on the surface, it sounds like we might very well have us a contradiction. After all, if Passover is only one day, then Jesus couldn't have been handed over the day before the day of Passover and eaten with his disciples Passover. And we did hear in our Old Testament lesson that God commanded the paschal lamb to be killed at twilight on the 14th day of the month, which he himself called the Lord's Passover. Now we also heard that after Passover, for the next seven days, the week-long feast of unleavened bread was to be celebrated. So there is a clear distinction between the single day of Passover and the seven-day feast of unleavened bread. But it's important for us to remember that the Jewish people didn't always and only count days from morning to morning or midnight to midnight. There was another way they often counted days, and that was from evening to evening. thinking about a day like that, then the Passover lamb would be killed just before the sun went down on the 14th, and then once the sun set, it was officially the 15th, and the week-long feast of unleavened bread would begin. So that same day for us is really two different days for the Jews. And so technically, yes, Passover was one day, on the 14th, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, seven days. But they were so closely tied together in timeline and theme that by the time of Jesus, and actually even still to this day, the two feasts could be referred to interchangeably. And Luke is pointing out that the entire feast week of unleavened bread was sometimes referred to as Passover. And the day of Passover was called the day of unleavened bread, even though that feast lasted a week. So back to when John says Jesus was arrested and crucified on the day of preparation of the Passover, He's not contradicting the other apostles. John is simply calling the week-long festival of bread Passover, just like Luke says people did at the time. Now, if that was too much of a whirlwind and you've never had anyone try to point out that there is a supposed contradiction, that's okay. Just know there is never a contradiction in the Gospels or in any other part of God's Word. It might take some digging to figure out what's going on, but if we don't give up, we'll reap the reward that God has stored up for us in his word. So back to the text. Luke says that these feasts were drawing near, and instead of doing what they were supposed to be doing, Instead of preparing to celebrate the great day of salvation when God judged their enemies and accepted the blood of a lamb as a covering for their households, he tells us that the chief priests and scribes are preparing for a different kind of cover-up. Verse two says they were seeking how to put Jesus to death, and Luke implies, not for the first time, that these plots are taking place in secret because they feared the people. Something we see repeated in verse six. Jesus had amassed quite the following. And if these guys waited until everyone was in Jerusalem celebrating the festival to try to grab Jesus, they were afraid they would have a riot on their hands. And so they had to figure out what time or when they could get to Jesus without everyone around. It's that more opportune time that another one of Jesus's enemies, Satan, has been looking for since he left Jesus in Luke 4. And so, finding himself a willing participant, Satan enters into Judas. And they're so united in their wills that Luke can write, not that they, went away, but he went away to conspire with the chief priests how he might hand Jesus over to them in the absence of the multitude. Despite being called by Jesus to be one of his 12 closest disciples, Even though he had spent the last three years walking with Jesus, learning from Jesus, eating with Jesus, seeing Jesus do miraculous works, Judas ultimately decided the cost was too great. So rather than stay faithful and please Jesus, Judas switches sides, choosing to please Satan and his minions instead. Like everyone else, Judas knew that these guys hated Jesus, and he also knew that they had a reputation for paying guys to do their dirty work. So if Jesus was going to die anyway, which he said repeatedly is going to happen, Judas figures he might as well make a profit from the deal. It's this kind of ancient, satanic, brotherly, Cain-like betrayal that is exactly what the chief priests need to get to Jesus. And now that they've got their man, Luke writes that they rejoiced. A word typically reserved for people being glad to see Jesus and experience his life-giving work is now used to describe the emotions of his betrayers who hate him and want him dead. Having given a glimpse into the plans of those who would ultimately plot in vain, Luke now shifts to another scene where more plans are being made. Verse seven again highlights the overlap of the festivals in saying that it was the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed, which we now know is Thursday of Holy Week. Knowing that he wanted to eat the Passover with his disciples, Jesus sends Peter and John to go make appropriate preparations. Apparently having made plans of his own, Jesus tells these two disciples that when they enter into the city, a man doing something unusual, carrying a water jar, would meet them. When they saw him, they weren't to say anything to him. Instead, they were to follow him into the house that he entered and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover with my disciples? Jesus tells them that once they deliver this message, the man would show them a large upper room that had been furnished for the event, and it was that specific room that Peter and John were to prepare the Passover, which they did. Luke now narrows the timeline down even further. From week to day to hour, the three o'clock hour, most likely, when the lamb was being slain, Jesus is at the table with the apostles. Now, Jesus' statement doesn't quite come across as emphatically in English, but in verse 15, Jesus doubles up, and he says that he has desired this desire. He's desired to eat with his disciples. He tells them he's not going to eat of this meal again until the Passover is fulfilled in the kingdom. And then he does something that seems a bit out of place for those of us used to reading this story. Now we're probably more used to Matthew and Mark's account of the supper because that's how Paul instructs the Corinthians to practice the right, and that's why the church has always done it that way ever since. But Luke, and Luke alone, includes a cup of wine before the breaking of bread, and then another cup of wine after. I want to tell a Baptist joke, but I'm not going to. Now, most of what you'll find about the significance of these multiple cups of wine at the Passover is from Jewish traditions that developed after the destruction of the temple in AD 70. And so most cedar meals aren't likely accurate representations of exactly what was going on in Jesus's day. But there does seem to be some precedent for multiple cups of wine with multiple meanings arising during the other period of Jewish history when they were without a temple. The exile. According to Jewish tradition, there were to be five cups of wine used at the Passover meal. The first four were tied to the promises God told Moses to declare to the people in Exodus 6, and the fifth cup, the cup of God's wrath, the cup of iniquity, was poured, left untouched to honor the prophet Elijah. To this day, some Jews still leave this cup on the table and their door open to signify they would welcome Elijah's call to repentance if he came announcing Messiah. The first cup, the cup of sanctification, supposedly went with the promise, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And it was to be drunk while reading the recounting of God's command to keep Passover. The second cup, the cup of praise, went with the promise, I will deliver you from slavery, and was to be drunk after chanting the Hallel, or praise psalms, 113 and 114, which is why we sang that earlier. The third cup, the cup of redemption, went with God's promise, I will redeem you with great acts of judgment, and this cup was to be drank after the meal, and the fourth cup, the cup of acceptance, went with the promise, and I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God. Now again, these things come from extra-biblical Jewish traditions, and so we don't know for sure if that's exactly what was going on. But if there is some truth to it, then that could give us some insight as to why Luke's account has Jesus giving thanks for a cup of wine. passes it around, and tells his disciples to divide the wine among themselves before instituting what we now call the Lord's Supper. It's after that first cup and the promise that he's not going to eat or drink with them until after the kingdom of God comes that Jesus then performs the rite we've all come so familiar with. Taking bread, Jesus gives thanks, breaks it, and then passes it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Or perhaps better, as my memorial. I've actually contemplated changing the way we phrase it, because I think my memorial is not only a better translation, but it's also probably a better way of getting across what's actually going on. But before we talk about what's actually going on, we need to address two things that are not going on. If more ink was spilt over this, it has been said, at the time of the Reformation than the doctrine of justification by faith. So if I went through this passage without talking about transubstantiation, all the Protestants would rise up and chase me out of town. The first thing that is not going on is the bread is not transubstantiating. That is, it is not becoming the literal body of Jesus in that the true substance, what these guys are eating, is somehow Jesus's eyeballs, gallbladder, and earlobes. I realize that some of our brothers and sisters believe that by affirming transubstantiation, they are simply trying to be faithful to Jesus's words here, and especially in John 6. For them, when Jesus says, this is my body, he must mean the bread is his body. And for us to say it's not to them is to contradict the plain teaching of Jesus. You see how they get there? But they actually don't even follow their own line of reasoning because in the next phrase, they believe the wine is the blood of Jesus, but that's not what the text actually says. He doesn't say the wine that is in the cup is the new covenant in my blood. Look closer. He says the cup is the new covenant. and they don't believe the literal cup the priest holds up is literally the new covenant. No, in this instance, they use their brains and make inferences. The cup is filled with wine, and so the wine is what Jesus is referring to as being poured out, like his blood would be poured out, so the wine is the blood of Jesus, which is the new covenant, not the cup. even though that's what Jesus says. So if we can make inferences then and draw logical conclusions, which we should, then it should be clear that we are not literally eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking his blood after we say the magic words. That teaching is not only contrary to reason, as the apostles would have known, they were just eating bread and drinking wine, not the literal body and blood of Jesus, which hadn't been broken or poured out yet. But it also creates a problem within the very apostolic tradition that the Roman Catholics claim to uphold, because in Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council forbade Christians from eating blood. So even though Jesus says, this is my body and this cup is the new covenant in my blood, what's not happening is that the apostles are not literally eating Jesus's body and literally drinking his blood, and neither are we. But what's also not happening here is that Jesus isn't just telling the apostles that they're supposed to remember in their memories that Jesus gave his body and shed his blood for them when they just so happen to get around to eat the Lord's Supper. Again, our more Baptistic brothers and sisters rightly reject Rome and are also trying to be faithful to Jesus' teaching. And so when they read, Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me, well then they understand that to mean that's exactly and only what's going on. But that's not exactly what the text says either. It's a little complicated in the Greek, which is likely why traditions with non-educated clergy are the ones who tend to hold this view, but Jesus technically doesn't say, do this in remembrance of me. Rather, it's probably better translated, do this as or for my memorial. And that's an important distinction because the word memorial is a very important word in the Bible that means far more than just a mental memory. Anamnesis, or memorial, is a technical word used primarily in Leviticus to refer to the memorial portion of the offerings God required to be burned and offered up to him in worship. In the first step of the worship service, which Cain seems to have skipped, the sin offering. The common person had to bring a female lamb to the priest to be sacrificed as an atonement for their sin. If the sinner couldn't afford a lamb, well then they would bring two turtle doves. If they couldn't afford turtle doves, they could bring an offering of fine flour without oil. And the priest could burn that offering as a memorial unto the Lord so that the Lord would receive that memorial as an atonement for the sins of the worshiper. Later in the tribute, offering, the now-forgiven sinner would again offer up a memorial to God, but this time the offering was to be unleavened bread and mixed with oil. When this memorial was burned, God is said to smell it as a pleasing aroma, signifying that the works of his people's hands, no matter how small, are pleasing to him. This same memorial language is picked up again in Acts 10 when an angel declares to the Gentile believer Cornelius that the Lord has received his prayers and alms as a memorial offering. This offering up of the tribute offering along with the prayers of the people is why liturgical churches like ours lift up the offering box. And so when Jesus tells his apostles that they are to eat this bread and drink this cup as or for his memorial, he's saying that when his followers perform this memorial, God will recognize the worship of forgiven sinners and receive it as a pleasing aroma because their worship is lifted up to him in Christ and in accordance with his offering up of himself to God on our behalf. Now, Again, it's not that we are sacrificing Jesus all over again every week as though Hebrews didn't say his sacrifice was once for all. It's simply to say we are trying to use the language and imagery of the Bible the way the Bible does. And that Jesus said he gave this meal as his memorial is one reason we take it so seriously. Memorials are for God's people, sure, but they're also something that are for God. Memorials unite the worshiper to the offering and bring the worshiper up to God. And so if and when the memorial is offered the way Jesus said, well then God will see that. But if it's not done the way Jesus said, he'll see that too. Just like God was pleased with Abel and Abraham and the faithful Israelites who trusted and obeys his instructions about how to worship and what to do with the lambs that were provided, so too in the new covenant is God pleased with those who obey his commands regarding this memorial of his firstborn son, the true Lamb of God to which all those other lambs simply were pointing. And just like the unfaithful old covenant saints who disobeyed God's commands regarding the body and blood of the Passover lamb were judged, so too in the new covenant does God judge those who disobey his commands regarding the body and blood of Jesus. Paul couldn't make this reality any clearer. when he tells the Corinthians that the reason some of them are weak and ill and some have died is because they are not rightly discerning the body. They are not eating and drinking the Lord's Supper in the way Jesus commanded. And so, God is disciplining them so that they will wake up and repent rather than go into judgment. Likewise, we shouldn't be surprised that in our day when communion is such a disaster in so many places, that God's judgment is coming upon his church. If a church disobeys Jesus and doesn't take communion at all, or if they take it in ways that Jesus didn't command, like with grape juice or crackers or at home by themselves, or in some other way that goes against how Jesus commanded, Well then, those people shouldn't be surprised that God responds to their tarnished memorial offering with discipline. They are directly disobeying. He's a good father. Jesus said this was to be done as his memorial, and God always actually sees and responds to his memorials accordingly. Again, from Cain and Abel to Abraham and Isaac to Israel and Egypt, when people do not offer to God what God says to offer the way he says to offer it, well, there are consequences. Because he loves us. And so when we say, the body of Christ given for you and the blood of Christ shed for your sins, we are not affirming transubstantiation. We are simply using the language of scripture. And when we take the bread and say, do this in remembrance of me or as my memorial, we are not saying this is a meal of us merely cognitively remembering what Jesus did. We're simply using the language of scripture that and acknowledging that while the lamb seems to be absent from the events in Luke 22, but is actually present because Jesus is there, he is likewise present with us every Lord's Day at his table, even if we don't see him with our eyeballs. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, we keep the feast the way he instructed his disciples to keep it. And as we keep his feast, as we eat this new covenant memorial with God and one another, we can do so trusting that he will receive our worship and the works of our hands, no matter how small, with joy. As we prepare to move into the communion portion of our service, take these things to heart, and particularly in light of our scripture reading in Acts that declared God had predestined everything to take place according to his plan. And that includes the predestining of wicked plans. As you prepare to eat with Jesus, consider how much planning has gone into you being so privileged to eat with Him this morning. Lambs were created. Passover was born. instituted, our forefathers delivered, and the sacrificial system put into place so that in the fullness of time when the Christ who was born to die came, his person and work would all make sense. At the exact time they were predestined to occur, no sooner and no later than nations raged, the peoples planned in vain, the kings set themselves and the rulers against the Lord and his anointed. On the exact day God had predestined them to, the chief priests plotted. Satan possessed, Judas conspired, and Pilate crucified. And Jesus knew their plans before they did. Have you ever considered that even in the act of calling Judas, Jesus did so because he knew that even his betrayer was a critical part of God's plan to save you and eventually eat with you? For on that night, all those years ago, on the exact hour God had predestined him to, the Passover lamb, the firstborn son of God, instituted this simple meal with bread and wine, his body and blood, so that every Lord's Day, all of his people might gather for his memorial, eat it and drink it and proclaim it until he comes. Sure, you've planned your steps, but the Lord has ordered your path. And your being here this morning to partake of the Lord's Supper is just as much a reflection of Jesus's desire all those years ago. God desires and predetermined everything in your life up to this very morning because he wants to eat with you now and forever. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the Old Testament, and for revealing him as the fulfillment of all these things in the new. Give us your spirit so that we might understand these words and the fullness of your truth as you have revealed it to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen. Our communion text is from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Hear God's word. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it, in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Now there are a few verses in there that are likely so familiar to us that if we're not careful, we can glaze over while they're being read. So we revisit them often to hopefully keep that from happening. As we prepare for communion this morning, I'd like you to consider what Jesus did after he took bread and before he broke it. What did he do? He gave thanks, which we are told he also likewise did before distributing the cup. But have you ever stopped to consider the steadfast, loyal, joyful, thankful faith of Jesus that night? Knowing what was coming in just a few hours, Knowing that the man he'd invested so much time in was about to betray him. Knowing that the very people he'd gone to such lengths for for so many thousands of years were about to bring him up on false charges, conduct a sham trial, and have him crucified at the hands of Pontius Pilate. In the face of all of that, when Jesus took the bread, which would forever be associated with his soon to be broken body. And when he took the cup of wine, which would always represent his own blood, which was about to be poured out for sinners, he gave thanks. We often talk about how Lord's Day worship is the training ground for the rest of the week. In the liturgy of the Lord's service, God offers himself to us and we offer ourselves to him. This is clear throughout scripture, but perhaps put most succinctly in Romans 12, where Paul says that in presenting our bodies to God, we do so as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, and it is our spiritual liturgy, or our spiritual worship. As we do that then every day, but especially this day, as sons and daughters of God, let us follow the example of God's firstborn son and offer ourselves to God how he did, giving thanks. Beloved, I know many of you know too deeply the pain of betrayal. You know how lonely the dark night of the soul is. And you know the agonies of a body ravaged by pain and the horrors of even an impending death. The world and the devil would tell you the cost of following Jesus is too great and they would have you, like Judas, abandon Christ and his people. They would have you avoid any and all suffering and view any trial as evidence that God isn't for you. They would have you do anything but come to this table and give thanks to God in all circumstances, because that would result in you having the kind of joy in the Lord they find absolutely detestable. Do not let them buy you with lies. Do not give in to the temptation of the evil one to grumble and complain and ultimately disdain God's plan for your life if and when his plan includes suffering. Look to Christ. Look to everything He has done to save you. Receive this bread and this wine this morning the same way Jesus offers it, giving thanks to God, even in the face of trials, trusting that just as God delivered His Son, not only to but through death, so too will He look at you through the blood of the Lamb and deliver you for the glory of God and the life of the world. Amen. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night that he was betrayed, took bread. Let us give thanks for the bread. We do not presume to come to your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your many and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose character is to have mercy. Thank you, gracious Lord, that our sinful bodies are made clean by Christ's body and our souls washed through his most precious blood so that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is for you. Do this as my memorial. These are the gifts of God for the people of God.