“Twilight” (Maundy Thursday, Vicar Tim)

Dear Friends in Christ,

The word of God that engages us this evening if found in the book of Exodus chapter 12, verses five and six. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.”

            Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

            Twilight is that beautiful time of the day shortly after the sun has set. Twilight is that soft glow that emanates from the west while darkness encroaches from the east. Twilight is that time when various oranges and purples, colors that no painter could replicate, hang briefly on the horizon. I think of twilight as being the perfect time to hold the hand of someone you love, while sipping on flavored iced-teas and rocking gently on a porch swing.

            Twilight also happens to be the name of a wildly popular series of books written for young adults. Twilight, written by Stephanie Meyer, showcases a family of ethical vampires who refuse to kill and drink the blood of humans. Twilight became even more popular after a movie with the same name, based on the books, made an incredibly successful box office run, raking in $138 million dollars in just three weeks.

            And concerned Christians are up in arms. They are aghast that young adults, both girls and guys are enjoying such literature. Parents are banning the books from children and other groups of people are trying to banish the books from libraries and schools. They are afraid that the book condones violence, with the savage ripping and tearing of flesh and a glorification of blood. After all, blood is the sole source of sustenance for the book’s main character Edward and his vampire family.

            Today in our Old Testament text we read the word twilight. Exodus 12:6 says, “and you shall keep [the lamb] until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.” Now, in this particular text, the word twilight actually has much more in common with the story of vampires than it does with images of soft pastels illuminating and encasing a romantic couple blissfully rocking back and forth on a porch swing. 

            In our text, twilight marked the beginning of a slaughterfest. God commanded the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel to kill their unblemished lambs at twilight and collect the blood. And when the sun dipped below the horizon, the Israelites drew their knives and silenced the bleating of hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats. Israelites gathered the blood of the lambs in bowls and basins and saved it so they could spread it liberally on their door frames.

             This mass killing of sheep and goats took place during twilight. The Israelites were in a hurry. Each family was pressed for time, as our text makes clear in verse 12, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.” Twilight doesn’t last but maybe thirty minutes. If the family dawdled, if the family was queasy at the thought of blood, if the family didn’t take this command of the LORD seriously and act, death entered their home nonetheless.

            Either way you look at it, someone or something was going to die. The Israelites were commanded to slaughter their sheep or their goats. If they didn’t, they themselves would watch in horror as the firstborn of “both man and beast” was killed by the LORD. And sure enough. Not long after the knives of the Israelites silenced the bleating of goats and lambs, a new sound was heard. The sound of crying and anguish from the Egyptians as their firstborn children and animals were killed. Exodus 12:30 says, “And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.”

            This day of slaughter, this day that glorifies blood, this day of death was special. It was called The Passover. The Lord was very clear. The Israelites were not to forget this day, so he made it a law to be celebrated every year. The Lord commanded His people to set it apart. In verse 14 we read, “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”

            The LORD commanded the Israelites to keep this feast as a statute forever. And they did. They celebrated the Passover for thousands of years. And in our New Testament reading from today, we see that Jesus himself celebrated the Passover Meal too. And he looked forward to celebrating it. When twilight arrived, the day before Christ’s death, the gospel writer Luke quotes Jesus saying to his disciples, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

            This Passover was going to be different. Once again, the people are gathered at twilight. And once again, twilight marked the beginning of death. But it’s a different kind of death. A different kind of lamb was going to be killed this time. Jesus Christ, of whom John the Baptist so loudly proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” He too was unblemished, he too was a lamb, and he too was going to die.

            And God, revealed in Christ, was once again not going to allow his children to forget this day of death. And so we hear those familiar words “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

            These familiar words of institution were spoken by Jesus during the Last Supper. And in these words we see that God has commanded something new. He has commanded us to eat, he has commanded us to drink, and he has commanded us to do this again in remembrance of him. That is why we call this day Maundy Thursday. Maundy means “command.” We have called this day “command Thursday” because God has commanded us, just as he commanded the Israelites, to remember a day of death, the day of Christ’s death.  And just like the Israelites, he has commanded us to remember this day with a meal: a meal that we call “The Lord’s Supper” or “Holy Communion.”

            Here we are, gathered together in church at twilight. We didn’t come with lambs and goats on leashes. We didn’t come with slaughtering knives strapped to our belts. We did not come with bowls and basins and bunches of hyssop so we can spread blood on the doors of our church and sit somberly as the life blood is drained from the necks of our livestock. On this darkening evening, before twilight is over, blood will flow. And yet, this twilight is different.

            This twilight does not mark the beginning of death. Instead, this twilight will be filled with life. For you see, there is blood flowing this evening, and it is the blood of Jesus Christ, truly present in the wine that sits atop our altar. The blood will flow into each of us as we follow the command of our Lord to “take and drink.” And with the command comes the promise that our sins, our misdeeds, our poor choices, our past mistakes will be removed, because as he promised, his blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins.

            An image more beautiful than soft pastels on the horizon is witnessed here at the rail. It is here that we share in communion with our God, a relationship more intimate than a love struck couple rocking on a porch swing. Life begins again right here, at the rail, at twilight.

Amen.