Maundy Thursday Sermon on the Institution of the Holy Eucharist

My dear beloved fellow believers in Christ, children of the Armenian Church, it is a great blessing and it’s so lovely to see everybody here together today on this Holy Thursday. It’s fewer of us today than would be on another Badarak, but it’s very intimate and very encouraging and very lovely to pray together in this beautiful church. And thank you for having me as a guest priest today to celebrate and pray with you. It’s a great privilege. Thank you for having my family here. We’re all delighted to be with you, and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and getting to know you better.

Today, the entire global Christian Church commemorates the institution of the sacrament of—anybody?—Holy Eucharist, the Badarak, the communion of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Today is the day which the entire universal Christian Church celebrates the creation and institution of the sacrament of Eucharist, Holy Badarak. On this day, Jesus took his disciples to a room. That room was owned by the father of Saint Mark, who was the gospel writer, Saint Mark. That room belonged to that family. And they went there, and Jesus converted the Passover meal, which was to commemorate the salvation and deliverance of the children of Israel from the evil of the Pharaoh of Egypt, from bondage in Egypt, right? The children of God were bonded in Egypt as slaves, and they were freed by Moses and by the miracles of God that God did through Moses. Even though Pharaoh was hard-hearted and stubborn and he wouldn’t let them go, God rained many plagues upon Egypt to convince them to let his people go. And even after he let them go, as they were going, he changed his mind and came after them. And God did the miracle in the Red Sea, where the entire Egyptian army was completely submerged into the water and killed. Which reminds us of the sacrament of baptism, in which water takes the sins of a Christian and kills them and lets the Christian live. Water kills and enlivens.

So this wonderful mystery of the salvation and deliverance of the children of God from Egypt—Jesus sat at the table as they were commemorating that, and he changed it. He developed it. It’s not like it’s different. It’s the same idea. But instead of being Egypt, bondage to Egypt, it is bondage to what? Anybody? What are we bonded to? Our—go ahead. Yes, that’s true. And sometimes—anyway, but we as human beings, we have—what is it that the Egyptians were the scourge of the children of Israel, the children of God? They were a vex upon Israel. They bonded them as slaves. The children of God were enslaved by Egypt. Today, what is Jesus trying to tell us that we’re enslaved by, that we need to be freed from? Can anybody tell me? What are we enslaved by today? Do we all feel free? What is enslaving us? Everything. Ameninch. Որովհետև ամեն բան սուտ է. We are enslaved by lies. We are enslaved by sin. We are enslaved by jealousy, by pride, by arrogance, by lust, by covetousness. What’s covetousness? Երբ որ ուրիշը մի բան ունի, և ես ուզում եմ, ինչու՞ ինքը պիտի ունենա, ես առնեմ, ունենամ, չէ՞ If somebody has something, why does he have to have that? I need to have that too. Jealousy, covetousness, lust, rage, anger. And what else is the—what is the worst sin that we can have as human beings? Laziness. But if we think about it very carefully, okay, what would you say if someone walked in the church and instead of standing like this to the altar, they stand like this with their back to the altar? What would you say that? Of course, right now I’m the priest, I’m talking to you, and that’s why we’re over here. Judging. Judging. But I’m turning my back to the one who created us, the King of all creation, God. We worship God. Who do we worship? Do we worship ourselves? Do we worship America? Do we worship democracy? Do we worship Hayastan? Okay, yes, we’re Armenian. We love our country. Our country is Christian. We have beautiful icons. We express our faith. But the reason we love is because we love the King of the universe. The reason we’re here is because we worship Christ, Jesus Christ, God, the King of the universe. The one ամեն ինչի ստեղծագործիչը։ Նա գոբաշխվանինք, okay? We worship the King of the universe. We don’t worship anything else. We don’t worship political parties. We don’t worship governments. We don’t worship cars. We don’t worship jobs. We don’t even worship our father and mother, our family, whatever, even though we venerate them, we respect them. And God told us, “Honor your father and mother.” He gave us Ten Commandments. The fifth commandment was, “You shall honor your father and mother.”

Now, Jesus took this day, this Thursday. He sat down, and they were gonna drink the wine that represented the blood of the Nile River. Remember when Moses did this miracle to convince Pharaoh to let the children of Israel depart from Egypt? He took that wine, and he took the bread that they eat because God told them, God told them, “I’m gonna deliver you from Pharaoh, and I want you to prepare bread, but you have no time to put leaven in the bread.” You have to just make unleavened bread. Մինակ, ալյուր—that’s it. Okay? Flour and water, you make your bread, you eat your dinner, and I’m gonna deliver you. And he told them they were to take a lamb, slaughter the lamb, put the blood of the lamb where? On the doors. Why? Because the avenging angel was gonna… The Pharaoh was so stubborn. How many of you know this story of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt? Okay. How many of you don’t know the story of deliverance of Israel from Egypt? Couple people. So let me explain, okay? The children of God were living in Egypt as slaves for four hundred fifty years. They were suffering. They prayed to God and said, “God, deliver us from this totalitarian bondage in Egypt with us as slaves.” Okay? And God heard their voice. He came to Moses in a burning bush. He appeared to Moses and he said, “You are gonna deliver my people from Egypt.” So he told him to go talk to the king of Egypt and say, “Let my people go.” And the king of Egypt said, “No, I’m not letting your people go.” So God made many miracles to convince the king. And the ultimate miracle that God did was he said, “I am going to destroy all your firstborn. I’m going to kill all your firstborn children. But anyone who takes the blood of the lamb and puts it on their doorpost, they will not die.”

Jesus took this miracle, and he changed the blood of the lamb to his blood. He changed the doorpost to our bodies. He changed Egypt into all sin. Any sin that we do, anything that we do wrong, God is going to burn it and take it away. That’s why we say, որ Աստված տանի մեր մեղքերը, that God should take our sins and cleanse them away and make us new like babies again. So on this Thursday, Jesus changed the miracle of delivering the children of God from Egypt—maybe a thousand years before, many thousand years before that. He changed it into the deliverance of all human beings, because after all, God is a God not just of one country. He is a God of the race of human beings, and he wants to dwell in the hearts and minds and souls of all human beings. He changed that into the deliverance of all human beings from death, because death is the wages of sin. God said to us, “Anyone who sins against me cannot dwell with me in eternal life.” In order for us to dwell with him in eternal life, we must be cleansed of our sins. We must receive the body and blood of the lamb into us. Otherwise, we have no part in God’s kingdom. So this miracle is the miracle of the creation of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, or the sacrament of Surp Badarak, Surp Badaraki Khorhurd, the mystery of holy divine Eucharist.

Now, let me say one other thing. For those of you that know this story, Jesus instituted the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, where he said, “You see this bread that we’re eating at the dinner? This is my body, which is given to you.” Remember when the priest raises up the bread and he says, Առեք կերեք, սա է մարմին իմ. He’s saying the words of Jesus at the dinner on Thursday, right before he was gonna be crucified. So he is saying, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is given to you and to all for the forgiveness of sins.” Then he says, “Take, drink. This is my blood, which is given to you and to many for the forgiveness of sins.” Many people had difficulty understanding this. They said, “What, are we gonna drink and eat the flesh of a man and drink the blood of a man?” No. This is the divine, supernatural body and blood of God that he’s giving us to become one with us, to marry us, to become part of us, that he is our husband and we are his wife. He is our father, we are his children.

As soon as he finished that meal, and we’re gonna start celebrating this tonight when we do the Khavarum and the betrayal, he got up and he took his disciples and went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he repeated exactly, “This is my body. This is my blood, which is given to you.” And if you look at that icon right up there of Jesus on the cross, you’re gonna see that he gave his body for us, and he gave his blood. Remember when the Roman soldier came and speared him in the side? The Geghard, which the Armenian people are reputed to have the actual Geghard from that Roman soldier that speared his side. The blood and water came out of his side. And with that body and with that blood, he—as if we were the children of Israel and the avenging angel was coming to kill us—he has saved us from death by his body and blood.

And I know you have many questions, and a sermon cannot be a Bible study. But we have to try to understand these things. We really do. Because the King of the universe has been so loving that he has given himself to us, not lording over us. I want you to think for a moment. All of you are parents, yes? Who in here is a mother or a father? Or you will be shortly. Okay? All right. Imagine you have your children. You have your children. Do you lord over your children or do you like to play with them and be with them? Do you see what I’m saying? Our God is a father who likes to play with us and be with us and wants to be—like, don’t take this the wrong way, but He literally wants to marry us. He wants us to be bonded together as one flesh. And when He and we come together, we reproduce. And what does that reproduction—the fruit of the spirit, patience, love, kindness, gentleness. Okay?

So here in this holy day of Thursday, let us meditate together, let us pray together, and let us realize and take stock. We have a creator of the universe who doesn’t lord over us like a very distant, authoritarian, forceful figure. But yes, He’s gonna judge us. He’s gonna judge us for our sins. But He gives us Himself, His body and blood, and sacrifices Himself on the cross, that out of humility, that we could just join to that and partake of it through this sacrament that He instituted on Holy Thursday. We are here today because on that Thursday, He made this sacrament, which we do every Sunday, the Lord’s Day. And Der Hayr maybe in one of his sermons or Bible studies, he will explain why that even though that was done on a Thursday, it then becomes—that Sunday becomes the Lord’s Day. Okay? Any question? We can talk later in the coffee hour. Go. God bless you all. God give you faith. God give you knowledge, and wisdom, and courage, and encouragement, and love toward each other. And pray for each other. Pray for each other. Pray for the choir. Pray for the deacons. Pray for the priest. This church is like a little Noah’s Ark in a sea, so love one another and cherish this beautiful St. John’s Armenian Church. And may the Holy Spirit, may God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit bless you all and give you peace and joy on this great and wonderful Holy Thursday. God bless you all. Amen. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.