MY CLOSE FRIEND

​Maundy Thursday – 2024                                                                              LSB #’s 625, 445, 889
Text – Psalm 41:9
 
 MY CLOSE FRIEND
 
 
David prayed in Psalm 41, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”  The Wednesday sermons for Lent have emphasized two things: 1) that the Psalms speak about Jesus (John 5:39)   & 2) that because the Psalms speak about Jesus, they also speak about you.  
In Baptism, you were “joined to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 6:17) & are now “become one” as the Scriptures say.  (Ephesians 5:31–32)    As a result, we can think of Psalm 41 as a biographical sketch about you.    It tells both your story & mine as surely as it tells the history of our Lord.  But Psalm 41 was written by King David, which means the psalm also reflects his life. 
“Even my close friend,” said David, “in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”   King David might have been talking about Absalom (cf. Psalm 3:1), his most handsome & charming son.   Absalom ate bread at his father’s table.   He enjoyed his father’s generous & reconciling love, & received every comfort of his father’s house.  
Absalom also harbored a temper & held a grudge that led him to murder his own brother.  Absalom conspired against his father & tried to occupy the throne of Israel for himself.   In the figure of speech used in Psalm 41, Absalom “lifted his heel against” David, & his father was knocked hard by the blow. 
Of the various muscles in the human body, hardly any physical blow can exert more impact than a heel.  A closed fist can do damage, especially when thrown by a strong man with an experienced arm & calloused knuckles.  A swung elbow can drop an opponent larger than you, but only if it hits the right target.  
By comparison, it is very difficult for anyone to receive the uncoiled blow of a raised heel
& still remain on his feet.  Even a petite woman’s heel can “kick like a mule,” as the saying goes.  The heel explodes out like a cannonball, involving nearly every muscle in the leg.   Absalom “lifted his heel” against David.  Absalom laid low the one who had lifted him up & given him every good thing. 
Judas Iscariot did the same to Christ Jesus, our Lord.   As written, “One of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests & said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver [the Christ] over to you?’   And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.  And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray Him.”  (Matthew 26:14–16) 
Judas did that terrible thing because he held malice toward Jesus – inexplicable malice toward Jesus, who had given Judas every good thing.   When traveling together with the disciples, Jesus even entrusted to Judas all the finances of the group.  (John 13:29)  
When Jesus sent out His disciples & gave them His divine power to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8), the gracious, ordaining hand of our Lord was gently laid also upon Iscariot’s head.  On the night Jesus was betrayed, as you heard in the Gospel, Jesus knelt before Judas & humbly washed his feet with the rest of the disciples.  
Our Lord knew beforehand – He knew from the Scriptures of the OT (Zechariah 11:13; Psalm 69:25; 109:8; cf. Acts 1:20) – who would betray Him.   Jesus faithfully loved His betrayer, nonetheless.  Judas fulfilled in the life of Christ what King David had earlier experienced & written of in Psalm 41:
“Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”   Likewise, in Psalm 35, David wrote words concerning himself & Jesus: “I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother.”  (35:14)    In Psalm 55 David wrote about himself & Jesus, “It is not an enemy who taunts me – then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me – then I could hide from him.  But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.  We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng [of worshipers]… My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant.”  (55:12–14, 20)  
The words, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me,” (Psalm 41:9) are about Jesus, the true & messianic Son of David, whom God had promised.  Because those words are about Jesus, they are also about you; you are the baptized of Christ & “one body” (Romans 12:4–5) with Him. 
Among the many emotions that betrayal evokes, perhaps the strongest   is loneliness.  Betrayal can make you feel abandoned & alone.  Betrayal can focus your thoughts upon only that one, lost friend, rather than all of the other friends who remain faithful.  
David wrote Psalm 41 about himself, & about Christ, so we could draw comfort from the ancient fact that you & I are not alone.   We are in good company when betrayed by those whom we have made our equal, our companion, our familiar friend.  (Psalm 55:12–13) 
“Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”  Many people can read those lonely words as a biographical sketch.   Life in this dreary world assures us that we shall each eventually get to a point where we can see ourselves in this story.  I know how my betrayers have made me desolate.    By whom have you been betrayed? 
Think of the muscles in the human body.  Our betrayers have the power to kick like a mule, bowl us over, lay us low.  Both our Lord Jesus & our forefather David can help us with that threat:
Absalom dealt his father a harsh blow that laid him low, but David survived; rose to his feet by the power of God, & sat down again on the throne that had been given & promised to him by his Maker & Redeemer.  Judas Iscariot likewise dealt our Lord Jesus a mighty blow, laying Him low in the depths of the grave.  Jesus rose from the dead & God “crowned Him with glory & honor because of the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9), & “because He loved not His life, even unto death.”  (cf. Revelation 12:11)  
Thus, Jesus could say to His Father in heaven, in the words of His father David in Psalm 41, “By this I know that You delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.  But You have upheld me because of my integrity, & set me in Your presence forever.  Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!  Amen & Amen.”  (41:11–13) 
Those words are also your words.  David said those words; Jesus said those words; you have been given God’s Spirit that you might also say those words!  “I know that You delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me!” 
We shall not pretend: Those who betrayed us have certainly hurt us, having raised their heel against us.  We shall not pretend: the pain & the shame & the loneliness can be harsh, but those things shall remain only for a little while.  The Lord your God shall vindicate you & raise you up, setting you above your “enemies all around.”  (Psalm 27:6)  
The resurrection of Jesus will inevitably make it so.  To this, we can say with David, in the final words of Psalm 41, “Amen & Amen!”  (v. 13)   By the power of the Holy Spirit & with confidence in the resurrection of our Lord, we add our “Amen” with certainty & without fear.  We say it once because we mean it; we say it twice to intensify & emphasize our hope.  Amen. 
 
 
When you woke that Thursday morning, Savior, teacher, faithful friend,  thoughts of self & safety scorning,  knowing how the day would end;  Lamb of God,  foretold for ages,  now at last the hour had come  when but One could pay the sin’s wages;  You assumed their dreadful sum.    One day all the Church will capture  that bright vision glorious,  & Your saints will know the rapture  that Your heart desired  for us,  when the longed for peace & union of the greatest & the least  meet in joyous, blest communion in Your never ending feast.  Amen.  LSB 445:1, 5.