Why Strip the Altar?

Last night, my daughter and I attended our first Maundy Thursday service at our new church. That seems rather odd as we have been worshiping there for almost a year but, for some reason, Maundy Thursday 2006 was spent elsewhere. Anyway, what I found interesting was this explanation of “stripping the altar” that was included in the service bulletin and read aloud by the pastor at the end of worship. I have been a Lutheran all my life and, frankly, cannot recall ever hearing an explanation of why this activity is included in the Maundy Thursday service. I very much appreciated this information and have decided to share it with you here.

Stripping of the altar (removing all ornaments, linens, and paraments) is an ancient custom of the Church done on Maundy Thursday. It is symbolic of the humiliation of Jesus at the hands of the soldiers.

After the Last Supper, less that 24 hours remained in the earthly life of our Lord. Events moved rapidly: prayer in Gethsemane, betrayal by Judas, arrest, mock trial, painful beating, the trudge to Golgotha and execution.

As His life was stripped from Him, so we strip our altar of the signs of life to symbolize His purposeful, redemptive suffering and death for us. Plants are new life springing forth. In the passion and suffering of Christ, human life ebbs from Him. In recognition of this we remove the palms from our altar.

PALMS ARE REMOVED.

Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.” The events of Golgotha snuffed out the human life of Jesus, the Light of the world. As even creation was dark when He suffered, so we extinguish our candles and remove them.

CANDLES ARE EXTINGUISHED AND REMOVED.

Our offerings represent one way of serving God and others. They reflect Gods greatest offering to the world and to us in sending His Son, Jesus, in human form. As the offered body of Jesus was removed from sight in burial, so we remove our offerings.

OFFERINGS ARE REMOVED.

The missal stand holds our worship books that guide our worship life together as we sing praises to God. As Jesus suffers, joyous songs are not heard. As these sounds of joy are removed from our lips, we remove the missal stand.

MISSAL STAND AND SERVICE BOOK ARE REMOVED.

Jesus’ offered Body and His shed Blood have been give to us in, with, and under the form of bread and wine in this Holy Mystery. As He was removed from us in the grave, so we remove the elements and vessels of this Sacrament.

COMMUNION VESSELS ARE REMOVED.

Our altar is in the form of a table. It is here where our Lord Jesus serves us as both host and meal at His banquet feast. The coverings and paraments are made of fine linen; material appropriate for feasting with our King. As our King’s body was stripped in crucifixion, so our altar is stripped of its coverings.

ALTAR PARAMENTS ARE REMOVED.

The Paschal Candle is carried from the baptismal font to the rear of the sanctuary where it is extinguished. There is no benediction or postlude at the end of this service, which indicates that the service has not concluded. [Our worship continues on Good Friday.]