Maundy Thursday Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

    “Do you understand what I have done to you?” Having washed the disciples feet, an act thought by those disciples to be most strange, Jesus asks this question – do you understand? Do you know it – have you experienced the things that I have done to you? And the answer that we all would have to give if we are being honest is no... or maybe if we're being generous, only partially. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 -  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. We don't have the full understanding, not now, not until Christ returns and we are raised. Until the last day there will never be a Maundy Thursday where we gather and there's nothing more to learn or to know from our Lord, and so we learn again.

    You call Me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do just as I have done to you. I have given you an example, I've set up a pattern that you can intimate. I've showed and pointed out what I've been doing all along. Foot washing is a demonstration of service – of service that is hard, that is somewhat gross, but one that also is actually good and that people benefit from. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. And Jesus just dives on in. When there is work that needs to be done, when there is service that needs to be given, when there is love that is to be loved, Jesus doesn't hesitate. Jesus doesn't worry about His dignity, there's no “Don't you know who I am” excuses given. He simply dives on in and serves. The focus is upon the one being served. This is how love works, this is how “agape” - charity, Christian care – works. Dive on in and serve the neighbor.

    And especially so if you have authority. The disciples rightly called Jesus their teacher, and the idea in their day was that the students served and obeyed the teacher. Well, yes – but the teacher also is to be constantly serving the disciples. The tasks the teacher sets the disciples on are to be for the disciples good – even if they don't understand it. And everything Jesus did with His disciples was done for their good, their benefit, their training. Everything the very Word of God Himself had written in the Scriptures was written for the disciples' benefit and for our benefit. And if Jesus will get a little bit dirty for our benefit, so be it. That's what you do when you love someone, when you're in charge, when you care. You show love.

    And we don't understand this fully, we don't experience it fully – this is because of the impact, the pull of sin, the constant taint and corruption that clings to us in this life. We don't love fully, we don't understand this fully. We worry about ourselves too much. We worry about what will happen to us, because we forget that our Father is in control and placing all things into His hands is the best place to be, no matter what comes. We worry about what people will think of us, as though opinions of our fellow servants trump what our Lord thinks and says of us. We worry about our own dignity, because we forget that our worth, our value isn't established by what we do but rather by Christ Jesus and the value He places upon us. We forget, we overlook, we turn away, we disdain. We sin.

    So Jesus comes to us again and again. Peter's disdain and shock didn't stop Jesus from being Jesus – Jesus still loved, still taught, still ended up washing Peter's feet even through Peter's protestations. This is what Jesus does for you – He comes to you again and again, even over and against the times where you've been stubborn or clueless or mean and nasty, and He gives Himself to you again, and again, He loves you again. This is the point of the Lord's Supper – this is why John tells this story to reinforce what we know of the Supper. The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. Yes, Jesus came and bathed you in holy baptism, but you don't do that multiple times – instead, you'll get the Supper, the over and over again cleansing and forgiveness where Jesus comes humbly under bread and wine to serve you and to love you again. The pattern, the example is set for the disciples and for us, and there's always more to ponder and wonder concerning Jesus' love.

    And yes, this is the example for you, that you are to love, to serve, to forgive. As He has done to you, so you are to do to others. Just as you struggle with sin, the neighbors Jesus has placed in your life will struggle with sin, and so they will need your love, your mercy, your care – or more accurately the love and mercy and care that Jesus shows them through you. They will need Jesus' forgiveness, and you'll be the one He uses to speak it. Because Jesus loves them, and He loves you, and He loves them through you and you through them. Love one another – back and forth, over and over again, thoroughly. Forgive one another – back and forth, over and over again. Because until our Lord returns, until the “perfect comes” that is what we all need.

    And remember where this love is, what it is grounded in. Having loved His own, He loved them to the end. Whenever you hear the word “end” or “finished” or “complete” or “perfect”, especially in John, they're actually the same word, or variations on the same word – telos. Jesus loved them to the finish – to the “it is finished” cry we will hear tomorrow, because on the Cross Jesus finishes, completes, perfects it all – He is the perfect, finished, complete One who will come again and because of His death and resurrection bring you to complete perfect finished everlasting life. The love that you receive, that you show, it's all grounded in the Cross, in the fact that there is no sin that Jesus has not covered, that there is no humiliation that Jesus will not bear for you, that there is no suffering or hardship which will drive Jesus away from you, there is no service to mean for Jesus to be with you in. All of it, it is finished, and Jesus loves you to the end, and He will come again and you will know, you will experience, you will live all of this undeterred by sin or sorrow eternally. Because Jesus always loves you, and He won't let shame or humiliation stop Him from loving you. Do you understand what Jesus has done for you? God grant us all to understand it more and more all of our days! In the Name of Christ the Crucified +