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Maundy Thursday , 03/29/2018
Sermon on John 13:1-17, 34-35, by Walter W. Harms
13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
THE DAY’S COMMAND
Have your ever had someone wash your feet, besides childhood by a parent, I mean? On the last day of school in elementary times, the shoes came off on the warm days. We walked barefoot everywhere, except on Sunday’s, of course. If you lived on a farm, as I did, you walked where the “range free” chickens ran about and in the barnyard. Your feet didn’t care. Then when evening came and you were going to bed, my father would often take a bucket with very cold well water and wash our feet with soap and then dry them. He often would tickle our feet also.
Many churches follow this practice on this day. I wonder if any of you here today wash someone else’s feet today or any day. We bathe so often that we don’t think about washing our feet, since we wear socks and shoes and while our feet may “smell”, we don’t necessarily wash them any more often than we wash the rest of our bodies. In Jesus’ time washing one’s feet was pretty much a routine in homes that could provide it.
The name, Maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum. We have a derivative of the word in the English word, mandate. Maundy gets it meaning from that word that basically means: command. Jesus gives his disciples “new” command. That command is to “love one another as I have loved you.”
We can get pretty shook up by that command. I think the main reason is that we think that “love” means to like everybody! Well, we aren’t going to do that, are we? We barely “love” the members of our family, much less people we have to deal with in the world. How do we deal with that?
We may feel guilty. We may think the command is impossible to keep so we ignore it. We may even fake liking people in order to somehow follow through on this command of Jesus. Well, none of those thoughts are what Jesus had in mind, not that this command is in any sense easy to carry out in our lives.
What did Jesus do on that day he gave this command? He washed the disciples feet. In Jesus’ time that was done by the lowest member of the household, the lowest servant in the household.
Washing feet was the practice when you had guests coming into your home. It not only felt good, but since roads and path were dirt and shoes were open sandals, feet were dirty and covered with anything that came up from the road.
So it was a sign to your guests that you cared for them. One time Jesus went to be the guest of a well-known person and didn’t get his feet washed! Certainly a sign of disrespect for a “rabbi”, a teacher that Jesus was.
Since feet were not washed by the host or head of the house, what Jesus is saying to us is this. We are to serve, regardless of our position in the family, the community, the church, or wherever we find ourselves. Serving is done in so many ways that we can’t even begin to mention many of them here.
Sometimes it calls on us to volunteer ourselves. At other times, we don’t have to search for ways to serve. It’s right there in the home, the family, the church, and the community. Regardless of how much or how little of our talents and strength may be called upon, we are to serve, as Christ Jesus served us. That service may be far below our abilities. It may seem very ordinary. It may need to be searched out, but opportunities abound to serve others.
It is in service that we follow and obey the command that Jesus gave to his disciples that evening. They were to love others as he had loved them. It is new, and it is the only commandment of Jesus that fulfills all the others.
You must ask yourself daily: are my actions caring for the other person I am seeing, facing, meeting today? Am I doing this out of selfish motives or am I serving the person in front of me?
I have always looked at older women and I can almost tell which of them are or were mothers. Mothers have to do so much for children for about the first 20 years of their lives. Mothers can think of themselves very much. The family needs to eat, to have clean clothes, to have order in the home, to have schedules that fulfill the opportunities presented to their children. They do this rather sacrificially in most families. Even working mothers (who said mother’s who stay at home do not work?), have to put out extra energy and sacrifice of themselves for the family. Many, many husbands and fathers do the same.
You want to see what love is really like? It is Jesus, truly human with all the feelings you and I have. He sacrificed them all, even his life for you, for me. He knew the cost was even his own death. Talk about love. Why is the cross so important to us? It is there we see a Father giving up the life of his only Son so that we might live free from guilt, from the same burdened conscience because we did not serve, but thought only of ourselves. And even more importantly I believe is what that love gives to us—life!
We needn’t worry whether we are getting our share of what life has to offer. We have more than that. This Jesus will attend to all our needs. I know that is like swallowing a whale whole, but it is true. We needn’t worry about anything because this Jesus sees what is good for us and provides it daily and richly.
This evening we receive one of his most important gifts. In this ritual we call the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gives us himself. He gives it to tell us sinners he loves us enough to be present in this very body I call mine. He washes us again so that life is new and refreshed. He gives us a taste of the feast that is to come when we shall eat and drink of the rivers of his goodness forever.
“As I have loved you, so love each other,” Jesus tells us. To have life as he intends it, to find real pleasure, joy, peace and hope—that’s what this Sacrament is all about. It gives us the power we all need to serve, to love in sacrificial ways as he did.
Washing feet is generally not in our schedule these days. What is in your schedule? Is it self-serving or serving others?
And take care of yourselves so that you can serve others well. Amen