John 13:1-17,31b-35

Maundy Thursday | March 28, 2024 | John 13:1-17, 31b-35 | Ryan Mills |

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

¹Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
^31b“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”(NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” 

Tonight, on this night in which he was betrayed, tonight amidst all the hatred and violence of this world, tonight amidst the hardness of our own hearts, Jesus lays it all out for us in words so beautiful, in his commandment that is so breath-taking: “I give you a new commandment: Love!”

What could be more simple?!  What could sound any easier?!  “All you need is love,” the song says, and Jesus says, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Love is how the world will know you belong to me, Jesus says, love is the proof of your Christian faith, in a world where so many people know nothing about our faith, in a church where so many people are terrified they are not worthy, the only sermon most people will ever hear or understand is, “if you have love for one another.”

But love is actually hard, isn’t it?  Our love, the way we love, is rarely patient, rarely kind, we’re doing good if we just tolerate each other, but love? Our love, on its own, is not enough.  Because love isn’t just a word or a feeling, but love is action, love is commitment, love is doing, love is a verb.

And so on this night, the night when he was betrayed with a kiss, and judged by the guilty, and led away to suffer and die because of you and me, on this night Jesus loved you and me to the very end.

And so during his last supper tonight, he got up from his seat of honor, and stripped down, and knelt down and with a towel and bowl of water, began to wash the disciples’ feet—he began to lovingly wash those who in a matter of minutes would betray him, deny him, and leave him for dead.

He who is wrapped in heaven, wraps himself in a towel tonight.  He who poured the waters into the oceans and seas, pours water into a bowl.  And he, before whom every knee will bow, bows down to wash the feet of his disciples—he kneels down to wash you and me.

He knows you and me tonight, he knows what’s in our hearts, he knows our pasts, he knows all the ways we’ve betrayed and denied him by the way we’ve betrayed each other, but he kneels at our feet anyway and washes us in love.  He cleanses us.  He scrubs us, even our smelliest and most embarrassing and worst parts, he washes it away, he forgives the unforgivable. Peter did not want to be washed tonight, something in each of us resists Christ kneeling down to us, Christ forgiving us—“No, you can’t do this, Lord!”–but let him wash you tonight, be honest about your real need, and let his real forgiveness wash over your real self—come and receive absolution, his forgiveness just for you, for unless he washes you, you have no share with him.

And because Jesus knew we would need his love again and again, every day, every moment, every hour–because he knew that our love is weak and would have to be renewed, because he knew that we would need his rich forgiveness again and again in our lives, because he knew that love is ultimately the total and complete gift of yourself—at that same supper, Jesus took bread and gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat, this is my body, given for you, do this for the remembrance of me.”

This is my body!  What is more loving, what is greater, what is more complete than to give your whole body, your own flesh and blood? All that he is is given for you tonight, “I hold nothing back,” Jesus says, “I love you! And I am yours.”

Christ gives us his body, sealed in his blood—that blood of forgiveness, that blood that makes death pass over, that blood that makes the foulest clean—Christ gives you that, transfuses his lifeblood into you, everything that he is, he gives in love to you this this night.

“For I give you a new commandment,” says your Lord to you tonight—“Love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also ought to love one another.”

And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

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The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills

New Haven, Connecticut

Pastor@TrinityLutheranNH.org