Maundy Thursday

Scripture Reading

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition John 13

13 Now 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. 2 The devil had already decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then 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. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus 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.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, slaves are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition John 13

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little 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.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

These next days are quite a journey!

Tonight Jesus is gathered around the tables with his disciples, celebrating.

By noon tomorrow, he’ll be nailed to a cross dying a criminal’s death.

On Sunday, triumph over death and an empty tomb.

Each of these has their own unique theme, and a place for us to ponder.

I encourage you, if you’re able, join us for all three.

But tonight’s theme is one you might not see coming.

Terminal Diagnosis

If you found out you only had 6 months to live, what would you do with it?

Spend more time with your family?

Work on that artistic endeavor you’d been putting off?

Run toward the nearest beach?

I think this is what makes tonight’s story so interesting to me.

Jesus knows, he’s absolutely certain, that this is his last night on earth.

And he’s the Son of God! All authority in heaven and earth have been given to him, that kind of thing.

So what would Jesus do with the last night of his life?

The Focus of Love

Jesus speaks love

He loved them to the end.

Jesus really left an impression on his disciples, and John in particular in this writing.

John never actually mentions his name in this Gospel.

He refers to himself as “The Disciple Jesus Loved.”

Which, to be honest, when I first heard that, I thought it was a little obnoxious.

Until I realized that he wasn’t saying he was the only disciple Jesus loved.

It’s more that John was so overwhelmed with Jesus love for him, that it became who he was.

He wasn’t John any more. He was the disciple Jesus loved.

And he opens this story up with the reminder that “Jesus loved his own until the end.”

At the very end of his life, knowing that there’s a terminal diagnosis for Jesus coming in the next few days, Jesus wants to make sure that his disciples know that he loves them.

He says it a bunch in this passage.

And I bet he said it a bunch in the parts that John didn’t write down.

Jesus doesn’t strike me as the kind of leader who keeps his flock guessing on where they stand with him.

He makes sure they know it.

You and I are disciples, by the way.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to be loved by Jesus.

If you are here tonight from a tradition where the love of Jesus was kept at arms length, where you were kept guessing where you stand with God, I’m here to invite you to see the story differently.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

That includes you and me.

But still, that word for love leaves a lot of wiggle room.

Many of us have probably heard someone “speak the truth in love” in a way that makes you wonder if there’s really love going on there at all.

What does this love that Jesus has for the disciples look like?

Jesus displays love

The tools that were around him.

It was customary at a fine meal like this that the servants would wash the feet of the guests who had gathered before the meal had begun.

When you walk around the desert in flip flops, you wind up stepping in a whole bunch of gnarly stuff.

And you really don’t want that stink getting around the table!

So when Jesus and the discples would have walked into this room to enjoy their meal, there would have been a basin, and a jug of water, and a towel.

However awkward you might have felt when we were doing the washing a moment ago, the power of this story was not that it’s weird to wash their feet in this day and age.

The servant’s job

The scandal of this story is that Jesus is doing something that everyone would have seen as beneath them.

If we’re honest, there are still jobs like that out there for us today, right?

Can you imagine Jesus the hotel maid?

Or Jesus the garbage man?

Or Jesus the sewer technician?

You hear it in Peter’s indignation.

The problem isn’t that Jesus is washing feet.

It’s that Jesus is doing something that would have been beneath a Rabbi.

For sure, it was beneath the Son of Man.

Offensive Love

You may have noticed if you were following along in a pew Bible that our reading tonight cut out a part.

The part that it cut out was when Judas gets up from the table to go and betray Jesus.

Which is sad and awful.

But also kind of interesting, because it means that in this narrative, Judas had his feet washed by Jesus.

Judas, who Jesus already knew was going to betray Jesus.

Judas, who everyone already kind of had a grudge against.

Judas, who cooked fish in the office microwave!

This isn’t an easy to swallow love that is open to the people you assume should recieve it.

This is an offensive love!

And it’s offensive because it’s inclusive.

Everyone you think doesn’t deserve love?

Jesus says they deserve this love.

And again, what kind?

Intimacy

The trick about this display of love is that it’s intimate.

One of my favorite stories of foot washing was when I was on a trip to Vietnam.

Our group had gone out to visit with the Cham people, who are a historically persecuted group of Christians.

We had gathered the Cham pastors together, and we were having a meeting and worship service that ended with a foot washing.

And so I was sitting there, white privileged pastor in a country that lets me walk around freely, having my feet washed by a man who’s life was at stake for doing the same job I do every day.

We tend to confuse “intimacy” with sexuality, and those are not the same thing.

To be intimate is to be laid bare.

To be intimate is to be open and honest.

To be intimate is to be aware of yourself and another person.

Foot washing, the kind of love that Jesus displays, is an intimate kind of love.

And, the love doesn’t stop there.

Jesus encourages love

I love the simplicity of what’s happening here at the end of our reading.

These disciples are in the Jewish tradition, so they would have been used to the Torah, the first five books in the Bible.

The Torah had 613 commandments in it!

They covered everything from how you worship to who was in charge down to things like what kind of fabric you could wear.

613!

And so Jesus simplifies things a little bit.

Here’s your one commandment:

Love.

Love is not the highest commandment.

It’s not the most important commandment.

It’s not a neat idea.

It’s not a suggestion.

It’s the ONLY commandment.

And it’s particularly interesting because Jesus just showed the disciples what love looked like.

Disciple see, disciple do

Take on the role of a servant.

Lower yourself.

Don’t try to love from a distance, but get up close and personal.

And yes, include your enemies.

In whatever way you offer love, make sure that you’re imitating Jesus.

That’s the commandment from Christ.

Our next move

We should speak love

Do your friends know that you love them?

Don’t let this be “assumed.”

Don’t let it be unspoken.

If there are people in your life that mean a lot to you, make sure they hear that from you from time to time.

Do your family members know that you love them?

Our boys have a bedtime ritual every night at bedtime.

Sarah and I make the sign of the cross on their heads, and remind them “Jesus loves you, and so do I.”

I got super convicted the other day though by one of our boys.

We had, like many families, a season of absolute crud go through our house this winter.

So at one point, one of the boys was laying down on the couch with a fever and all kinds of associated misery.

And I felt pretty bad for him, so I made the cross on his head and said “Jesus loves you, so do I.”

And he gave me this look…and said “It’s not bed time!”

That’s not a message that should be reserved only for bedtime, is it?

Jesus loves you.

So do I.

Make sure folks know that.

Does the world know you love them?

We’ve talked before about how the world views Christians.

Whether we played into this narrative or not, we bare the burden of trying to reverse it.

Does your restaurant server know you love them?

Does your barber know you love them?

Does your cashier at the grocery store know you love them?

And look, I’m not saying that we ought to dilute this down to the Bud Light commercial from a few years ago.

“I love you man!”

No, Jesus showed us a much more detailed description of the kind of love he requires from us.

Do your enemies know you love them?

Maybe enemy is a strong word.

Do the people who annoy you know you love them?

Do the people who have wronged you know you love them?

Do the Judas’ of your life know you love them?

We should display love

We can’t do this from a distance.

Maybe the great irony of our day is that while social media companies claim they’re trying to connect us, they’re actually pushing us farther and farther apart.

I’ll be honest with you right now, I don’t know the names of most of my neighbors.

We just don’t have a chance to connect any more.

We can’t show love from a distance.

The kind of love that Jesus demands of us is an intimate kind of love.

Something up close.

Something personal.

We might have to lay our pride aside.

To love someone the way Jesus did might mean taking a lower position than we think we deserve.

To love someone the way that Jesus did might mean doing a job that, quite literally, stinks.

To love someone the way that Jesus did might mean not getting credit for any of it.

And that’s perfectly ok.

Love itself is the prize.

It might get weird!

I can tell you from very recent experience, sometimes this kind of love gets awkward!

But when you’re unafraid of love getting weird, love can take you on some pretty wild adventures.

I’ve given rides to total strangers in the name of love.

I’ve repaired bikes on the side of the road when I wasn’t riding in the name of love.

I’ve moved chicken coups in the name of love.

I’ve witnessed someone filling out court papers in the name of love.

I’ve driven for 2 hours to deliver DOTS candy to someone in the name of love.

And maybe it’s me, maybe I’m just horribly lucky (I’m not)

But I’ve never had one of those weird experiences of love blow up in my face.

I’ve never come to regret any of them.

Sure, they got weird.

But they were great stories.

And they were demonstrations of the Gospel.

We should encourage love

What if our highest aim was to see love spread?

It turns out when we become love for those around us, they tend to be in a more loving spirit too.

It’s cliche to say it, but love is contagious.

The problem is, so are anger and envy and bitterness.

And our culture has way too much of that.

It feels sometimes like folks are running around looking for something to be upset about.

These folks are like Happiness Referees, all too willing to throw the flag when someone gets out of line.

Don’t let em.

We can spread love.

We can be love for the world.

Our example can inspire others to love.

Our demonstration of love can encourage others to pick up the towel and do their own feet washing.

We can only do it when we’re filled with love.