Holy Week 2024: This is a New Old Commandment

Introduction

Open to John 13:1–11, John chapter 13 verse 1-11

We come to Maundy Thursday,

if you asked most evangelicals, especially under the age of 40, what Maundy Thursday is they would probably not know.

And then if you started talking about Jesus washing feet, they again would probably not know what youa re talking about.

“Recorded around 1250–1300, the word maundy comes from the Old French mande, in turn from the Latin mandātum, which means “mandate or command.” As you may have guessed, this Latin word is the source of the English mandate.”

We could call this Mandate Thursday

So what commandment are we talking about?

In John 13:34–35 Jesus says.

John 13:34–35 ESV

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The new command is to Love and Jesus demonstrates this love in action my washing the disciples feet.

That is why Maundy and mandate Thursday for the last 724 years about has been connected in the christian mind to foot washing as a practical example of what it looks like to Love one another as Christ has loved us.

Let’s Read

John 13:1–11 ESV

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not 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, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

May God Bless the Reading of His Holy, Infallible, Sufficient Word

Let’s Pray

Transition

The washing of the feet and the institution of the Lord Super happen on the same night with the same group of people.

Body

The Posture of Service

John 13:1–4 ESV

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

We read about this night every week,

1 Corinthians 11:23 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,

“when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

Jesus’s was inconstant in his love until the end.

This informs us about what he means when he said, love each other as I have loved you”

Think about our love and how its often predicated on where we are at the time.

I would love my brothers but,

I am sick

I am tired

I am indisposed.

Jesus is on the way to the cross and he knows it, “he knew the hour had come”

He loved them to the end.

He even knew that the one how would betray him was right there in the room.

“During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him”

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God”

Calvin comments here saying, “The Evangelist means, that no agitation of this sort was to be found in Christ, because, though he was to be immediately betrayed by Judas, still he knew that the Father had given all things into his hand.” [1]

Jesus served in a moment of dark need by trusting the Fathers will.

He is the example.

What does he do? “rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.”

Remember he is the Lord and Master, he is the one the deserves all service, and yet he takes on the posture of service.

To love one another as Christ has loved it requires we take on a posture of service to one another.

As we will see later this service is not undefined, there is a over arching purposes to it all.

Transition

While there is much more to say about service, it is the Christian life, lets move of on to more purpose in verse 5-8 begins to explain his purpose.

We Share in One Lord

John 13:5–8 ESV

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

Share in me, the most important piont

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Super.

Its one banes and one towel

Much is lost in modern individualism

Tonight with the Lord’s Supper we will each have our own little cup but this is not how it used to be.

And not how it is in many places in the world.

Calvin explains what Christ means by washing, saying “For Christ washes us when he removes the guilt of our sins by his atoning sacrifice, that they may not come into judgment before God; and, on the other hand, he washes us when he takes away, by his Spirit, the wicked and sinful desires of the flesh.[2]

Some receive and external washing and never the internal

Judas

Faults believe all over the world right now

Many of whom this they are believers

Transition

Those who are in Christ how have been washed by him have all they need. See verse 9-11.

No Need for More Then Christ

John 13:9–11 ESV

9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

The washing of Christ is enough

“Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean” (Jn 13:10, ESV)

“The children of God are not altogether regenerated on the first day, so as to aim at nothing but the heavenly life; but, on the contrary, the remains of the flesh continue to dwell in them, with which they maintain a continued struggle throughout their whole life. The term feet, therefore, is metaphorically applied to all the passions and cares by which we are brought into contact with the world; for, if the Holy Spirit occupied every part of us, we would no longer have anything to do with the pollutions of the world; but now, by that part in which we are carnal, we creep on the ground, or at least fix our feet in the clay, and, therefore, are to some extent unclean. Thus Christ always finds in us something to cleanse. What is here spoken of is not the forgiveness of sins, but the renewal, by which Christ, by gradual and uninterrupted succession, delivers his followers entirely from the sinful desires of the flesh.” [3]

We soil our feet walking in this dirty world of which we still share a portion.

So while we are regenerate, Christ’s continual intercession is still needed on our behalf.

we are creatures being transformed from glory to glory.

Conclusion

Server your brothers and sisters in Christ out of love in such a way they are washed.

The best service you can do is to call them to holiness.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

References

[1] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 55.

[2] Ibid, 58.

[3] Ibid, 59.

Bibliography

Calvin, John, and William Pringle. Commentary on the Gospel according to John. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.