Homily

John 13:1-17 Before the Festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully. 2 Jesus and his disciples were sharing the evening meal. The devil had already provoked Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God. 4 So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing. 6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but you will understand later.” 8 “No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” 9 Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus responded, “Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 He knew who would betray him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you is clean.”

12 After he washed the disciples’ feet, he put on his robes and returned to his place at the table. He said to them, “Do you know what I’ve done for you? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, because I am. 14 If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you also must do. 16 I assure you, servants aren’t greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them. 17 Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them.

John 13:31-35 When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One in himself and will glorify him immediately. 33 Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now—‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’

34 “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. 35 This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”

INTRO

Holy Thursday is a day of transition. The momentum begins to shift on this day. The light darkens, the shadows of evil lengthen, and darkness begins its plan to envelop, pervade, and overcome that which gives hope. The Lenten journey itself shifts towards specific items: a towel, a bowl, a cup, bread, and bare feet. These items are to speak a word to us in the midst of darkened times.

Sadly, a prison chaplain who witnessed prisoners on death row say their goodbye to loved ones noted, “They often labored over the words they would share with their loved ones. Every word and act that comprised their farewell was pregnant with meaning and significance, love, and consolation, even hope and expectation. Despite society’s assessment and condemnation of their loved one, those gathered listened intently as though the words were those of a divine oracle.”

These words sadden me that our government still takes one’s life away and that through capital punishment, we continue to diminish the value of one’s worth, love, and sacredness in the eyes of God. At the same time, they speak to how Jesus must be feeling. The Gospel of John sets the scene, and Jesus is aware that his “hour” is at hand. Jesus is aware that he is being sent to his death…and these are his final words, his farewell, pregnant with meaning and significance, love and consolation.

Our text this evening ought to raise questions. It ought to make us stop and wonder what we would say to our loved ones if we knew that our time on earth was coming to an end. How would we act if we knew our time was coming to a close? Would we take out loans we knew would never be repaid and live like kings and queens? Would we set plans in motion If we did not know the end of the story…we like the disciples, might anticipate a climactic ending like the one found in Elijah’s story. Before Elijah is taken into heaven in a blaze of glory, his disciple asks, “Give us a double portion of your spirit.”

Elisha, the disciple, picks up the mantle, calls upon God, and discovers that he, too, can part the waters at his command. We imagine something like this: We see the darkness coming, we feel the shadows lengthening, and we are afraid. As we watch the world torn apart by wars, hunger, and greed, in the face of despair, our cries out to God are like those of Elisha.

“If you want to show us how much you love us, then let us inherit a double portion of your power.” Give us some kind of memento that we might ride into the future with greatness, glory, power, and the ability to lord over what we perceive as darkness in the world…our fondness for this domination mentality and way of being is evident as we use the Bible to project power over sin, people we disagree with are labeled sinful, and we use the scripture to condemn and lord over and devalue those who differ than us.

Yet, we are shocked to learn that Jesus does not pass on a mantle of authority by a towel. The disciples might have washed Jesus’ feet with lots of grumbling…but washing one another’s feet was inconceivable. The task of foot washing was reserved for the lowest of servants. In fact, according to the oldest works of midrashic commentary, not even Jewish slaves would be required to wash the feet of others; this job was so lowly that it was reserved for Gentile slaves or women and children.

One commentary notes, “While numerous scriptural passages refer to foot washing as an ancient form of hospitality, they show water being brought so that guests may wash their own feet. The only exceptions, notably enough, are acts by women: Abigail, who washes the feet of David’s servants; the unnamed woman who washes Jesus’ feet in the home of Simon the Pharisee; later, the widows in 1 Timothy 5:10.”

Jesus rises from the prepared table, takes off his outer garment, and puts a towel around his waist, thus adapting the dress of a menial slave, dressed in a way that is looked down upon in both Jewish and Gentile cultures. Surely, the disciples are embarrassed by this adaptation of Jesus. Most of them sit in silence except for Peter, whose embarrassment causes him to speak up and object.

Jesus comes to us with a towel—something used for drying dishes, washing children, wiping tables, cleaning wounds, cooling fevers, swaddling babies, mopping up messes, and blotting away tears. The mantle of Jesus’ authority is found not in domination but in service.

Jesus’ last words and actions beckon us to humility and to receive. When Jesus reaches Peter, the disciple protests, “You will never wash my feet!” While this seems modest, it ultimately is a form of pride. Despite his outrage, Peter still thinks about what is acceptable. We, like Peter, want to resist being vulnerable. We prefer to be in control, and this includes the gifts we accept and those we won’t accept. If a gift is too great, we feel we owe the other and refuse to accept it. Yet, God in Jesus Christ calls here tonight to remember our dependency on God.

Jesus’ words to Peter at first seem harsh: “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” Yet it calls him to remember his dependence on God…unless God washes us, unless God cleanses us of sins of greed, anger, hatred, pride, then we will never understand what it means to truly be God’s servants.

Don’t you see, at first, Jesus insists that everyone experience what it is like to be on the receiving end of service? Unless we are aware of our own vulnerability, our ability to care for others will always come from a place of superiority; it will always be condescending in nature.

Jean Vanier, in his book co-authored with Stanley Hauerwas, wrote, “None of us knows what to do with the deep brokenness of our world. Maybe that realization can bring us back to community. We can do nothing on our own. We need somewhere to be together.”  In Jesus Christ, we are offered the space to be somewhere together, yet this involves vulnerability. It means we are vulnerable about our struggles to love as Christ loves, our struggles with pride, our desire to be in control…and our need to continually offer ourselves up to the savior. When we express our own experiences, it gives others the space to articulate how God is at work in their situation.

This stole around my neck has symbolic origins in the towel in our scriptures this evening. It stands as a yoke of burden…It stands as a reminder that I am called to offer Christ’s humility, to live our Christ-loving service to the world, to lift up the burdens of others, to alleviate them of their needs, and to offer them Christ, even when it is found in the uncomfortableness of washing feet. Yet, this is the calling of us all…to be people of service. To enter into those spaces that are uncomfortable to us and to serve with our whole being…to change our garments, bend low, to look foolish to the world…to see that power is found in love.

As the body of Christ, we love one another, not because we can or even because we are commanded to. Often, we fail to be an obedient church. No, we love because God in Jesus Christ loved us first. God gives us the grace, the power, and the capacity to keep on loving. “We do not have this power to love others by ourselves. Christ’s laying down his life for our salvation frees us to live for one another and to love one another.”

Beloved, Jesus doesn’t just wash the feet of faithful disciples but those who will betray him as well. Just as this table is opened to all, so we must be willing to serve all without stopping to consider their worth…for in Christ, they are of immeasurable worth.

As you come to wash the feet of others, as you receive Christ at the table…as you experience God’s love, may it lead you to a great depth of love. May you see the belovedness of others and go forth to love Just as Christ first loved you.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.