Maundy Thursday - Year A

New Testament Reading - John 13:1-17, 31-35

John 13:1–17 NRSV

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. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 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.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After 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? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

John 13:31–35 NRSV

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

Welcome Statement

Good Evening Church,

Tonight we look back, 2000 years, on the night Jesus was betrayed. Before his Betrayal, there was what we call the Last Supper. This last supper wasn’t ordinary in the slightest. It had many implications for how God was going to regard himself in relationship to Man.

This Last Supper broke radically a lot of different precedents, but it also rooted itself in Old Testament Prophecy.

In Exodus 24, we see where Moses seals the covenant through a sprinkling of blood. During the last supper, Jesus says, this is the new convanent in my blood. Jeremiah prophecies about this new covenant, in Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jeremiah 31:31–34 NRSV

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Jesus is declaring this Covenant is real, and now. He’s sealing the covenant through this meal. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum which means commandment, ie. Jesus’s Mandate to love others as he did.

We see how Jesus is becoming the new Passover Lamb. His sacrifice frees us from the bondage of sin and death, just like how the blood of the Passover lamb protected the israelites from the Angel of Death, symbolizing God’s grace and mercy to those he calls his family.

God as Servant Leader

What is interesting, is the first thing Jesus does is not eat, but he washes everyone’s feet. Mirroring and replicating what Mary of Bethany did for Jesus with perfume and her hair. Jesus is showing here it is a mutual relationship. While yes, God does all the forgiving, and is the one doing all of the acting through us, there is this wesleyan understanding that while we are enabled by prevenient grace, we still have to ultimately accept through conviction, the Justification we receive through Jesus Christ as the Passover Lamb.

Jesus doesn’t tell us violently to bow, no, he intimitately, at this alter, meets us where we are, and simply says “Turn around, follow me, believe this good news, repent for the Kingdom of God is near”.

Unconditional Love

One of the most peculiar lines that went over my head growing up is the line where it points out, that Judas had already been prompted, or fallen under the influence of the devil, the accuser, or adversary. Re-read verse 2 and verse 5:

John 13:2 NRSV

The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper

John 13:5 NRSV

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.

We know the full story, Judas does eventually pay for his crimes of rejecting Christ, God’s Justice still shows up, but mercy is God’s first and foremost act in all situations, he is slow to anger, full of grace, full of love. Judas here has already been prompted by the devil, has fallen captive, it is true he isn’t totally overtaken until later in this chapter, but the fact that Jesus is witnessing him have inner turmoil in realtime, knowing Judas will relent, yet washes his feet anyways, Shows Jesus doesn’t give up on people. Jesus doesn’t wait to see “will I get what I want” out of someone, he dives headfirst into sin and purifies people. The choice of course, is still up to us to accept that feet washing, that cleansing. Both Peter who denies Christ 3 times, and Judas who betrays Jesus, are hard to want to compare ourselves to, but we do it more than we want to admit, when we don’t tell the good news, when we don’t love our neighbors, when we passively participate in evil and allow things to take root in our lives that shouldn’t. We want to see ourselves as the faithful one. I know I always did as a kid. But the thing is, there is room for Judas at the table, even if we know for certain someone is going to ultimately fail, we still hold onto the hope that person might become the next prodigal son, returning home. Jesus held onto hope, and so should you.

Go into the World and Wash Feet

Sometimes we find ourselves longing for the pain to end, or for the frustration to stop, and we keep praying and hoping for Jesus’s second coming, we find ourselves in a constant crossroads of what some theologians call the Kingdom of almost but not yet. Jesus says precisely how to regard this “Where I am going, you cannot come”. Jesus has told us, to be patient, and wait, to not despair, because the world is already seeing him through us, through our acts of feet washing, kindness and generosity in a world full of darkness. Jesus sends his disciples with the spirit in Acts Chaper 2 to go out into the world and spread the Good News that death is no more, that the Kingdom of god is near. We are called to do the same, with this common cup, we share mercy to our neighbor, who only knows pain and violence from a world plunging itself into darkness. Our hope, defies the world’s definition of how this all ends. It doesn’t end in death, it ends in Jesus Christ, the Omega.

Closing Statement

In a world full of despair, anxiety, depression, and fear, it can become easy to worry about God’s Kingdom, about His Church, and where it may be, and where it might go, but Jesus looks at what human eye’s can’t see, the posture of the heart. We should be reminded this thursday, that Jesus, with the knowledge that he was going to die, still unconditionally loved, even Judas, he still saw it through to the end.

I didn’t always have this deep understanding of communion, growing up, Pastor Tom and how he would speak about communion, how it was an open table that Jesus would never turn anyone away, made me understand how immense Jesus’s love is for. I remember, as a kid, the most profound moments of spiritual transformation, were always during communion, that time I was able to surrender my burdens, to God, as a worthy and living sacrifice. I finally understand what God means when he says he desires mercy, not sacrifice. He desires we give mercy to others, and that we give it to ourselves, he is calling us to rest in his arms tonight through this last supper. Let us go to prayer, asking for God’s Spirit to come down upon us during this sacred time of Maundy Thursday as we pray together, and share in communion as a Church family. Let us pray:

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, Thank you for this New Covenant that was sealed through you’re blood, and paid for by the breaking of your body. Lord help us to remember this new reality as we go through the rest of Holy Week and witness rebirth on Sunday through Easter. Remind us resurrection isn’t something always visible, but something that transcends us. Help us to remember, that this day you have made, this Covenant, is so we can live with you for eternity, help us to remember this seal tonight you made, that one day, we will reign with you side by side in Heaven, and that what things grieve us today, do not have the final say over your victory you have already declared.

In your Gracious and Merciful Name, Amen.