Maundy Thursday
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The time had come. Specifically, Jesus’ time had come.
It was passover. The greatest of the festivals. John wants us to know that the Passover Lamb is actually Jesus…Jesus fed the crowds at Passover time, and he spoke to his disciples about them feeding on his body and blood. Now, it is the final Passover for Jesus.
This gathering with Jesus would point forward to the events that would happen the following day when Jesus was arrested and ultimately crucified. This gathering with his disciples had a new and emphasized meaning.
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.
Passover. John wants us to understand, if nothing else, that this passage is about Jesus. Passover has been about Jesus as the Passover Lamb
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
Jesus said, at the Passover, that the Temple woulbe destroyed and rebuilt. But he clarified, he ws talking about his own body.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Even as he fed crowds at Passover time… he spoke of the people feeding on his body and blood. Chapter 6
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Yes, John wants us to know that the Passover is everything about Jesus.
And now, Jesus is here for the final Passover. and in this extraordinary scripture, Jesus explains what the meal was all about.
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.
Second, Jesus time had come. He knew it, and had been talking about it in the previous chapter.
And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
Everything in Jesus’ life, up to this point, had been preparing him for this moment. It is not just Jesus’ time to die. It’s Jesus time to go to the father. It is not time travel, but rather the continuance of his eternal existence.
You see, Jesus was going from here to another place, from this existence to another locale where his existence would continue.
Our culture places a great deal of emphasis on the temporary nature of life. We are born, we die. So do what you can in between. Grab all the gusto, buy all the toys, live while you can. Because one day it will end.
A country song put it this way: The main character is in his early 40’s when he discovers that he has a terminal illness. And he’s asked “what did you do?”
He said
"I went skydiving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"
And he said
"Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying"
He said
"I was finally the husband
That most of the time I wasn't
And I became a friend a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden going fishin'
Wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
I finally read the Good Book, and I
Took a good, long, hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then
Problem is, it’s a bill of goods our culture has sold us that isn’t true. It’s a grand marketing scheme that helps sell beer and chevy trucks, but it ain’t so.
We weren’t created for just this life. We were meant for another as well. God didn’t create us to have our 3 score and ten so he could move on to the next victim in line. He created us for eternity. The Psalmist delcares this eloquently in Psalm 139,
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Our birth initiates our journey in this chapter of our living. And it’s important and the events of this life have meaning, but it is not all there is.
The time between our birth and death certificates is important, but there is so much more to it than just that. This life is preparation for the life to come, but it is not the only life.
And Jesus time had come. Not to die only, but to transition to the next life. He was now going from this existence to an eternal existence with his father.
Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father,
And so, he’s about to perform the very purpose of his coming. He’s about to reveal what His entire life was about. Notice how John says it.
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.
He loved them to the end.
And what Jesus was about to do, would be the ultimate act of love for his disciples. Remember in John 10 Jesus identifeid himself as the good shepherd
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
That’s what the “end” of this verse is meant to represent. The “end” is the good shepherd laying down his life for the sheep.
So this love of Jesus, it’s not just a grin and bear it love to the end… it’s a love that goes to the uttermost. The act of love that Jesus is about to perform, nothing and no one else could do for them. It was a supreme act of love.
slide of a crucifixion cross.
Jesus has a perfect love for an imperfect group of followers,
Jesus has an infinite love for a finite group of people, Jesus has a complete love for an incomplete band of brothers. Jesus love is infinite, perfect, and eternal. And we look back through the events of the crucifixion and we see that love in that way.
It’s a perfect love that is about to be revealed.
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
But notice this
At the very moment that love is at it’s greatest expression, that is when evil creeps in and tries to destroy it.
Judas had allowed the whisper of Satan to get in the way of seeing the love Christ had for him.
When love is revealed in its clearest way you can count on sin to find a way to obscure it.
Isn’t it odd that John would tell us in the middle of dinner that Judas was going to betray Jesus?
John has told us many things worth noting, particularly with regard to Satan and his working amongst even his own disciples.
Look at John 6.70
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”
Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.
Yes, we knew it was coming. But the way in which it is revealed is startling. At the dinner table, where Jesus is picking up the tab.
In the Old Testament, Nehemiah says that he told no one “Of what God had put in his heart to do for Jerusalem.”
Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, says that he is thankful to God for “putting into the heart of Titus the same earnest care” that he himself had for the Corinthians.
Today we talk about God putting things on our hearts. Mission work. To visit a sick or grieving person. To do a good deed in the name of the Lord.
But John tells us that the devil put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Adam and Eve were enticed by their own desire to be like God. And in its conception, that desire became sin. And that sin, when fully grown, brought them death.
Judas was enticed by 30 pieces of silver and perhaps some pleasant response from religious leaders. And that enticement was conceived and birthed the sin of this story, the betrayal of Jesus.
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,
Here’s the completed work. The Word, who was with God, who was God, who became flesh. The one who laid aside the glory He had for the mess we were, The one who put on human nature like a second hand worn out coat- in order to wash our feet. He had come from the throne room of heaven and was returning there. But he came to wash our feet.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Do not mistake the washing of feet as a side trip on the way to his destination. John doesn’t want us to do that. This was precisely why he had come from God.. Make no mistake.
The washing of feet points to who God is and what God does. And it points to the crucifixion itself.
Jesus will take off his outer garments and put a towel around his waste, and he will humbly wash the feet of his disciples. Of Peter. Of Judas. And in a few days he will take those same clothes off as they crown him with a crown of thorns and robe him with a purple robe and declare
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
After that, he will be naked on a cross revealing the Fathers heart as he gives his life for ours.
Imperfect people can experience the infinite and perfect love of Jesus Christ.
The key to this verse is understanding three words… Hour, depart, and love.
First, hour. This word represents a particular point in time of a critical nature.
Second, depart. This word means not to “stop”, as it were… but rather to depart from one place to another but continuing without cessation in the other place.
Finally, this word “love”. It means to have a strong, non sexual affection and love for a person and their good as understood by God’s moral character; it is characterized by a willing forfeiture of one’s rights and priveleges on another person’s behalf. Sacrifice.