Maundy Thursday (April 1, 2021)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.

Today is Maundy Thursday, when we focus on three main elements in the story of Jesus.

First, we remember when our Lord washed the disciples feet. This is where the term maundy comes from; the Latin word mandatum means “command” because Christ gave the command for them to wash each other’s feet.

The second aspect of the story emphasized tonight is the Last Supper where Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist.

And finally, at the end of our service, we will strip the altar in silence as we begin to look towards his Passion. It is this night, after eating the Supper with his disciples, that our Lord was betrayed by Judas.

The common theme in each of these elements of Maundy Thursday is love. The love God has for us. In each narrative incident in the story we tell about this night, God’s love shines forth.

John 13 frames the foot washing account around love: “Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”

Jesus takes off his garments and dresses in the likeness of a server to the protest of Simon Peter who cries, “Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Christ replies that if he doesn’t wash him, Peter has not part in him. This prefigures the sacrament of Baptism: in order for us to be born again, we must be born through water and the Spirit, as Christ tells Nicodemus in John 3. Both of these incidents point us forward to the water which flowed from Christ’s side alongside blood when he was pierced by the soldier which are the two Sacraments of the Gospel: Baptism and the Eucharist.

After his engagement with St. Peter, Christ goes on to wash their feet and then gives them a command, a mandatum, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”

Christ, here, takes on the form of a servant in washing feet, a model for how those who are in Christ should serve the other.

In our reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul recounts the Words of Institution from the Last Supper: “he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for your this do in remembrance of me. Likewise he took the cup, saying, This Cup is the new testament in my blood, this do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink this Cup, ye do show the Lord’s death until he comes.”

The Eucharist is intimately connected to the Passion and Death of our lord.

On the Cross, he gave of himself completely, his Body and His Blood. This is why the crucifix is the dearest symbol in Christianity because it is the clearest example of love.

On the Cross, the Incarnate Word dies in our stead, offering himself to the Father as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, bridging the infinite gap between us and God.

When we receive the Eucharist, we are placed “in Christ,” simultaneously receiving the benefits he won for us while also being caught up in that sacrifice. We both receive and participate in his offering.

So, St. Paul expresses the theme of love as evidenced in Christ’s humility by taking on flesh and dying for us on the cross in Philippians 2:5-11: “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, taking hte form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 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.”

In the next few days, we will see that love and humility clearly on display as we focus our attention intensely on the crucified Christ.

As we meditate on his Passion and Crucifixion, may we find ways to unite our lives to that sacrifice.

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