Scripture: John 13:1-15; John 13:34-35; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18 Series: 2023
A Maundy Thursday meditation on John 13, where Jesus gives a ‘new’ commandment to love one another. The preacher shows continuity with the love commandments (Shema and Leviticus 19) while noting what is new: the comparative ‘as yourself’ drops away, replaced by Christ’s own self-giving example. The two gifts of this day are the Lord’s table (both memorial and recapitulation of Christ’s offering) and foot washing (humbling ourselves with and for others, even in dirty, shameful places). The commandment doesn’t change God; it changes us, freeing us from sin and pride for love. Closes with the preacher’s own children’s song and a prayer that the difficulty is not in knowing but in doing.
Illustrations: mandatum-etymology, dirty-feet-hard-places, childrens-foot-washing-song
Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-15, 34-35 CEB
Something new is taking place this day. Something that none of the disciples have ever experienced. Christ leaves for his friends a new commandment, a new mandate. This is why the day is called Maundy Thursday. It is from the Latin mandatum, a translation of the Greek entôle A new commandment I leave to you love one another. Earlier in the gospels, Jesus was asked: What is the greatest commandment? He responded with the Shema: Here, Oh Israel. The Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength. And this is also the greatest. He then quotes from Leviticus 19, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you, he’s not making something up from scratch. There is clear continuity between the love commandments and John 13. What is absent is the self. We no longer have any comparative in love. We no are longer asked to love as ourselves. We have, instead, the example of how Christ lived and loves. This is what we are given at the table of the Lord. It is an action for us to do in a remembrance of Christ. In one sense, it is a memorial. In another sense, it is a recapitulation of Christ’s offering for us. Christ is present in a fresh way every time we receive at the table, and Christ will be there for us. He gives us an amazing treasure in the table of the Lord. He also gives us an amazing treasure in the practice of foot washing, of burying ourselves with others. Our feet go in dirty places. Our lives go in hard places. We’ve all had times of disappointment. Our expectations have been shot through, and we have had times when we have disappointed others and that shame is hard to bear. Only by grace can we reveal it. Sometimes it is revealed by the simple act of taking off our shoes. Christ offers himself to us. He’s freely given to us. He gives us a command to love one another in a concrete way. He shows us how to do it: he washes his disciples’ feet. We have to let Jesus wash our feet. We have to open up to him, even the dirt. We have to accept him at the table. We have to follow him even in strange places.
I wrote a children’s song about this and it gets to the heart of the matter
If you want to follow me. I have to wash your feet You have to walk with me Even in on the sea. This bread is my body This cup is the blood of me. I offer it all to you. I offer it all to you.
On this day, may we see that the commandment that has been offered in a new way does not change God. It changes us. We are asked to live to a far greater level. And that commandment is not a burden, but a gift. A gift of a life not chained to sin. A gift of a life not chained to pride. A gift of a life freed for love, freed in order to love one another.
Let us pray, Oh Lord, you call us to wash feet and serve in the hard and the messy. You call us to serve others without glamour and without acclaim. You call us to leave the table where we might be served and to do for others instead. And not just to serve those who love us. You ask us to serve my enemies with equal compassion and humility. Lord, you know this is not our nature. You know how we seek the comfortable and the lovely and the self-affirming. But you have not only modeled it; you’ve command it. “Now that you know these things.” Now we know. Knowing isn’t so hard. It’s the doing. Help us, Lord, to do. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.