Scripture: John 13:1-17; John 13:34-35; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18 Series: Lent
A Maundy Thursday sermon on John 13. The title comes from the Latin mandatum: Christ leaves a new commandment to love one another, continuous with the Shema and Leviticus 19 but stripped of the comparative ‘as yourself’ and replaced with Christ’s own example. The sermon weaves together foot washing and Holy Communion as two tactile, embodied gifts. Communion has a low barrier (all welcome at Christ’s table); foot washing has a high one, exposing the lines we draw around what we will and won’t do. Both call us to humility, overcoming the pride that refuses to kneel for others or to let others serve us. Christ gives himself (‘eat me, do this’) so we are not consumed by pride and sin. The new commandment does not change God but changes us, freeing us from sin and pride for love. Closes with a prayer to do, not merely know, the call to serve even enemies.’
Illustrations: lines-we-will-not-cross, groceries-pride, communion-vs-footwashing-barrier, do-i-have-to-hell
Maundy Thursday
”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 13:1-17
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 him 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.
Even when we don’t admit them, we all have lines that we draw around our own behavior. We have things we’re willing to do and things we’re not willing to do. Through the community in which we are all in, through church, through our family, in all sorts of ways, there are things that I do. These are things that I don’t do. Often, when preachers talk about moral codes and ethics and things like this, it’s about right and wrong and about don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery. It’s the 10 commandments. We can bring those out. But today, tonight, the words of Jesus are not about sins or ethics as they are commonly understood. The words of Jesus are: do this in remembrance of me. Communion is one of those practices that has a low barrier of entry. We give communion to those who seek it. Every time we serve communion, I say that “this is not a United Methodist table. This is not this church’s table. This is Christ’s table. All are welcome.” Low barrier. Just come forward. I don’t give a quiz about metaphysics. I offer it freely. Foot washing has a much higher barrier of entry. Some people are comfortable with it or have no personal image issues or care issues about their feet. For others, it is a line that they are not going to cross. There’s a line, it is something they are not going to do. And the irony is that sometimes it goes both directions. I may be comfortable washing your feet, but I’m not taking my shoes off for anyone. Not going to do it. You don’t have to do it. Though oddly, in faith contexts, necessity is quite stark. We have add to the words of Jesus something like this: “do I have to? If I don’t do this, will I go to hell? No. Then it is not for me.” Necessity presents the life of faith in a minimal light with a focus on what I get out of it. Jesus doesn’t say do this or you’re going to hell. He says, Do this in remembrance of me.
Foot washing is a symbol of humility. More than a symbol: it is an act of humility. It takes humility to get on your knees for another person, to help another person. The sin of pride goes both ways. You can be too proud to ever get on your knees for another. You’re not that kind of person. And you can be too proud to ever let anybody wash your feet. You can be too proud to ever ask for help when unloading the groceries and you can be too proud to go forward and offer help when you don’t know how they will respond. The washing of someone’s feet is tactile. It is not a necessity but an opportunity to connect more with the God who is love who became flesh for us. The God who is love who washed his disciples feet with his hands. Jesus touched them. Then, at the lord’s table, Jesus offered himself in a tactile way so that we can touch him. Communion is tactile. You touch the bread. You taste the bread. You touch the juice. You taste it. Communion is not just about a nice snack In the morning or the evening. Communion is a weird thing to do. It is a weird practice that only becomes a normalized if you’ve done it a lot. Why are we doing this? Jesus says, this is my body here. My body for you, this bread Is not just bread. It is me and I give it to you. I am the son of man, I, the word made flesh. I, the second person of the Trinity who became flesh as a child, Lived your experience, suffered your worries, your hungers, your pains, was tempted as you are tempted, but did not fall. This is me offered for you. Not just once. We’re not done. Do this. Mandatum. Do this to remember me. Eat me. Consume me. I will be with you so that you will not be consumed by your pride, by your lust, by practices of destruction, by desires of the heart that lead astray.
Jesus offers a new commandment. A new mandatum. This is where Maundy Thursday comes from. A mandatum, a mandate, a commandment.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” John 13:34-35 ESV
And the love Christ speaks of is not just a metaphor. It is concrete. It is tactile. And that means the lines we used to have about what we will or will not do no longer have power over us.
Eat me. Do this. My blood is here for you. Take it in your hands. Touch it, Not just this bread, but your savior,. Not just this juice, but my love My all for you. If I give myself this way, what limits are left for you? You are free Taste and see the Lord is good. Do this in remembrance of me.
Christ offers himself to us. He is 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.
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.