Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17; 31b-35 

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 gong 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.” ... 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 Judeans 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.”

Sermon:

Jesus and his disciples are in their prime. Three years of good ministry together, established and well-known, ready and able to take over the world, it seems. They’ve got a following, they’ve got converts, they’ve got it all, and national attention, too. Which isn’t the best kind of attention, but, hey, you’ve got to step on a few toes if you’re going to have a strong message. Yep, Jesus and his dirty dozen are primed for their takeover... and in the middle of preparing for the annual emancipation celebration, no less. What a perfect time for an uprising, since the Roman government doesn’t believe in their God it would certainly take them by surprise when the masses rise up, following their fearless leader, Jesus, on to victory against the colonizers.

It could have happened that way, too, if Jesus was that sort of leader. It could have been a bloodbath of a rebellion with just a word from their Rabbi. But Jesus had a bigger takeover in mind. A greater emancipation to accomplish. And he knows that whatever brave faces the disciples put on now, they will soon be scared silly, scattered, and denying any association with him. It’s the way of the world, saving yourself when it seems the ship is sinking. The Romans have been ruling by force, and the religious leaders have fallen into a fear deep enough they will send an innocent man to death in order to prevent the possibility of rebellion.

Jesus knows what is in our hearts, what fear and hope and uncertainty. He also knows what sort of mess he’s about to be carried off into and what the confusion of the events of Good Friday will do to his students. He could give them a battle plan, a strategy to stick together and hit the Romans while they’re looking the other way. He could give them a secret message, hidden keys to unlock a massive arsenal once he’s been carried off. 

Well, I mean, he could, and might, if he were anybody else but Jesus. Uprisings only recreate the cycle of oppression from the underside. Turning the oppressed into the new leaders just means more frightened, entitled leaders will be in command. No, the whole system has to be wiped out. The Passover freed the Israelites from slavery but left the Egyptians to drown and suffer, and that’s just not enough of a liberation for God. No, God’s liberation is bigger than that, and Jesus knows it’s going to shake the world to its core because nobody has been able to accomplish an across-the-board salvation for oppressed and oppressor alike. There’s always a bad guy and a good guy, always has been.

Until tonight. Tonight there’s no ‘bad guy’ and ‘good guy.’ Tonight there’s only ‘little children.’ We are not set against each other when Jesus comes to wash our feet, we are set together in the love and care of a savior who is willing and able to carry our weariness, our past and our future, who love us into wholeness, no matter what dirt we’re dragging around on our stumbling feet.

Jesus and his disciples are in their prime, and it seems they are poised for a takeover, but the strong and the silent, the zealous and the traitor, all are put in their place - not as powerful leaders but as beloved children. Children with dirty feet and empty bellies, who long for importance and influence and are embraced for who they are in spite of what they have done and left undone. They are loved with a love that only God can express, and then, somehow, Jesus calls them to love one another with that same love. It is as if they have been anointed so abundantly in love that it will pour forth from them as it pours forth from Jesus.

I was blessed to be at the annual Chrism Mass in Albany the night of the snowstorm this week.  It’s the worship service where oil is blessed and set aside for anointing of the sick, of the students, of the ordained, and others. The Bishop spoke at that Mass of God’s abundance being like the oil that is poured out over prophets, priests, and kings. Like the love of God, poured forth upon God’s people and overflowing into the world.

When I was in Seattle for a class on Baptismal remembrance, we had a service of anointing where anyone who wanted to affirm their baptism was invited forward and anointed in blessing. Abundantly anointed in blessing. I mean, all over our faces so we smelled of it for days. One woman afterward said how she wanted to go forward but thought the line was too long and she didn’t want to make the service go longer even though she really desperately wanted that blessing. She mentioned how, not long after in the worship service, we shared the peace, and when she was embraced by her neighbors, their faces still covered with oil, greeted cheek to cheek, she received the anointing she had wanted so very badly. God’s abundant love poured out on us and overflowing into the world.

This new commandment Jesus gives his students before he hands himself over to be crucified, this commandment to love as we have been loved, this is not optional. Neither is it something of our own doing. Of course, we have the rites and the rituals to practice the commandment in our liturgy, to prepare and be refreshed for the rest of our daily living, but it is as much a gift to love as it is to be loved. This commandment is equally a promise, a reality taking shape and form among us as we share our life together around this table.

Tonight we celebrate the life of Jesus given and shed for us all, the commandment to love in a way that only God can love. A love which lives in and among us now by the spirit of the risen Christ among us. We will enter two days’ reflection on the suffering and death he faced for our salvation, not with fear of judgment but renewed by this meal to face Jesus on the cross and know we are loved.

Children of God, Jesus knows the paths our feet have trod, he has held our sin and sorrow in his hands with care, even when our cracked souls ache with dryness. And knowing what life can bring, how we will run away and long to be found even as we fear it, Jesus holds our feet, feet that have followed and feet that will run, and he washes them and claims them, claims us, that we may have life with him. Whether you feel you are in your prime, just getting started, or starting to wind down, Jesus holds all, knows all, loves all of you. No matter where your feet may take you. 

For now, our feet take us to the table, then to the cross and on to Sunday.