The Love of God
A Sermon for Maundy Thursday
April 6, 2023
The Rev. Robin Teasley
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.
“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 Jews 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.” John 13:1-17, 31b-35
“For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. If our love were but more faithful, we should take him at his word; and our life would be thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord.”
Tonight, Jesus teaches us something about love. In the midst of all the chaos in Jerusalem, Jesus gathers the disciples, his community, to share a meal and hear the most important things he wanted them to remember. This holy meal has become, for Christians, the center of our worship and we remember the story every week when we celebrate the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving. Tonight, we gather here, in our community of faith, to share a meal and hear another piece of the story in the final week of the life of Jesus.
On Sunday we heard how Jesus entered Jerusalem, suffered, and died at the hands of the crowd. There is a vast difference between a crowd and a community. Crowds are ambiguous, and crowds are impersonal in that there is often little relationship between individuals in a crowd, only a shared desired outcome. And the desired outcomes of a crowd are not always good, as we know all too well.
Jesus invited his disciples, invites us, to step away from the crowd and into a community of love. What does it look like to love one another as Jesus has loved us? Jesus knew that this love, broader than the measure of the mind, would not be easily understood by his disciples or by us and so he says, “you do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to depart from this world, shared meal with his community, a meal that would hold them together, as it does for us to this day. There is such power in sharing food, that which is necessary for human life. To sit at table with others requires that we put down weapons, face one another, and break bread together. It requires that we make ourselves vulnerable to one another and really listen with compassion, even when we do not always agree.
On that last night, Jesus wanted to be certain that his disciples knew how much he loved them, and how necessary this love would be for the healing of the world. He got up from the table, took off his outer robe and put a towel around his waist, as a servant would do, and washed the disciples’ feet. This sort of role reversal in the first century was unheard of and surely made all of the disciples very uncomfortable. Peter, as always, spoke up, trying to prevent Jesus from washing his feet.
Jesus made it clear that receiving love was just as important as giving it, that making oneself vulnerable is also an essential part of life in community. The giving and receiving must flow unhindered between everyone in the community – that is what strengthens the bonds of the community – that is what it is to love as Jesus loves us. I have experienced this beautiful flow of giving and receiving here at Immanuel in our Lenten conversations on compassion. I believe it is further strengthening this community.
We are all comfortable for the most part with Jesus’ mandate to love as it is expressed in our Eucharistic meal. We are less comfortable with his command to wash one another’s feet. If we are honest there are some people we would just as soon not love, much less wash their feet.
To allow someone to give us such undivided attention and care is to make ourselves vulnerable, to let down our guard, to drop our weapons so to speak.
Feet are not usually our most attractive feature. We know this. We do not care to show our unattractiveness to others. If we did show one another our feet, we would realize that feet tell a story. Beyond the bunions and callouses, and toes twisted with arthritis, our feet reveal not unattractiveness but something of our life. They have held us up through great difficulties and taken us into the hard places of life. Our feet have run us away from danger or into situations where we can assist someone in need. They have marched in step in defense of our freedom, and have been planted with conviction in support of justice. They have danced with joy at celebrations and stood firm in faith at the gravesides of loved ones.
On that intimate night in an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, and then he asks, “Do you know what I have done to you?” Can we answer that question? William Brosend, homiletics professor and author, sees this as an essential question. For that is really our work as disciples, he says, to come to the answer, to begin to comprehend what it is Christ does for us, otherwise, how will we imitate Christ? Until we are willing to receive the love of Christ, we will not fully understand what it is that we are doing, not only with bread and wine, but also with water and towel.
On this night, you may participate in foot washing as a tangible way to give and receive the love of Christ, or you may use the time to quietly reflect on giving and receiving love in this community and beyond. Pray for those in our world who are most vulnerable, those in desperate need of love and care who live in places of fear, those who have no shoes or sandals to remove, and for those who are lost in the crowd.
We will then share a meal in thanksgiving for this community of love that has been formed by Christ. After communion we will strip the altar and this worship space, making it bare. It will be as if Christ has left us here alone, as he goes to the cross. Yet he goes not to death but to be glorified and to glorify God. We will remember the love Jesus showed to his disciples. And in that love we find hope. For despite all appearances, we are not without the presence of Christ. There is great love holding us, even now.
What Jesus has done, and does for us always is not only about the cross. It is about the whole of the life of Christ, poured out for us. It is about the birth and the baptism, the teaching and the healing, the body and the blood, the water and the towel, the life and the death. And all of that is held in the feeding, serving, loving presence of God.
“If our love were but more faithful, we should take him at his word; and our life would be thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord.”
Acknowledgment to William F. Brosend, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 2, Maundy Thursday commentary.
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