Sermon - Maundy Thursday 2022 - John 13:1-15, 34-35

Jesus asked: “Do you understand what I have done to you?” What is it that Jesus has done to us? The apostles didn’t get it that evening, but they did later, and so the apostle John explains that Jesus loves His own people who are in the world, and He loves them to the end. This doesn’t mean that Jesus loves us until the end of this world, but rather that He loves us completely, to the telos, to the fulfillment of all things. This love of Jesus for His people was exemplified when He washed His apostles’ feet. 

The significance of this action was more than just cleaning their dirty feet, but it helped to illustrate the depths of Jesus’ love for His people. When Jesus celebrated this last supper with His apostles, it was a very intimate and private meal, almost secretive even. Only Peter and John knew the location of the meal and made the arrangements, possibly to prevent Judas from betraying Jesus before the appointed time. Since it was such a private meal they weren’t interrupted by the ordinary house servants.

Customarily washing the sweat and filth from people’s feet was relegated to the lowest ranking member of the house, namely the servant. Without a servant present to wash their feet, one of these 13 men was going to have to do the job. But none of them wanted to be considered the lowest; recall that James and John had previously requested to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand, much to the anger of the other apostles who wished they had asked first. Now in the midst of this meal, after they’d been fed the body and blood of Jesus, “a dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”

So Jesus put an end to their dispute when He rose from supper, dressed Himself like a servant, poured water into a basin, and washed and dried their feet. They recognized that Jesus was greater than them, and yet here He was on the floor beneath them, looking up to them, washing their feet like a servant. It’s almost surprising that Peter was the only one who objected, since what Jesus did was shockingly humiliating. Nevertheless it got the point across: Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Jesus wasn’t instituting a new foot washing ritual, rather He says that this is an example for us. The very next day Jesus was crucified upon the cross, He gave up His life for His people by loving them to the uttermost. The most holy Son of God took on human flesh and was given the most embarrassing death so as to redeem His people from their sins and carry them from death to life. Jesus taking on the role of a lowly servant at the last supper, washing dirt from other men’s feet, was a beautiful and simple picture of who Christ is for us and what He came to accomplish.

Peter didn’t understand it at the time, but his instinct was correct: God shouldn’t be serving us, we should be serving Him! We should be the ones on the floor washing His feet, we should be the ones dying on our own crosses for Him, we should be His servants! We’re the sinners, not Him! But Jesus came to love His own to the end, and He does so even as a lowly servant shedding His blood on our behalf.

So when we attend the Divine Service, as we are this evening, we don’t come here to serve Him, but we’re here to be served by Him. When you approached the altar already it wasn’t to give God a gift, but to have your sins absolved by Jesus. All we have is filth and dirt to offer Him, and in turn He feeds us food from the holy of holies, cleansing us with His body and blood which we eat. This evening we praise God, like our hymn said, but it’s not because God needs our praise, He doesn’t; rather our praise is simply our response after having been nourished so richly by Jesus’ love.

So the two mandates Jesus gives to us this evening both revolve around God’s love. “This do in remembrance of Me.” Jesus commands us to dine upon this feast of His love for us. The fruits of the cross we’ll meditate upon tomorrow are given us here in the supper. “Love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Having been filled with Jesus’ love for us in the supper, He commands us to love one another. Let us learn from Jesus to set aside our rivalries, discensions, jealousies, gossiping, and slandering, so that we may instead learn to love one another. We’re all on the same team here, since all of us belong to the one body of Christ. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”