Maundy Thursday
He washed Judas' feet; Excerpt from my Maundy Thursday sermon.
Imagine if you can,
sitting across the table from the man,
who you knew,
in mere hours would betray you.
Who would hand you over to be put to death.
For 30 pieces of silver, trade your breath.
Seeing him talking, eating, reclining, acting as if everything was fine.
Imagine having dinner with a best friend,
A confidant. Laughing, passing the bread.
Looking at him straight in the eye,
but knowing in a few hours, he would completely deny
even knowing you,
deny any association with you.
Imagine being Jesus that night.
This is what we remember this night, as Christ sits with His disciples, and in a powerful way teaches them what it means to be like Him.
On this night, He institutes what we now celebrate as the Eucharist, that Holy, joyous, and solemn remembering and participation in His death. We also remember that the King of the Universe, God in the flesh, on the night before the Cross, having loved them to the end, John says - loved them until the fullness of His time, with a love never wavering, loved them to the fullest degree, as St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, “He did love unto the end, not shrinking from suffering even this, although knowing beforehand that He would so suffer,” - gets up from the dinner table, maybe even locking eyes with Judas, and goes to wrap Himself in a towel, as a servant would do in a rich man's house, gets a bowl of water, then proceeds to wash the feet of His disciples. He begins to serve them and tend to them; the Lord of life becomes the servant of all.
But Peter would have nothing of it and demanded that it not be so. He refuses to let this happen, and Jesus, knowing full well the heart of this brazen Peter and how it would not be so bold moments from now, tells him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me,” and Peter, rightly says, then not only my feet, but my whole body. Go get the bathtub, forget this bowl, I don't want the minimum of your washing, I want it all! Amen! I love that response, and pray that I, and you, would have a desire for the most of what Christ is doing. However, Christ reassures him that all he needs is what God gives him, the grace and washing is enough. We ought to take care not to soil our feet again, though, on paths that betray Christ, turning from Him, but we rest assured knowing He’s always willing to receive us back when we do. We can have our feet washed in confession, in repentance, in returning.
Then, as He concludes this living parable, He makes sure the disciples get it. He looks at His men and says “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am” - Jesus says I am the Lord, I am the Teacher, which shows us something about humility, which is not self degradation, but justice and honesty to the self - and then says if your Lord does this for you, this is an example for you to do for others. This is how you can keep your feet on my path, your feet meant to be fit the gospel of peace, you act like your King and take the lowest place, you participate in my example, the Humble Lord, not being served but serving.
And think about this wild reality, it is one of those things that the Spirit needs to make alive as it washes over us, because I don’t know how to make it all make sense, but Jesus washes Judas’ feet. Jesus bent down before Judas, the Betrayer, fully knowing what was to come, and washed him, and then gave him communion. It is hard to articulate Christ's humility and meekness here, but He says we must follow Him.
For it is the way of Christ for us to love as we have been loved and to serve as He serves us. Think about it, how often do we run from Christ? Plot in our hearts our denial of him? Yet, in His mercy, He ever beckons us, and always welcomes us, and every Sunday offers Himself to us again at the altar.
Look at Christ, the Lord, the Teacher, God in Flesh, bent low, not just in the Incarnation, where God was wrapped in flesh, but now wrapped in a servant’s towel to wash the ones He came to save. The God-man, serving and giving His life as a ransom for many, that’s where this leads. As He breaks the bread and says this is my body broken for you, and serves the cup and says it is His blood in the new covenant, He is giving Himself.
On this Maundy Thursday, we must bring our minds, of course, to the Eucharist, this thanksgiving for Christ, this participation in Christ, this means of grace, this medicine of immortality, this gift. But we must bring our minds also to his example, and wonder at the utter humility of our God.
Honestly, I think it impossible to mine the depths of this one story, to contemplate upon it in full would take ages upon ages, and so we simply stand in awe of Christ and pray that we too may walk in His way, love as we have been loved, and remember the mercy of God at all times.
And God still treats us like this. The mercy of God still washes our undeserving feet. The mercy of God still brings healing and forgiveness. His washing of not your actual feet, of course, but your sins, through what we celebrate and remember during this season, His passion, His death, and of course His resurrection.
If your feet have travelled on paths away, return, come to Jesus today. For we all like sheep have gone astray, but He is the way to salvation. He is our resting place. He came to find us. In Him we are whole.
Imagine if you can, sitting across the table from the man, who you knew, in mere hours would betray you. Who would hand you over to be put to death. For 30 pieces of silver, trade your breath. Seeing him talking, eating, reclining, acting as if everything was fine. Imagine having dinner with a best friend, A confidant. Laughing, passing the bread. Looking at him straight in the eye, but knowing in a few hours, he would completely deny even knowing you, deny any association with you. But. Christ’s love was unbreakable even in the face of rejection and betrayal so despicable Christ’s love was unrelenting in the face of great sin, Christ, my friends, loves to end.
//
Grace and Peace
Fr. Mike+