Sermon: Maundy Thursday – 2023

6 April 2023

Text: John 13:1-15, 34-35

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In his first epistle, John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved, wrote: “God is love.”  Some people hear this and think that it means that God approves of everything that everyone does.  But that’s not what the word “love” means.  In fact, in the most famous verse in his Gospel, St. John explains: “For God loved the world in this way: that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.”  Love manifests itself in action, and it is the kind of action that serves the beloved.  Love is not a feeling or an emotion.  To be loved means the one who loves you acts for your benefit, even if it is self-sacrificial.

St. John was indeed known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”  He knew what it was to love, and be loved.  For he was there at the last supper, when Jesus washed his feet.  He was also at the cross, when Jesus washed his soul.  And this is what John focuses on in His account of Maundy Thursday, when our Lord gave us the Lord’s Supper.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke focus on the Eucharist, and St. Paul does as well in his first letter to the Corinthians.  But rather than retell that part of the account, John emphasizes the Lord humbling Himself to wash the feet of the disciples, and His calling of us to a radical life of love for each other.

Neither emphasis is wrong.  The Holy Spirit gave a detailed account of our Lord’s demonstration of what love means, as well as a careful word-for-word institution of the Holy Supper.

God the Father loves us in this way, that He gives His own beloved Son.  And God the Son loves us in this way, that He goes to the cross in order to save us, to redeem us, to create us anew, to give us forgiveness, life, and salvation.  And God the Holy Spirit loves us in this way, that He calls us out of the world, that He gathers us around the cross of Jesus, that He enlightens us to receive the God’s Word in faith, and that He sanctifies us to live a life of grateful Christian love in action.

Often when we reflect on Christian love, we think about our love for others, including strangers and even our enemies.  But interestingly, after Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you….  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus is talking about Christians loving other Christians, as brothers and sisters in His body, the church.  And He gave us a picture of what this love looks like, “For I have given you an example,” says Jesus, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”  He says, “You also ought to wash one another’s feet.”  What does He mean?  Should we understand this as an outward command to tell other Christians to go barefoot so we can cleanse their feet?  The servant who washed feet in the ancient world was one of the lowliest.  His work was often taken for granted.  And yet, it is necessary work to keep personal hygiene and a clean house. 

Jesus is God in the flesh.  He is their “Lord and Teacher.”  And yet, He humbles Himself.  This is going to find its clearest example at the cross.  Jesus will willingly suffer and die to save all of the disciples whom He loves – including us. 

And so there is a mysterious link between receiving the gift of Holy Communion, and then showing love to our fellow Christians with whom we have shared the table. 

After we have received the Supper, we sing Simeon’s song that we are now ready to die, having seen the Lord’s salvation.  We then “give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,” and we reflect on His eternal mercy.  Then we pray this prayer together, in which we thank God for this “salutary gift,” and of His mercy, we pray for two things: strength to have faith in God, and “fervent love toward one another.” 

You see, dear friends, receiving the Supper is not all about you.  Yes, God gives you His gifts without number.  You come to this rail hungry and thirsty for intimate communion with God, and you leave satisfied with twelve baskets of grace left over.  You leave the communion rail overfilled with the Bread of Life, and like King David, your “cup runneth over.”  When we have received more than we can contain, we give it to others in love. 

And in the household of God, the first recipients of the abundance of God’s love are our fellow disciples of Jesus.  Our Lord, “on the night when He was betrayed,” when He invited us to “take, eat,” and “drink of it all of you,” actually gave us a new commandment: to love our fellow Christians, to act in ways that imitate the ways Jesus acts for us.

So let us love one another in the way that Jesus calls us to do, and in the way that John – who was not only there but who wrote this account of our Lord’s washing of the feet of the disciples – wrote later on, saying: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Let us come to the communion rail, dear friends, in the way that a later bishop and preacher, also named John, put it so beautifully and powerfully: “Let us then return from the [Communion] table like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil; thinking on our Head [Christ] and on the love that He has shown for us.… Our Lord says: ‘I feed you with My own flesh, desiring that you all be nobly born, and holding forth good hopes for your future.… I have willed to become your Brother. For your sake, I shared in flesh and blood, and, in turn, I give you the flesh and the blood by which I became your kinsman.’ This blood causes the image of our King to be fresh within us. It produces beauty unspeakable and prevents the nobleness of our souls from wasting away.… It nourishes our souls and works in them a mighty power. This blood, if rightly taken, drives away devils, and keeps them far from us, while it calls the angels and the Lord of angels to us. For wherever they see the Lord’s blood, devils flee, and angels run together.”

And we are most fearsome to the devil not when we think we are better than our brothers and sisters, when we gossip, collect grievances, and hold grudges, rather, we do indeed come back from the rail “like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil” when we think of Christ “and on the love that He has shown for us,” while showing that love for one another.  We do this by caring about each other, by looking out for one another, by defending the honor and reputation of one another, by forgiveness, and by giving ourselves to the brotherhood of the Body of Christ.

May it be every day, not just having returned from the communion rail as “lions breathing fire,” but every time we think on how God the Father loves us, how God the Son serves us, and how God the Holy Spirit gathers us into a church family, that we pray:

We give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us with this salutary gift, and we implore You that of Your mercy You would strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.