a Sermon for Maundy Thursday
Text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Memory Making.

Before breaking bread with His disciples for the final time, Jesus washed their feet. Then he told them to wash one another’s feet.

Many of us focus this night on the dinner they share—particularly the breaking of bread at the beinning and the sharing of wine from a common cup at the end. Jesus told them that whenever they do that, they should do so in His memory.

But Jesus does the same before dinner in the foot washing.

Peter’s protests ring true to us. Why should our powerful commander and ruler be so humbled? And if He is humbled, then why not wash all of me, that I might be pure.

I tend to think Peter is our stand in. He asks the questions we would and makes the mistakes we continue to make. Because I’m not sure we really get why Peter is wrong here.

What’s Wrong.

Peter’s mistakes are confusing humility for weakness, cleanliness for purity, and purity for perfection. But chief is, once again, not letting Jesus teach what the disciples must learn: that love and service are inseparable. And we can’t serve if we don’t get close enough to touch.

We are afraid of toughing. This isn’t political correctness or stranger danger. It isn’t fear that we might be arrested or sued for bumping into someone. Our culture was born out of the puritans who hated intimacy, feared emotion, and celebrated individualism and hard work. Our culture demands that we avoid intimacy. So much so that million of our neighbors go months without any physical contact. Millions of neighbors don’t feel close to anyone. Millions of neighbors feel totally alone, even when they see dozens of people every day.

Could you imagine doing what the first Century proto-Christians did at the Peace? They kissed each other. On the lips. Some of us don’t even want to shake hands! Yes, we have some with weakened immune systems, I know. But what is everyone else’s excuse? We are afraid to touch each other because we are afraid of vulnerability.

Giving Love a Face.

Jesus tells His disciples to overcome that fear in a simple act of service. He says to wash each others’ feet. This is how they are made one, how they can gather at the table. This is how love works.

He says to them

“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

In other words, we don’t receive love for serving others, but in serving others.

GOD’s love isn’t collected like a token—something we can give St. Peter when we die to get a better condo in heaven. The kind with a better view. No transactions here! God’s love is in us and when we share it, we are replenished.

Jesus shows us what love looks like. It looks like vulnerability. In admitting and facing our fears. In letting someone get close to us and by getting close to someone else. There is no love without intimacy.

Loving Each Other.

Join me tonight in two solemn actions of love: of intimacy and preparation. If you aren’t ready, you aren’t required. You may watch.

The first is to come forward and let someone wash your feet in water, vinegar, and oil. She or he will dry your feet. They you will be offered their place to wash the feet of another. When you are done, you may return to your seat and watch.

The second is to wash your hands in preparation for Communion. We have a station here with cruets of water, a basin, and a prayer printed. You are encouraged to wet your hands, say the prayer aloud, and dry them before coming forward.

In both of these actions, we engage with ritual purity. We aren’t cleaning, as we do at home, but two acts of preparation. Because we aren’t pure or perfect or ideal. Jesus doesn’t flip a switch and we suddenly act right.

We are learning how to love one another. Think of this as Jesus’s final exam. We’ve studied. We’ve listened. We are prepared. It is time to love and be loved.