Maundy
Thursday
John
13:1-17, 31b-35
HE LOVED THEM TO THE END
“Beloved
people of God, grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Christ.
AMEN.”
As
we reflect on the final events in the life of Jesus, we have the benefit of
knowing the end of the story. When
the disciples gathered with Jesus in the Upper Room, they had no such
benefit.
Oh
yes, Jesus had prophesied that “the Son
of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests
and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” He had said this
plainly.
But
remember–Peter rebuked him. The
disciples could not accept that the Messiah–the Christ–must suffer and die. They were holding on to an image of a
great king in the Davidic line who would restore
In
the Upper Room, as Jesus and his disciples ate their last meal together, Jesus
tried one last time to prepare them for his death–for the time they would be
left without him. Jesus knew that
the hour had come for him to depart this life and be reunited with the
Father. Jesus also knew that
Judas–one of the twelve–would betray him.
He told them, “Truly, I say to
you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They all wondered which of them it
would be. Only Judas and Jesus knew
for sure. Furthermore, Jesus was
fully aware that his disciples–his closest friends–would desert him: “You will all fall away; for it is written,
`I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” Bold and confident Peter insisted,
“Even though they all fall away, I will
not.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, this very night,
before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But Peter said forcefully, “If I must die with you, I will not deny
you.” And they all said the
same.
Jesus
knew better. Yet as the evangelist
John tells us, Jesus “loved them to the
end.” Despite being fully aware
that his most trusted followers would not stand by him in his final hour, Jesus
loved them to the end.
In
the Upper Room Jesus dramatized this love for them in two visible ways: by
giving himself in Holy Communion, and by washing the disciples’
feet.
The
Last Supper began like a typical Passover meal. The meal followed a number of prescribed
steps: the drinking of the cup of sanctification; the first washing of the
hands; the eating of parsley; the breaking of bread; the telling of the story of
Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt and of how the angel of death passed over the
homes of the Israelites who had lamb’s blood on their doors; the singing of a
Psalm; the drinking of the cup of proclamation; the washing of the hands before
the main meal; the praying of a table grace; the eating of the main meal
consisting of small pieces of unleavened bread, bitter herbs between two pieces
of unleavened bread, and lamb.[1]
Following
the main meal, the hands were washed again. At this point, Jesus did something
unexpected. He took the remainder
of the unleavened bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples,
saying, “This is my body, given for you;
do this for the remembrance of me.”
Then
again after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink,
saying, “This cup is the new covenant in
my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin; do this
for the remembrance of me.”
In
this unique way Jesus dramatized his love for his disciples and for all
people. He was showing them that
they were to give completely of themselves for one another as he was giving of
himself for them. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
The disciples did not fully understand. The meaning would become clearer for
them after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
They would look back and remember what he had said and done, and his
great love for them would be manifest.
According
to John Jesus dramatized his love for them in a second way. He rose from supper, laid aside his
garments, and girded himself with a towel.
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’
feet.
When
he came to Peter, Peter said to Jesus, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share
with me.” Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands
and my head!”
After
Jesus finished washing their feet, he said to them, “So if I, your Lord and your Teacher, have
washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s
feet.”
Jesus
had given them a second dramatic example of his great love for them. In so doing, Jesus symbolically turned
the social order upside down. It
was what M. Scott Peck has referred to as a “Maundy Thursday revolution.” The person on the top–the rabbi, the
teacher, the master–humbled himself, became like a servant, and began to wash
the feet of his followers. Is it
any wonder that the disciples had trouble comprehending the full scope of what
was happening?
We
need to ask: What gave Jesus such power to love in his final hours? As he faced suffering, rejection, and
death, what gave him the strength to focus on preparing his disciples for life
without him?
The
final words of the Lord’s Prayer give us a clue: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory
are yours, now and forever.”
Jesus had tremendous confidence in God the Father. No matter what happened the
According
to the gospel of Mark, in the
What
trust Jesus had in the will of the Father!
Jesus knew the Father’s will would be done. He knew the kingdom, the power, and the
glory were in the Father’s hands.
Such knowledge gave him the power to love his disciples to the end. It gave him the strength to love the
whole sinful world to the end.
On
this Maundy Thursday, as we receive the good news of the forgiveness of sins, as
we partake in the body and blood of Jesus, may we focus on our Lord’s great love
for his followers, on the way he first loved us; may we take God’s promises to
heart; and may we pray with confidence: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory
are yours, now and forever.” In
so doing, we receive the power to love God, to love one another, and to love the
whole world to the end.
In
Jesus’ name, AMEN.