Maundy Thursday : Jesus the Servant: Compassionate Humility

Pastor Robarge’s Sermon

Maundy Thursday Service, April 1, 2010

Welcome to Monday Thursday Service. That sounds funny, doesn’t it? I grew up in a pastor’s household and, for the longest time as a child, I thought that it was Monday Thursday. It didn’t make sense to me. For a long time, I kept thinking year after year, I’m going to ask the question but I never did. Why is it Monday Thursday?

Finally, one year I did approach my mom and I said, “Mom, I just don’t get this celebration, this observance. Why do we have an observance that has two days of the week, Monday Thursday?” Of course, she had a little bit of a chuckle on my behalf but she corrected me and she said, “No, this isn’t Monday Thursday. It’s Maundy Thursday.” And I said, “Oh. I don’t get it.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever been like me. What are these names? They come out of nowhere? Maundy? What is Maundy? There were so many things happening in the life of Jesus, especially when we get down to this last week in His earthly life. It’s like an avalanche of events. So why don’t we call this Lord’s Supper Thursday? Why don’t we call it A Guy Betrayed Jesus Thursday? Why don’t we call it Jesus Prayed in the Garden Thursday? Jesus Washed Some Feet Thursday?

Yet, we don’t have this and so why? How did we get Maundy out of all these other events that were happening on this last week in Jesus’ life? Well, I’ll tell you. When they get this name Maundy, it comes from the Latin. As some scholars started to look through in the early church, they started to identify some things and they read the Latin bible. And in particular, in the gospel of John, they found this new mandatum, which is the Latin word where they get Maundy.

So when you think about mandatum, you can hear the echoing of the English word, mandate. So what is the mandate that Jesus sets before us tonight? If we go to that verse that the scholars looked at, it’s John 13:33, “A new command or a new commandment I give to you: Love one another just as I have loved you.” We start to think about bread. What’s happening in this time? And we can see that this is a key verse in what happens throughout this whole Holy Week. “Love one another just as I have loved you.” We come across this statement and we say, “What’s it all about?”

So we look back at the beginning. We spent some time in the gospel of John this past Lent and, today, it’s just like that. The gospel of John has more about what happened on Maundy Thursday, this time leading up to the cross. The only thing that John leaves out is the institution of the Lord’s Supper. But we get a lot of rich information from John concerning the other things that happened in the upper room. We start with John 13 with Verse 1, “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He’d come from God and was going back to God, He rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, taking a towel, tied it around His waist. And He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. He said to Simon Peter who said to Him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘What am I doing you do not understand now but afterwards, you will understand.’ Peter said to Him, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash your feet, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean. And you are clean but not every one of you.’” For He knew who was to betray Him and that’s why He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

When He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments, He resumed His place. He said to them, “Do you understand what I’ve done to you? You call me teacher and Lord. You are right, for so I am. But then your Lord and teacher has washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you should also do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I’m not speaking of all of you. I know whom I’ve chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heal against me. I’m telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me. And whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

So I think it’s fitting tonight that we listen to the very words of Jesus. In a few moments, the ushers are going to bring basins of water forward and lay them at the ends of your pew. Everyone’s going to grab a towel. Look at the people next to you. Go ahead. If you don’t know them already, you’re going to know their feet. Get comfortable because here we go. But just wait a second, I think it might be fitting, Pastor Burcham’s back right there and he is our Senior Pastor so I believe it’s fitting that he come forward and he start this foot washing off right. How does that sound?

Well, I don’t know if he’s saying it’s looking too good. But I have two things before we get started. Ushers, just hold on a second. Two things: We’re actually not going to wash anybody’s feet tonight. The second thing is maybe some of you were thinking, “Now I know what it was like for the disciples as they stood and watched Jesus stand up, grab a towel, grab that basin and start to wash their feet.”

Some people probably got a little nervous. I myself, I don’t like to have my feet touched. I don’t know about you but I like to keep my shoes on. I don’t really want to show you my feet and maybe some of you are like that. And if you were, you probably got a little nervous. No? Maybe some of you were like, “Yeah, this sounds like a great idea.” This would be like my wife. She says, “Oh, I love foot washings. Oh, it’s so great.” But not if you don’t like your feet touched.

When we think about this, Jesus, the master, serves. He becomes the servant. I want you for a moment to start to imagine in your mind a little bit. What are the images that come to mind when you start to think about that simple word servant? When the images start to roll, we start to think about maybe a waitress, maybe a waiter, maybe somebody who’s washing windows, maybe a construction worker. Maybe it’s a guy who polishes shoes. All servants.

I don’t think you’re starting to construct in your mind a picture of a CEO, a businessman. I don’t think you have in your mind any images that might come to mind about a GQ cover model or any of these models running down the runway or walking, sorry, they can’t run.

We start to think about somebody who’s probably not well educated. We start to think about somebody who probably doesn’t have much power and authority. And yet tonight, when we come across this passage like we do every single Maundy Thursday, Jesus takes this idea of servant hood, this idea of servants and turns it upside down.

Servants haven’t changed. This idea of servants, the same images that come to mind tonight may have changed a little bit with the disciples but not much. People had dirty feet. They walked around all the time and the servant was the one who came and washed the people’s feet when they came in the door because it was polite. But it was the servant. The master would never take that basin of water and bring it to the door to wash the people’s feet. It’s unheard of.

The disciples, they see something and they notice that the master has now turned everything upside down. The master has become the servant. And yet, sometimes when we think about it, yeah, then let’s follow His example. Let’s wash feet. But I think that might be missing out on the point. He said, “This I give as an example,” an example that changes the structure, changes your view of what’s happening, your view of what a servant is, a view of what the master is.

So when we think about the small things, we think what if it starts right in your own home and you do something unexpected. Maybe it starts right outside your home and you see a neighbor who’s struggling with something and you take care of it. Maybe it happens right at work and you do something that’s not your job just to get the job done. When we start to step outside of our little worlds, we can see so much more.

But I don’t want to go too far into that just yet because I think there’s something we also need to look at in this scripture. Chapter 13:1, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world. We’ll stop right there. I know it’s not a complete sentence. But Jesus knew that His hour had come. If you notice in all of the rest, sometimes Jesus would just escape. The crowds were after Him, things were happening and Jesus somehow disappeared. Why? Because it wasn’t His time. But here, Chapter 13:1, it says that Jesus says it was His time. He knew what He was facing, death on a cross.

So we think about tonight. I ask you this very question. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what is it that you would try to convey? What is it that you would think about? Personally, myself, I start to think about the things that I haven’t gotten done, the things that still need to be put in order, and the list goes on and on. There are things that need to be done before I’m gone. But you notice how selfish that is?

We look at Jesus. He says He knew the time was coming. We see His actions in the garden. The soldiers come. He’s not concerned about Himself but He says, “Do not harm my disciples.” We see Jesus hanging on the cross and He’s not concerned about Himself but He says, “Who’s going to take care of my mother?” He’s hanging on the cross and He says, “I care about this thief who hangs next to me.” Jesus hangs on the cross as He hears people mock Him, spit on Him and He says, “Father, forgive them.” You see this action. Jesus is motivated by love and love has no limits. There is no limit to what Jesus would have done for us. And yet we still see Him up there.

What about us? We start to think about the reasons why we might serve. Some might serve because they feel guilty. Some might serve because they feel like they’re obligated, that they have to. Some might serve because they want the notoriety, “Look at what I have accomplished.” Some might serve just for future reward. Do you see all of these reasons to serve have limits? Guilt, it eventually goes away. The burden becomes part of what the duty is. When you say, “I serve out of duty,” it just becomes a burden and eventually goes away. Notoriety, shallow. Future rewards, what if they don’t come? Do you see when we think about servant hood, when we think about the command that’s echoing here tonight from Jesus, “A new command I give to you: Love one another just as I have loved you,” the love has no limits. The love does not turn inward and become selfish but turns outward on others.

You see, love had no limits for Jesus. He went to that cross out of love and that’s not the example Jesus is talking about here tonight. He doesn’t say, “Follow me in that example.” We can’t all die for the sins of the world as Jesus did. But He said, “Serve in love.”

There’s a statement you can serve without loving, but you can’t love and not serve. Too often we can leave this idea just as a simple object lesson. “Yeah, we see that Jesus is a servant and it’s a great idea that we should be a servant. I will start to make the list of the things that I can do.” And we leave it there. But the putting into practice is much more difficult. We think of all these barriers, we think of all these things that get in the way of it. We need to spend a lot more time in prayer about this. We need all kinds of lists of equipment and we need everything and we make these barriers and we put them up. We say, “We’ll get to the service later.”

But what does it do when we still hear Jesus saying, “A new command I give to you: Love one another just as I have loved you.” Love one another. There are some of the things we can do that are pretty easy. There are no barriers. We say, “There’s somebody at the side of the road. Let’s stop and help them.” We see a neighbor struggling with groceries. “I can take those in for you.” These are some easy things.

There are some things that do need planning, some things that do need a lot of prayer. But listen to this verse here, Chapter 13 again Verse 5, “Then He poured water into a basin and began.” We could easily miss this part. We can easily skip right over it but yet what we see is Jesus saying there are no more barriers. He grabs the towel, He grabs the basin and He begins to serve.

Galatians 5, Paul says, “You are free. Don’t use your freedom to go back and indulge in your sinful behavior. Christ has set you free for a reason. You’re free to serve.” Did Paul just make up this idea or does it sound a little like what we’ve been talking about here tonight? “A new command I give to you: Love one another just as I have loved you.”

We need to just begin. Amen.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church