Love One Another Thursday
Eric Lemonholm
April 21, 2011
Maundy Thursday
“Love One Another Thursday”
Today is Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday. Today we remember the day of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples before his crucifixion.
On the evening of Holy Thursday, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, and that same evening, Jesus shared the original “first communion” with his disciples. That night, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then Jesus was abandoned by all of his disciples when he was arrested in the Garden.
We’ve just heard 2 passages of scripture that tell the story of the Last Supper from two different perspectives.
In the first passage, from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul hands down Jesus’ carefully remembered words that he spoke when he shared the bread and the wine with his disciples.
Jesus connected the bread and the wine he shared with his disciples with the self-giving love he shared throughout his life, and especially when he gave himself up to be crucified the very next day.
Jesus wanted his disciples to remember him and the love he showed whenever they broke bread and drank wine together. Whenever they did so, Jesus’ promise was that he would be present with them, to nourish and strengthen them.
When we share the bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper, we’re doing something very simple.
We’re remembering Christ’s self-giving love. We’re also in the presence of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven, and our faith in Christ is strengthened.
The Gospel of John paints a different, complementary picture of Jesus’ Last Supper. Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (6:35).
Jesus is the bread of life. When we come to Christ daily in prayer and service, we won’t hunger for any other spiritual substitute. Nothing but faith in God can satisfy our deepest needs and longings:
l for true forgiveness;
l for true lasting happiness;
l for right relationships with God, our neighbors, and our world;
l for a vibrant life that not even death can overshadow.
That is the essence of the Lord’s Supper we celebrate each Sunday.
But the Gospel text we read each Maundy Thursday is from John 13, which relates the Last Supper differently than the other Gospels and I Corinthians.
In the middle of Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus got up from the table. He took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself—as if he were a servant or a slave.
Then he went to the first disciple, and started to wash his or her feet (we don’t really know if ONLY his 12 male disciples were eating with Jesus—that’s just how artists portray the Last Supper).
Can you imagine the disciple’s reaction to Jesus’ actions? The rest of the disciples were probably too embarrassed to speak. It took Peter, as always, to break the silence, and Peter refuses to let Jesus wash his feet.
It is humbling to let someone else wash your feet.
But then, imagine you are celebrating a Passover Seder meal with Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, and HE begins to wash your feet, after you had walked ten miles down a dirt road wearing sandals.
In Jesus’ day, foot washing was a very lowly occupation. So Jesus made it an example of love and service for his disciples —including us.
That’ why we going to have an opportunity to wash one another’s feet tonight.
The answer to the question we hear sometimes—What Would Jesus Do?—can usually be answered like this: Jesus would do whatever it takes to show love to others—including foot washing and taking up the cross.
A little later in the same conversation, Jesus tells his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
That’s why Maundy Thursday is called ‘Maundy Thursday.’
The New Commandment is a new mandate (a mandatum in Latin): Love one another.
Perhaps we should call today Love One Another Thursday.
Our Lord Jesus was a foot washer. As we follow him, we’re called to follow in his footsteps and wash feet too. Literally washing other peoples’ feet might not be what God has in mind for you this week. But there are countless ways we can share God’s love with other people by our actions.
We are having foot washing as an optional part of this service. You don’t have to come forward, but you certainly may.
There’s an old saying (by St. Francis): “Preach the Good News at all times. If necessary, use words.”
The point is that our actions usually speak louder and truer than our words.
My prayer for us is that, as we struggle to live out our church’s mission—living and sharing Jesus—our actions of love, service, and care for others speak louder than our words ever can.
[Note: I skipped the following in preaching, because of time constraints and focus – this will be in the May newsletter]This week, Mindy and I attended the Zion Development Dinner with Good Shepherd member Denver Bitner! At the dinner, Brad Roos made a couple important points.First, he noted that, in the first three years of life, the average poor child in America will hear 30 million less words than the average middle class child. That 30 million word gap is very difficult to overcome: no single government program, for example, can bridge the gap. The 30 million word gap makes a tremendous difference in long term achievement in school.Brad also noted the 5% Tipping Point: once the number of professionals, managers, teachers, police officers, etc., in a neighborhood drops below 5%, there is a steep increase in teen dropout rates and teen pregnancy. Young people need role models of success and stability in their communities.There is no easy solution to either of these problems, but what is clear is that the children of Good Shepherd’s neighborhood, for example, need more caring adults in their lives – talking to them, caring for them, guiding them.If we can, in many and various ways, grow as a positive presence for the families in our community, then we can help create a better future for our children: and the children of our neighborhood are indeed our children!
“Don’t be afraid of the dark, honey,” said a mother, calming her frightened child. “God is with you.” To which the child replied, “But I need somebody with skin on.”[ii]
As Christians, we are the ones “with skin on” who share God’s love with others in all we do – for children, for youth, and for adults.
We are the body of Christ in this place.
As Teresa of Avila said,
Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which Christ is to bless all people now.
We are the body of Christ because Christ gave himself for us on the cross.
We are the body of Christ because Christ gave his body and blood for us and for all people.
As the body of Christ, we share in Holy Communion.
As the body of Christ, we wash one another’s feet on this Love One Another Thursday.
Amen!
[ii] -Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, Twelve Christian “Beliefs” that Can Drive You Crazy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 196.
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