Maundy Thursday

Servanthood

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

There are moments of intimacy that colour and direct all of our lives. A moment when your mother really spoke to you, heart to heart! A promise that your father kept! A piece of advice given lovingly by a friend! A word of encouragement from a favourite teacher!

That was the kind of moment that Jesus and his disciples experienced that last evening together. He was alone with them in the upper room. He knew what was about to happen. He knew that this was the last day of his earthly life. He decided how to spend it. He invited his closest friends over. They broke bread. They shared a glass of wine. Then the evening became that moment of intimacy. It would colour life for the disciples forever. They would remember it right down to their last reaction. He took a bowl, a jug of water and a towel. He went down on his hands and knees before them and washed their feet. He washed the feet of each of them, one by one, lovingly and thoroughly.

He told them that he did it to set an example for them. He did it to set an example for all of us. He did it so that we would understand what it means to be a servant. He did it so that we would wash one another’s feet.

Servanthood has a bad name in our modern society. We think of serving others as being menial work. We think of it as some kind of enslavement. Parents experience it. They ask their children to perform a simple task, pick up after themselves, help load the dishwasher, take out the garbage. They are greeted with groans and complaints. “Why me? Why do I have to do everything?”

Why is it that we react so negatively about serving one another? We have a sense that it somehow takes away from who we are.

Luke includes an incident in his portrayal of the last supper that we do not hear in tonight’s Gospel. It is a scene of high drama as Jesus prepares to leave his disciples. He prays for them, worrying about what will happen to them following his death. Then a petty argument arises amongst the disciples. It would be funny if it were not such a tragic moment in Jesus’ life. They argue about who is the greatest among them.

Jesus doesn’t roll his eyes at them. He doesn’t shake his head. He doesn’t chastise them. He serves them. He gets down on his hands and knees and washes their feet. He does what the most menial servant in the household does. In being the servant, he gives them an intimate moment to remember when they get discouraged, or lose hope, or get depressed. At such times surely they remember that evening when he washed their feet and said, “I have given you an example.”

He not only said it to them. He said it to us too, privately, in a sacred moment. God got down on his hands and knees in front of us and shared a moment of intimacy with us. He gave us an example of what we should do to each other, washing each other’s feet, breaking bread, sharing with all of humanity, until he is with us in the Kingdom.

We remember it tonight. We wash feet. We break bread. We share the cup of wine. We offer broken hopes and broken dreams, broken relationships and broken hearts. Here in the bread we offer all of our lives, our joys and our sorrows. We acknowledge our brokenness. We seek to be one with Christ who can make us whole. We seek to be joined to broken people. We share in the servanthood of Christ whose service is perfect freedom. Amen.

Maundy Thursday

The Miracle of Serving

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

"Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." Jesus had a loving relationship with his disciples. It was a relationship that comes from a sense of intimacy for which we all need to strive. It is that sense of intimacy that happens when real trust grows between two people. In a situation of such trust, both people are able to give and receive selfless and meaningful love. It is the kind of love that is required if we are to be servants in the sense in which God calls us to serve. It is the kind of love that Jesus showed to his disciples on the night before he died.

On that night, Jesus performed an astonishing task. He took a bowl, a jug full of water and a towel. He went down on his hands and knees before his friends. He washed their feet. He washed them all, lovingly and thoroughly, with eyes full of tenderness and love for those whose feet he was washing.

It may not seem to be such a momentous occurrence for us. But in a time when dusty roads and sandals were the norm it was not only a loving gesture, but also a useful one. If you think it was no big deal, consider Peter's response. He was overwhelmed by the reversal in roles. The one he served was serving him. It was a life-changing experience.

Such acts of service are still life changing experiences. They take place in many forms in our world. When they do, although we often fail to recognize them as such, they are reflections of the love of God. We have all seen signs of such love in many forms. A nurse holding the hand of an elderly patient to reassure, to comfort; a salesperson comforting a lost child; someone going out of their way to drive a neighbour to an appointment; a neighbour dropping in with a casserole at a time of bereavement.

That example of the suffering servant that we see exemplified in the life of Christ has come down to us through the centuries. It is a challenge to all human images and concepts of power, authority and leadership. So a great person like Ghandi can humble himself by washing latrines. Mother Teresa can serve the humblest and poorest beggar on the streets of Calcutta. Jean Vanier can live in community with his mentally challenged brothers and sisters.

What a paradox Jesus presents to us! Through service one leads. Through Christian love and concern one can work miracles. Thanks be to God.

Maundy Thursday

Washing One Another's Feet

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

Passover is one of the most important religious festivals in the Jewish calendar. Jews celebrate it to commemorate the liberation of the Children of Israel who were led out of Egypt by Moses. It is an age-old celebration dating back to about 1300 BCE.

The story of the Passover is told in the Book of Exodus. The Children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over two hundred years. God promised to release them from slavery, but not before Pharaoh had refused their release and God had visited ten plagues on Egypt to demonstrate God’s power. It is a celebration of freedom, not just in Biblical times, but throughout history. Jews believe freedom to be one of the basic human rights. Jews living under oppression often use the Passover as an expression of their own desire for freedom.

Like the Christian celebration of Lent, Passover marks springtime. It is a time for the Jewish people to do some serious Spring cleaning. It symbolises hope, new life and the importance of starting afresh. It is a pilgrim festival, one of the three occasions in the year when, according to the commandments of the Torah, Jews were to go to the Temple in Jerusalem.

So it is little wonder that Jesus and the disciples decided to celebrate by eating the Passover meal together. They made arrangements for a place, a room in the upstairs of a house. The traditional meal was laid out on the table. But before the meal began Jesus took a bowl, a jug full of water and a towel. He went down on his hands and knees before the disciples. He washed all of them, one by one, lovingly and thoroughly. As he washed their feet he looked with eyes full of love and tenderness at the faces of those whose feet he was washing.

It was an unexpected gesture, for here was the rabbi, the teacher, doing the work of the slave. Washing their feet was Jesus’ final lesson to his disciples. It was the only way to teach them the reality of the gospel. He washed the feet of the ones who loved him unquestioningly. He washed the feet of the ones who would run away when times became difficult. He washed the feet of the one who would deny that he even knew him. He especially washed the feet of the one who would betray him.

He needed them to know that for them authority was to be a form of service. No one should be allowed to rule who had not first proven that he could serve. He did not demand that they look up to see God. He knelt in front of them so that they looked down on him. He put himself in the posture of the powerless, unliberated and helpless. He needed them to know that it was down on the floor in service that they would see God. Down there on the floor in service was where they would be the Church.

In that gesture, Jesus washed the feet of all of us, believers and unbelievers, old and young, saints and sinners, pimps and women of the street, bishops and lay people, rulers, rich and poor, filled and hungry, dressed and naked. He looked us in the eye, each one of us, calling us to be his hands and his feet in the world. He gave us a model of what we should do to each other, washing each other’s feet, breaking bread together, sharing with all of humanity, until he is with us in God’s realm.

What can turn the tables on us? What can help us to live out our call? Our Diocesan Bishop, Colin told the story of his daughter Rachael, serving as a nurse in South Africa. The day before her twenty-fourth birthday she spent the night holding a child dying of AIDS. She prayed, she said, trying to think of the prayers that her father might pray in such a situation. She prayed out of love and compassion so that a dying child would know in those last few hours of her life that she was loved. She did it because she knows that we are all called to servant ministry. She did it to be Christ in a world of tragedy and suffering.

What kind of a world would we live in if we lived with that kind of compassion. Whose feet would we wash? What if the wealthy washed the feet of orphans and widows, if the powerful washed each other’s feet? If we were servants, as Christ served us and gave himself for our sakes? Is that how we too will bring the gospel to the world?