C, Maundy Thursday - All readings "Feasting and Foot Washing"
There is a greet paradox in the readings for Maundy Thursday. The Old Testament reading tells us of what happened when God passed over Egypt and handed out judgement on the gods of Egypt. This is a powerful picture of the destroyer, passing through Egypt, killing the firstborn sons of those who did not paint the blood of the Passover Lamb over the door frames of their homes. The Israelites who did, were spared death as God moved to free them from slavery under Pharoah, four hundred years after Israel found a haven from famine under Joseph in Egypt.
Then we have the picture of Jesus washing feet. Not a glamorous picture by any stretch of the
imagination. This is a picture of
servanthood. A picture of stooping down
in vulnerability without much clothing, taking off other’s footwear, and
washing their feet. Washing someone
else’s feet today might seem humiliating enough, dealing with body odour or
fungal rashes. But washing the feet of
those who walked in the dusty filth of Roman roads in footwear such as sandals,
washing feet was a very unsavoury task.
This was a job for the lowest of slaves.
So, we have this pictorial paradox before us. God passing over Israel, but God the Son
stopping over the feet of his apostles, to wash their feet.
Simon Peter pridefully shuns Jesus in his attempt to enact a
servant’s cleansing of Peter’s feet. According to Peter, this was not a job for
the Messiah! But little did Peter
understand that this was a demonstration of the duties the Messiah needed to
perform physically and spiritually, so all would have a part in the cleansing
of the cross. Little did Peter know, Jesus
would commission him and the apostles, after the resurrection, in sharing the
glorification of God in what Jesus taught them, how he served them, and in what
they witnessed at the cross.
Little did Peter know that Jesus would have to pass over
Peter’s sin of denying him three times and then restore him to lead the church
in “feeding the lambs”. Peter and the
apostles in their witness and proclamation of what happened to Jesus would
cleanse those who allowed Jesus to cover and cleanse their hearts with his
blood.
Beginning the start of the three-day event of Jesus’ death
and resurrection always occurs near the Jewish Passover. This is why Easter Sunday is not nailed down
to a single date. Easter Sunday is a
movable feast in the church calendar year.
It occurs after the Paschal full moon.
The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar, and the Passover
occurs on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, the first month of the
Hebrew Year. This relates to the spring
equinox in the northern hemisphere; that is the 21st of March, in
our calendar. Therefore, the Easter
festival begins on the first Sunday, after the first full moon (that is, the
Paschal full moon) after the 21st of March. Easter Sunday always falls between the 22nd
of March and the 25th of April.
Maundy Thursday means mandate or commandment Thursday and
it’s connected with Jesus’ foot washing in John’s Gospel and Jesus’ institution
of the Last Supper in the synoptic Gospels.
The time of the Passover differs between John’s Gospel and
the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Passover begins in John at six pm Friday
evening and concludes at six pm Saturday.
Therefore, John refers to the Passover occurring on the Sabbath in his
Gospel as a high day. In the synoptic
Gospels the Passover begins on Thursday evening and ends at six pm Friday when
the Sabbath (Saturday) begins.
This means the Passover feast in John’s Gospel occurs when
Jesus is already in the tomb, after 6pm on Friday evening (the Sabbath). Hence, John’s Gospel brings to the fore, the
theological truth of Jesus’ servanthood in the foot washing. Also in John’s Gospel account, the Passover
preparation of slaughtering the Passover Lamb is aligned to the same time as
Jesus is crucified on the cross, so our sin is passed over with the spilling of
his blood.
In the synoptic Gospels the Lambs were slaughtered for the
Passover on Thursday evening, where afterwards Jesus shares in the Passover meal,
come Last Supper, with the twelve disciples.
Peter and the disciples did not understand the significance
of the foot washing, nor what Jesus did at the Last Supper. They thought they were just remembering the
Israelites’ escape from Egypt and following God’s command to remember and eat
the Passover. But this supper of remembrance
was the Last Supper they had with Jesus Christ before his death and
resurrection, and the first celebratory communion where our being passed over,
from death to life, would be connected eternally to Jesus’ death and
resurrection. But even more so, this
celebratory commanded meal, looks forward to the heavenly eternal feast after
our eternal resurrection from death.
That means now the church gathers regularly for a new feast
to continue the remembrance of what Jesus did, what happened to him after he
did it, and what’s in store for you in receiving and believing what he did and
commands!
With his word, Jesus connects the Last Supper with a new
commandment! To take, to eat, and to drink,
the bread and the wine as his body and blood.
The blood of the lamb that covered the lintel of the doorframe of the
Israelite homes in Egypt, now, physically and spiritually covers the frames of
believers in the consecration of the bread and wine. Jesus commands us to consecrate the bread and
the wine in remembrance of God’s action in Jesus’ incarnation, ministry, death,
resurrection, and ascension to his right hand.
We are commanded to do all this in remembrance, but we also do it in
celebration of our forgiveness of sins, the life we receive from Jesus through
faith, and the hope of our resurrection and salvation.
The other command Jesus gives on this Last Supper at the
first Maundy, mandate, or commandment Thursday is the church’s command to love
as he has loved us. The servanthood love
of Jesus’ foot washing and the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Communion are
now connected with our forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
In the Early Church the celebration of the sacrament was
called a love feast. Those outside the
church were suspicious of it as some kind of debaucherous orgy of human
pleasure seeking. Indeed, Paul had to
correct the Corinthians when the love feast began to turn into a pursuit of
personal pleasures to the detriment of the community gathered in Christ.
Tonight, we continue the celebrations of having our sin
passed over and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Paradoxically, we also have Jesus’ command
not to pass over our neighbour in sharing that same love, which he shares with
us at the cross and continues to do so as we receive the forgiveness of sins,
life, and salvation in the mandated meal of his body and blood.
Our meal is one of remembrance, but not just that. It’s the refuelling of our being to be
outwardly looking! We’re not hidden away
from the world as the disciples were on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. But rather, God prepares us for his service
as we leave this place, each time we receive his love in the body and blood of
Jesus Christ. God empowers you and me to
take that forgiveness to the world as have the apostles and countless disciples
ever since. Amen.
