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 15^th 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 21^st 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 21^st of March.  Easter Sunday always falls between the 22^nd of March and the 25^th 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.

B, Midweek Lent 2 - Mark 14:22-52 "The Cup Passed On"

The way of the cross ramps up a notch as Jesus takes the Passover meal and redefines it with what is about to happen to him. 

The Passover, a meal practised by the Jews since the days of Moses, was a meal  first prepared in haste before the angel of death passed through Egypt pouring out the tenth plague upon all first born.  The angel spared only those who had the blood of the lamb smeared over their doorway, those who had eaten the lamb roasted over the fire together with bitter herbs, dressed for a quick departure from Egypt.

Jesus now takes this remembrance meal and gives it a renewed function.  We remember what he said and did with his word, instituting the bread of the Passover meal with his body sacrificed on the cross, and the cup of wine with his blood poured out as a sacrifice which would, and continues to, save many.

Now that the cup of salvation in his blood is instituted, the new covenant is set to be fulfilled.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world heads out to the Mount of Olives for the events to be enacted which would make Jesus the Lamb to replace all sacrificial blood required for the old covenant.

Jesus’ interaction with Peter takes on special significance as he tells the disciples what is about to happen.

Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’  But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”  (Mark 14:27 ESV)

Some years prior Zechariah prophesied, “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”  “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.” (Zechariah 13:1, 7 ESV)

Jesus was that fountain of blood, he was the Son from the right hand of the Father, who was incarnated as man, as the shepherd of Israel, was about to be struck.   Jesus’ little ones were to be scattered as the shepherd takes the place of a sheep to be slaughtered, of whom the disciples are Jesus’ little ones.

Peter flatly disagrees with Jesus saying, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” (Mark 14:29 ESV)

Even after Jesus tells Peter he will deny him three times, Peter says forcefully, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” (Mark 14:31 ESV)  The other disciples also agree with Peter.

In the wake of this reading, we heard on Sunday, Jesus scolds Peter with the harshest of rebukes.  We hear,  “But turning and seeing his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan!  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’” (Mark 8:33 ESV)

John Mark was Peter’s scribe.  The Gospel of Mark is Peter’s account of Jesus’ ministry written down by John Mark.  Incidentally the naked young man we hear leaving the scene in Gethsemene, is believed to be the author of this Gospel.

How Jesus deals with Peter, which Peter proclaims, and Mark records, seems quite abrupt.  Perhaps today the sensitivities of many would be offended.  We can learn much, however, from not only Jesus’ abruptness, but also the willingness of Peter to preach about his weakness recorded in the pages of Mark’s Gospel.

Peter’s forceful and impassioned statements  “Even though they all fall away, I will not” and “If I must die with you, I will not deny you”  stand in absolute contrast to what happens next.

In Gethsemene, as Jesus prays, we see his human flesh as our flesh.  Peter, James, and John see it too.  Jesus is willing, yet in the weakness of human flesh, he prays and waits, despite being dumbfounded, distressed, and overwhelmed by the weight of the world he is about to carry.

He leaves Peter, James, and John to pray alone.  Jesus knows his fate.  In the flesh of humanity, he struggles knowing what is going to happen to him.  Like any human that learns of their impending death, and struggles with its reality, so too does Jesus!  

With the weight of the known, Jesus stumbles and falls to the ground, he prays that the hour of suffering and death might pass over him.  But he is the new covenant, he is the new Passover Lamb, he has instituted at the last supper, all that God the Father has led him to do.  And he is led by the Holy Spirit to give him the spirit with which to be the Passover Saviour!

Hear in Jesus’ struggle, Jesus hates death.  Like any of us that pray when our utter helplessness is pressed upon us,  Jesus prays, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.  Remove this cup from me.” (Mark 14:36a ESV)

In true faith, Jesus prays a confession about the nature of God the Father.  Everything is possible for God our Father!  With his Word he could have removed the cup from Jesus!  But knowing the evil and the good this cup bears he contradicts what he’s just said and continues, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36b ESV)

What are the disciples doing?  Is Peter waiting, watching, and praying as Jesus asked?  The one who confesses Jesus as the Christ, the one who says, even if I die with you, I will not deny you, cannot even stay awake.  When Jesus returned from praying, he did not find Peter, James, and John supporting him with prayer, but sleeping.  Three times this happened, impressing on us the reality that even if the spirit is willing, we need the Holy Spirit to enliven our weak flesh.

Judas comes to betray Jesus, with him is a mob from the chief priests, scribes, and the elders.  When they seized Jesus, one of them gets his ear cut off.  Mark does not report who, but in John’s Gospel, we’re told its Peter. 

In keeping with Peter’s lack of understanding, demonstrated throughout the Gospels, Peter cuts off the servant’s ear, overcompensating for his inability to stay awake and pray with, and for, Jesus.

But Jesus having come to fulfil the scriptures drinks the cup the Father has given him to drink, and all left him and fled.

Some years later Peter is martyred by Nero on an upside-down cross.  In coming weeks, we will hear more about Peter as he denies Jesus and the cock crows. 

The change in Peter who comes from understanding only the things of man to enduring death knowing the things of God, is a comfort for all in the church of the living God. 

Peter drinks the cup Jesus drank.  But it is said that out of respect for his Lord he was crucified on a cross upside-down. 

The event that is Peter’s life, saw a work of God, that took time!  From Jesus calling him on the sea of Galilee, working with the erratic ebbs and flows of his faithlessness and faith, right the way through to where he trusts the Holy Spirit to lead him as the Spirit led his Lord, even to death on an upside-down cross, all occurred in the fullness of God’s time.

In this Lenten season, there is opportunity for us to reflect on the work God is doing in us.  Our life is God’s event, he works in us as he did in Peter.  He gives us a cup of salvation and servanthood from which to drink, and the Holy Spirit will enable us to drink it over time!  Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thankyou for working with Peter, even as you were sending your only Son to the cross.  Thankyou that our life is your event and that you are patient with us, willing us with your Word.  Help us not grieve the Holy Spirit.  But drink the cup of the new covenant, deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and drink deeply from the font of forgiveness, servanthood, and salvation.   Amen.