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, Maundy Thursday - Exodus12:12-13, John 13:14–15, 34–35, 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 "Faith Judgement & Feet"

The feet of God walked through Egypt in Judgement.  It was to be the tenth time God would plague Pharoah and those with whom he took counsel.  This was a battle between God the Father and Ra, the sun god of Egypt, played out through their spokesmen Moses and Pharoah.

Each plague was an increase in demonstration of God’s power over Ra, in creation.  A sign not only for Pharoah, but a sign for all who witnessed the event, both Egyptian, Israelite and all who lived in the land.   

From undrinkable water in the Nile River, infestations of frogs, bugs, then flies, dead Egyptian livestock, then festering painful boils.  Devastating hail striking down man and beast, together with the crops of those who remained in their fields.  What was left in Egypt was then attacked by clouds of swarming locusts, inside and outside their homes.   Then darkness covered the land for three days, before the tenth and final plague, death of all first born.

The descendants of Abraham were called to faith in what they were witnessing.  Years after Abraham’s faithful listening was credited to him as righteousness, through faith, Moses having the opportunity to dwell in the spoils of Pharoah’s court, chose God and hardship rather than the pleasure of his position in Egypt. 

In Hebrews eleven we hear, “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,  choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.  By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”  (Hebrews 11:24–28 ESV)

These were days of faith.  The Law had not yet been given at Sinai.  Moses and Aaron were called to act in faith before Pharoah.  They announced what was to happen before God followed through with what he promised.  Pharoah and his help were called to believe too, but their hearts were hardened in unbelief, faithlessness!

These days of faith were told to be taught to future generations.  Not only were the plagues a display of almighty power to the Egyptian enemy, but they were signs to the Israelites, and a sign of their faith towards God, as they remembered the destroyer who passed through Egypt and gave them freedom at the first Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.  The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are.  And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.  (Exodus 12:12–13 ESV) 

Notice firstly, the Israelites would see the blood on doorways as a sign to them God had passed over them without death passing through their home.  Then secondly, what one logically might think should be first, God would see the blood posted in faith and faithfully pass over.

The Israelites were called to see first the blood on their houses, as a testimony to almighty God’s saving power.  Yet, as almighty as God is, he was discerning which houses had the blood of the lamb on the threshold of each dwelling.  Like tiptoeing through the tulips, he preserved the people who had blood on the doorposts, and those who didn’t he trod underfoot, like a person playing hopscotch from snail to snail up a damp footpath in the dark.  Israel saw this, after the fact, and was called to faith and to teach it.

The judgement God promised, proved to be faithful to the Israelites, but also true to his word for those who were faithless, or faithful to ways that were against his word of promise.

Prior to Jesus’ Passover when he becomes the Lamb of God, instituting a new covenant of God’s faithfulness, we find Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. 

Jesus says, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:14–15, 34–35 ESV) 

Here the Son of God, does not pass over his disciples, but serves them and washes their feet.  Unlike God the Father, who passes over Israel to crush Egypt underfoot, Jesus does the opposite.  In faith he cleanses the enemy from within, to save!  Whereas God the Father cleanses the enemy, from the Israelites, so they are without.

The disciples receive the washing as a sign from Jesus.  With full knowledge of what was to become of him he washes the feet of those who had no understanding, of what he was doing, nor what was about to happen.   Like the Israelites who remembered what God had done, the apostolic church now remembers Jesus body and blood, broken and spilt on the cross, given and shed in bread and wine for the forgiveness of sin.

There are great paradoxes between the first Passover and the Passover where Christ became the sacrificial lamb.  The first we’ve just heard.  God not only saves us from external oppression, but also frees us within from ourselves. 

The other great paradox is in the feet.  Jesus washes the feet of the disciples in love.  Then, in the same love for us, “he” is the one crushed by God.  It’s as if God tiptoes over us only to land on Jesus.  Jesus becomes the one crushed for our sin, as the enemy of God, out of pure love to make us God the Father’s children.

Jesus bridges the great divide between the uncleanness of humanity and the holiness of God within his very own body.  He is the Passover sacrificial lamb but also our great high priest, having been raised and glorified to the right hand of our Father in heaven.

In faith, Moses led the people of God out of bondage, and through Moses the Israelites received the Law, the ten commandments.  Jesus fulfilled the Law, but in faith led us out of bondage through his sacrificial death.

We faithfully continue in the holiness of Jesus Christ, by meeting with him in his divine service to us.  Our holiness depends on receiving it from Jesus in faith.  The Holy Spirit wills us into God’s presence to hear the word of God and receive the sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood. 

The holiness of Jesus’ body and blood is holy, by the perfection of his life in the flesh, coupled together with his perfect sacrifice at the cross for humanity’s sin.  A priestly offering of himself as the lamb, perfect flesh defiled on the cross as cursed, cleanness of life for the uncleanness of death.

As true functional Christians, we have a Holy Spirited desire to receive God’s gifts.  We could be a solitary Christian on a deserted island, but the moment we get off the island, we would not remain in isolation from Christendom. 

So, coming to church is not so much about what we do, but rather, about what God does to us through bringing us to church and being with us as he divinely serves us.  Paul centres our honouring of God in his work, in how we receive Jesus, in the sacrament.

He says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.  But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”  (1 Corinthians 11:28–32 ESV) 

Church is a gathering of the faithful in Christ, not in ourselves!  When we place faith in what we do, we desecrate the most holy body and blood of Jesus Christ.  The weakness, illness, and death Paul speaks of here is, primarily, but not limited to, one’s spiritual health.  When those who gather as church focuses on the self, one becomes estranged from the power of God, then the substance of coming to church becomes lacking.  One finds ill gain in coming and eventually cuts themselves off from God.  Then, one has begun to die a spiritual death!

However, those who truly judge themselves, see the cross and their place on it, seeing in themselves sin, therefore, a sinful being! 

Yet, in the great paradox that is Jesus Christ, those who judge themselves as sinners who sin, don’t glorify themselves in it, but faithfully find themselves rushing into God’s presence to have Jesus faithfully take their sin on himself. 

Faithful Jesus, the Lamb of God, has offered himself on your behalf, and now Jesus the Son of God, and King of Creation, faithfully intercedes for you before God the Father in the heavenly congregation. 

Such is a believer’s faith in Jesus’ faithfulness, worked by the Holy Spirit, when one discerns Jesus’ body and blood, receiving it for the forgiveness of sins along with the hearing of God’s word, as God divinely serves his children for their growth in faith.

Now that we have received Christ for our forgiveness, he has washed and cleansed us.  We continue his washing and cleansing work of forgiving others; this is loving as God has loved us.  God gave Pharoah ten chances to believe, but we give other’s what God gives us in Jesus, forgiveness seventy-seven times.  We forgive and intercede for others as Jesus does for us. 

We forgive and live only by receiving the energy to do so, by being forgiven and fed in the holy sight of Jesus Christ.  This happens when we gather in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  You are being made one with Jesus’ death and resurrection, having been baptised into Jesus’ holiness, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, help us to walk with feet of judgement.  Judging ourselves in a way so our feet turn and return to your holy divine service of us.  Judging ourselves in a way that allows our enemies to confess their sins to us.  Judging ourselves in a way that allows us to forgive them as we have been forgiven.  Grant us the Holy Spirit to faithfully wash their feet with the holiness of Jesus Christ, just as he has cleansed and washed us in the holiness of his body and blood.  Amen.

C, Lent 5 - John 12:1-8, "Anointed and Embalmed as King"

 Text     John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”  He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. ”It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

1.         Buried Feet

Why did Mary smear the pure nard over Jesus' feet? The gospel reading we just heard doesn’t tell us why she went to such extremes.  This perfume from the nard plant in India was expensive ointment prepared from the roots and stems of this Himalayan plant.  So when she cracks open the pot of perfume and spreads the entire contents of it over his feet, about half a litre, it makes me wonder what motivated her to do it.  Half a litre is a lot of perfume.  The bible tells us it was worth a year’s wages, 300 denarii, close to thirteen thousand dollars worth, a lot of money in anyone’s language.  Imagine the scent it would leave. Think of aftershave or perfume poured on you feet, not just a drop but a half litre.  Why did Mary do it? Putting a little on sandal sore feet was normal when the host’s guests arrived from some distance.  But Mary buried his feet in so much ointment the pleasant scent would have been smelt just as far away.

2.         Jesus raised Lazarus

Looking back at recent events in John’s gospel sees Mary at Jesus' feet once before.  Both Mary and her sister, Martha, pleaded with Jesus when he arrived after Lazarus’ death, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died!’  Mary fell at his feet weeping, so much so it moved Jesus, and he wept too. 

So Jesus raised Lazarus, he had earlier told Martha he was the resurrection and the life, and that’s exactly what he did, he gave life to Lazarus.  He cleared the stone away and raised Lazarus from the dead, and in the process made himself ritually unclean through his association with the corpse.  Jesus was the cause of Lazarus’ resurrection, it brought glory to God, but it also caused him to be covered with the stench of death.

3.         Jesus didn’t cleanse himself

As these events were occurring the Passover festival was drawing near.  Within a week lambs would be slaughtered so the Jews could commemorate, remember, and teach their children how the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Israelites, sparing the lives of their first born sons, the night before Moses raised the nation of Israel to life from the land of Egypt.  This festival called for the Jews to make their way to Jerusalem to be cleansed and purified for the Passover meal of bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and Passover lamb roasted over the fire, just as God had commanded Moses and the Israelites many years before. 

But Jesus doesn’t go to Jerusalem to be cleansed.  Rather he and his disciples leave Lazarus and withdraw to a region near the desert.   Jewish ritual expected a person to be cleansed, purified, and made holy, so they could stand before the Lord, who is holy, especially those who had come into contact with a dead body.  In chapter eleven just prior to the meal and Mary’s perfume pouring at Bethany, many stood in the temple area waiting for Jesus to appear.  After all he had raised Lazarus from the dead and was unclean.  But Jesus didn’t show, nor did he receive any cleansing.  No!  Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem rather he returned to Bethany.  There is a knock at the door; Lazarus opens it to reveal God standing there with his disciples, still covered with the stigma of his death. 

4.         Mary serves Jesus

If I were to ask you to flick through the pages of John’s gospel and find the Last Supper where Jesus gives us the Words of Institution, you would come up empty.  In fact John doesn’t give us an account of the Last Supper.  Instead he speaks of two meals.  Both meals are linked by the attention given to the feet.  At the first meal Mary washes Jesus’ feet and then at the second meal Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. 

It is true that at both meals foot washing caricatures service.  The very nature of foot washing shows both the humility and greatness of serving.  Mary serves Jesus with faithfulness and sheer gratitude when she smears the pure nard on Jesus' feet.  Probably overwhelmed at Jesus’ resurrecting power over her brother Lazarus, she served him with the same passionate emotional fervour as when she cried tears over his feet when Lazarus was still dead.

Mary’s actions came from deep within.  We know that these actions were great.  So great I find it hard to comprehend!  The perfume’s purity is not lost on John as he reports Judas Iscariot’s disapproval and tells us the nard was worth a year’s wages.  Lazarus, Mary and Martha were not excessively wealthy; after all there are no servants to do the tasks of washing feet or serving the meal, which Martha serves.

Mary’s action was also great from another perspective too.  It would have taken a great deal of courage and faithfulness for this woman to let her hair down in public.  It was not something done by respectable Jewish women.  In her action all honour is taken from her and given to Jesus.  Perhaps the perfume that might have been reserved to cover the stench of Lazarus’ death was now floating around the house as the fragrance of life and love.  Or maybe Mary was still covering the stigma of death; Lazarus’ deathly uncleanness in Christ and the upcoming death that awaited him on the cross?

5.         Jesus Anointed and Embalmed as Messiah and King

So what was happening to Jesus at Lazarus’ house when Mary poured or smeared the pure nard on his feet?  Another word to describe Mary’s action of pouring or smearing is anointing.  Mary anointed Jesus.  In fact she anointed Jesus Christ, Son of God, King of the Jews.

When a king or queen is enthroned into their office, they have a coronation.  In recent times we haven’t seen a coronation; in fact the last was Queen Elizabeth many years ago.  But like any royal event their coronation to the throne involves much royal regalia, long processions through the streets, pomp, ritual and ceremony.   

Jesus was on his way to a coronation too.  He was soon to be glorified on the cross.  A little later on in the gospel Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified… But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (12:23, 32). Jesus took his throne when he was nailed to the cross, on that throne he draws all to himself.

Mary anointed the King, maybe a little prematurely before his coronation, which would begin on the next day as he rode the donkey into Jerusalem over palm branches thrown down by the crowds. Therefore, how could she not anoint the King of Kings with such an expensive perfume?  After all he is the king who draws all people to himself. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But paradoxically in a seemingly contradictory way Mary anoints the body of Jesus just as all bodies are anointed before they are buried.  Jesus even says of Mary’s anointing, ‘it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial’ (12:7).  How can a king’s coronation and his enthronement be the very same thing that kills him?  How can the King of Kings draw all to himself if he is hanging dead on his throne?  Well, this is the mystery of the cross, this is the contradiction of the cross, this is the glory of the cross, this is the victory of the cross, and this is the beauty of the cross, where our Lord was enthroned.

Just before Jesus was crucified he washed his disciples’ feet. When he came to Peter, Peter said no to his feet being washed, but Jesus said, ‘Unless I wash your feet you have no part with me (13:8)’.  Mary may have served Jesus at the first meal, but it was Jesus who served, when he washed the disciples’ feet at that second meal, when by his word he raised Lazarus to life,  and when he took the ugliness of death to the cross for Lazarus and also for you.  Jesus has washed us too, eternal death is no more, we are washed and now have a part with Jesus in eternity.  

6.         Jesus’ Service as our Passover Lamb

When we hear that Mary broke the bottle of thirteen thousand dollar scented oil over Jesus' feet, it makes us sit up and take notice.  Why she did it, we can only speculate.  But this double action anointing, together with the events before and after, tell us of God’s Son who was anointed and embalmed as King of Kings, was sacrificed and enthroned on the cross, was buried in death but at the same time buried eternal death, and who was raised to life is also your resurrection and your life.  Sit up and take notice, Jesus serves you, he has cleansed you!  Smell the sweet scent of life bought at great cost for you by our Passover Lamb.  He is the resurrection and the life!  In this King death has lost its stench, and now the power of death has passed over you and me.  Amen.