Maundy Thursday
Jn
13:1-15
4/17/14
Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory
has been in some hot water recently. He
received some very negative publicity when it became known that he was in the
process of building a residence for himself that cost $2.2 million
dollars.
Now just for the sake of review, as
a Roman Catholic priest, Gregory is not married and so has no family. You may wonder then why he thought he needed
a six thousand square foot Tudor mansion in an upscale Atlanta area
neighborhood. Well, you are not the only
ones. As you can imagine there was quite
an outcry, and it prompted to Gregory to put the following statement upon the
website of the archdiocesan newspaper: “I failed to consider the impact on the
families throughout the archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages,
utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my
pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services.” To which I can only say: “No kidding.”
But Archbishop Gregory isn’t even
the worst recent case of a church official using church funds to provide
himself with extravagant luxury. In
Germany, there is Bishop Franz-Peter-Tebartz von Elst – or as he is also known
in the media, “the bishop of bling.”
Bishop von Elst has spent $43 million dollars building a luxury residence
for himself. That can happen when your
bathtub costs almost $21,000 as the bishop’s did.
The German bishop did not choose the
best time to engage in this extreme extravagance. The new pope, Pope Francis is seeking to emphasize
that the clergy need to be humble servants who avoid excess. Francis himself has chosen not to live in the
ornate papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace and instead to live in a more
simple residence located behind St. Peter’s Basilica. He has chosen not to wear much of the expensive
liturgical clothing that the papacy has acquired, and instead to wear much more
simple ecclesiastical clothing. He has
even used a Ford Focus instead of the papal limousine. It was therefore not surprising when the
Vatican chose to remove Bishop von Elst.
To his credit, Pope Francis
practices what he preaches. He has
called on the clergy of the Roman Catholic church – especially the leadership -
to exhibit humility and the attitude of a servant in the way they conduct
themselves. He himself has done this,
using the bus when he was a bishop and now seeking to modify ways that the
papacy does things in order to avoid excess. He has sought to remind the clergy
that as undershepherds of Jesus Christ, they are called to model their behavior
after Jesus who came to serve us.
The Gospel lesson for Maundy Thursday
is John’s account of the Last Supper.
While Mathew, Mark and Luke focus our attention on Jesus’ institution of
the Sacrament of the Altar, John instead tells us about another significant
event that occurred. He narrates how
Jesus washed his disciples’ feet.
Our Gospel lesson begins with the
words, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had
come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were
in the world, he loved them to the end.”
Jesus knew what the night held in store for him. He knew would happen in the Garden of
Gethsemane. He knew about the trials,
and the scourging and the crucifixion – the things that will be symbolized by
the stripping of the altar at the end of this service. He knew that the hour had come to begin the
events that would lead to his ascension and return to the Father.
Jesus loved his disciples. John tells us that he “loved them to the end”
which is a phrase that in Greek refers to the temporal end of his ministry and
at the same time also means “completely.”
He loved them, and so he did something to demonstate the nature and the
character of his life.
We hear in our text, “Jesus, knowing
that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from
God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer
garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water
into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the
towel that was wrapped around him.”
Jesus began to wash his disciples’
feet. Now this action was striking for
several reasons. First, feet were
normally washed before dinner – when people had arrived at dinner from
the dusty roads and streets. It wasn’t something you did in the middle of
dinner. And second, as you are no doubt
well aware, the washing of feet was normally something that was done by a
slave. However what you may not fully understand is the degree to which this
action went against the grain of the entire ancient Mediterranean world. This was a world built on status and
patronage. There was a firm hierarchy
that determined how people related to each other. As Jesus says in our text, “You call me Teacher
and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.”
And yet, Jesus lays all of that
aside even as he lays down his outer garments in order to serve. When he was done washing their feet he
explained what the action meant. He put
on his outer garments, resumed his place and said, “Do you understand what I
have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
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.”
Jesus laid down his outer garments
in order to wash their feet – in order to serve them. He said that he washed their feet in order to
give them an example that they should do just as Jesus had done. Yet the example here is far deeper than the
mere washing of feet. It is an example
in John’s Gospel that points to the cross.
In our text Jesus puts down his
outer garments, and then after washing their feet he takes his outer garments
again in order to put them on. In John’s
Gospel the same verbs are used earlier in chapter ten when our Lord says, “For
this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take
it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I
have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up
again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Jesus washes the disciples’ feet as
an illustration of the service he is about to give to them on the cross by
laying down his life on Good Friday and then taking it up again on Easter. In that same chapter, Jesus says, “I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh
and entered into our world to lay down his life for us. At the beginning of his ministry, when John
the Baptist saw Jesus he exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world!”
Jesus served you in order to take
away your sins. He served you because
frankly, you would rather serve yourself. You would rather put your wants ahead
of God and ahead of your neighbor. And
you are often willing to do what you have to in order to get your way.
Jesus Christ did what he had to in
order open up the way to God. He served
you by dying on the cross in order to win forgiveness. Like the lamb of the Passover, the shedding
of his blood causes God’s judgment to pass over you. And so, you are forgiven.
Jesus leaves you in no doubt. On this same night and that same supper he
instituted the Sacrament of the Altar in which he gives you the body and blood
given and shed for you on the cross. He
gives you the price he paid for your salvation and so delivers the saving
benefits of his cross and resurrection.
By his body and blood, Jesus
sustains you in the faith. You received
new life in your baptism as you were born again of water and the Spirit. And now Christ nourishes that life through
the Sacrament of the Altar. He shares
his saving love with you in this unique and personal way.
He shares this love with you, so
that now through the work of the Spirit you can share it with others. At the
end of this chapter, Jesus says, “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.”
Christ calls you to love others in
the way that he has loved you. He loved
you by service – the self-giving service of the cross. And in washing the feet of his disciples on
the night when he was betrayed, Jesus provided the model for your life. He calls you to humble service that seeks the
good of others in the different vocations where God has placed you in the
world. He calls you to a love the binds
his Church together in mutual care and service.
For as Jesus says in our text tonight: “You call me Teacher and Lord,
and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.”
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