Maundy Thursday 2012

The Rev. Tommy Thompson
Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-17
5 April 2012

“The Farewell of All Farewells”

Goodbyes are never easy.  But when we have opportunity to prepare for a good bye and take advantage of that opportunity, our words are chosen very carefully.

It was only a couple years ago that I was given the opportunity to preside over not only the funeral but also the death of my grandfather...my papaw.  There are many things that he and I would usually say to one another, mostly cutting up and having fun...but in those last moments there was a lot of silence...and when something was said, it certainly was not trite.

When we are saying goodbye to those who mean a lot to us, we choose our words carefully.  Depending on your role in the relationship, your words will differ.  If you are going away on a long trip and leaving your children behind, you are going to say words to your children that will linger in their minds...words that give the opportunity for action that will make the absent parent proud.  Words that bring comfort in the midst of grief...words that the children can withdraw from their memory bank when the sadness seems impossible to bear.

If you are on your deathbed and have the opportunity to say farewell to those who will be surviving you, your words will likely be more meaningful and to the point than anything that has ever come out of your mouth.  These folks gathered around the bed are hanging on every word and they will not forget them.
 In the Gospel Lesson for Maundy Thursday, we get the opportunity to listen in on the most important farewell address that has ever been said.  The Lesson beings “Now before the festival of the Passover, 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.”

Up to this point in the Gospel of John we’ve only heard it reported that Jesus hour “had not yet arrived.”  Now, his hour has come.  It is time for his mission to come to its climax and fulfillment...it is time for the power of God to deal with the evil powers of this world once and for all...and of course, as was disclosed to us on Passion Sunday, that power takes the form of humble, self-giving, other-receiving love...power that is contrary to everything we’ve ever been taught about power...power that overcomes sin, death, and the grave...and this we learned, is the very nature of God--to humble himself and pour the fullness of Himself into the other.

So, this is Jesus’ farewell address to his beloved disciples, and to his body, the church.  It is a bit different than any other farewell that has ever been given.  The majority of those addressed by Jesus’ words live on this side of the resurrection.  And we know that this is not the farewell of a dead man.  No, this is the farewell of the resurrected One who knows he must ascend to His Father and our Father, whose palpable presence will pass over into the sacraments by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is a farewell that names how the risen and exalted Christ continues his mission even after He has passed beyond the veil...a farewell that prepares his people for the continuation of his mission once they receive the power of God that is the Holy Spirit of God.

So this is a unique farewell address, yet it is a farewell address.  If ever our ears perked up to our Master’s voice, it should be now.  What comes out of his mouth from John 13-17 is for the sake of our cooperation with grace in continuing his mission in and for His world.

So just what does our Teacher, our Lord have to tell us before he departs to the Father?

Well, he doesn’t immediately say anything at all...instead, God the Word incarnates Himself in the action that we get to see...to observe...to have engrained into our imaginations.

“During supper, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”

At this moment, the image of what happened in Bethany just a few days before was brought to the front of the disciples’ imaginations ... so strongly that the pure nard that was poured on Jesus’ feet tickled the hairs of the disciples nostrils.  What Mary had done to prepare for the Lord’s departure is now what the Lord does to prepare his disciples for the same.  She poured out that which symbolized everything that she had...right there at the feet of Jesus Christ that would soon bear the marks of our redemption.

Now Jesus demonstrates to us the meaning of His passion. Because He is God, he takes the form of a slave ... Even though he is human, he takes the form of servant, and in so doing, our redemption is procured.  Because he is God, the Teacher washes the students’ feet.  Even though he is human, the Master receives the servants’ feet into the warmth of His towel to wipe them clean for a new and meaningful journey.  In this act of washing, the meaning of his glorification through the cross is made clear to us...he washes all of his disciples’ feet without exception; yes, even Judas, his betrayer.

Peter could not understand this holy incarnation of God’s nature in the Son of God.  He argued, “You will never was my feet.”  The evil powers that govern the world of darkness has formed even the closest of Jesus’ disciples well. Peter has been taught that the powerful sit down to have their feet washed...but Jesus knows Peter must be washed...he knows he must be the recipient of His selfless service if he is to have a share in the same.

And this is just what Jesus’ intends to command through this holy sign act that is the beginning of his farewell...Not simply an invitation but a command.

“Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.”

Sisters and brothers, farewell addresses are not filled with empty words and meaningless phrases.  What Jesus says here, he wants us to take to heart more than anything else...because these, of all words, are the words he chose to reveal through this humble act of service.  The one thing he has to say to us is this.  You want to be great, then become the least and wash the feet of your sisters and brothers, and yes, even the one who betrays you.  And in doing this you have a share in me and I in you.

What would happen this Easter if we came through these Great Three Days heeding Jesus’ words by the power of the Holy Spirit?  Maybe those who hunger and thirst for God in their lives outside these walls will begin to start a new rumor about us...about a new kind of power that transforms?  Just maybe the selfless love that flows out of this parish and into the world will draw God’s people to the table where He fills them with the self-giving and other-receiving Love of Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.  Amen.