13:1 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.
13:2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of
Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper
13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his
hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God,
13:4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a
towel around himself.
13:5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around
him.
13:6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going
to wash my feet?"
13:7 Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later
you will understand."
13:8 Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus
answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me."
13:9 Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my
hands and my head!"
13:10 Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash,
except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean,
though not all of you."
13:11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said,
"Not all of you are clean."
13:12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had
returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have
done to you?
13:13 You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is
what I am.
13:14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another's feet.
13:15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I
have done to you.
13:16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their
master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.
13:17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
13:31b When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has
been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.
13:32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in
himself and will glorify him at once.
13:33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will
look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I
am going, you cannot come.'
13:34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just
as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another."
How do we translate the footwashing into daily service. We have
worshipers attend the Maundy Liturgy because they love to
participate in the footwashing but yet, still, know nothing about
service to the world?
tom in ga
tom in ga--
Funny, most of my older people would be glad to help others in their
usual ways, but God forbid that you should ask them to participate
in footwashing!
Actually, that's the tack I end up taking--"Unless I wash you, you
have no share of me." We like to jump to service without giving up
control, which isn't really service.
So in some ways, the service in the world becomes the invitation to
grace that each of us must have experienced, hopefully, at one time
or another. It can mean asking the question, whatever it is that
Jesus has done for you, whatever comfort or hope or good word you've
received, do you really think he washed and healed you just so you
could feel good? Is there anyone around you who needs that same
experience?
Ramblings--
Laura in TX
Here Jesus goes again, mucking up my theology of victory with images
of subservience :-)
Our footwashing is a pale comparison. People come prepared to have
their feet washed (they make sure they are already clean and are
wearing fresh socks!) They have had a chance to rationalize their
way past their squeamishness at having their feet touched. We really
have no similar role in our society to the servant who washed feet,
so people don't get it. It is just a weird activity that Christians
do every year.
What activity in our society is so low? Who is as invisible to us,
as the footwashing servant was to the people of that day? What
activity would seem too demeaning for a person we respected to do?
Shoeshining? Bathroom scrubbing?
It's almost as if Jesus was at a dinner in a five star restaurant in
his honor and began to bus the tables of everyone in the place. Only
that isn't a strong enough image.
He was not the one to be doing that activity, yet over everyone's
objections he chose to act as if we were the honored ones, so that
we might learn to honor one another for his sake.
-SS in PA
Dear Friends,
In his novel, "Leaving North Haven: The Further Adventures of a
Small-Town Pastor," (New York: A Crossroad Carlisle Book, The
Crosswod Publishing Company, 2002; ISBN 0-8245-2013-0) Michael
Lindvall includes a chapter entitled, "Our Organist." It recounts
the story of how a visiting pastor discovered the ways in which the
members of a dwindling rural congregation truly lived out the
command to "love one another." I commend it to you as a resource for
this Maundy Thursday.
May God bless you with a truly holy week, Desert Dweller
Response to SS in PA - ... a slight modification to your question
"What activity in our society is so low?" Not that this is low, but
it is demeaning to the person previously in "control", if they have
any awareness of it...
Taking care of an elderly relative - perhaps incapacitated by
alzheimer's - bathing the previously proud, accomplished senior -
respecting them still despite their infirmity. Cleansing the person
who never, if they were conscious of their malodorousness, would
have let themselves (in a million years) get to this state.
This is the closest I can come to a "graphic" honor-in-servitude
example of what Christ showed His divisive, self-centered disciples
- loving them despite their infirmity - debasing Himself to guide
them lovingly to a cleaner existence.
I’ve been thinong about what to preach this time round ... In Lent
I’ve been reading the letter to the Hebrews ... and thinking a lot
about sacrifice - the Old Testament system of sacrifice, and the
sacrifice of Jesus himself. I’ve been thinking about blood
especially, and the link between blood and forgiveness.
When Jesus says to Peter ‘A person who has had a bath needs only to
wash his feet; his whole body is clean, and you are clean’ He means
that Peter’s sin has been dealt with. He stands before Jesus as one
who has been forgiven.
In our liturgy, (anglican) we use a confession every week. I wonder
what people think is going on here ? Do they think that they have
start over again with God every week. In what state do they think
they come each week ?
In the confession, we are not coming to deal with our status before
God.
We come firstly to REMIND ourselves of God’s forgiveness for us and
of our new birth as children of God. To remind ourselves that we
stand before him clothed in the righteousness of Christ as perfect
in his eyes.
We come secondly to confess that we are not perfect ...!! That we
still sin, and to rejoice that these sins are covered by the once
for all sacrifice of Jesus. And to remember that as ‘new creations’
we have God’s Spirit within us to strenthen us and make us more like
Jesus.
Sorry, I’m going on here .... What I want to say is ‘Praise God’ -
because by the blood of Jesus, we are able to come into God’s
presence. (Heb 10:9)
Rev Ev in UK
I once preached on this with the image of an airplane, preparing for
its final descent, and the request that the passengers fasten their
seatbelts. Jesus was aware that he was on his "final approach" to
God. What he fastened around himself in preparation were the
instruments of humble service - a towel to serve as an apron. If we,
too, really believe that we are on our "final approach" to God,
we'll listen when we are asked to fasten our seatbelts, and not just
keep humming to ourselves with our headsets on. Loving service is
the way to prepare; possibly (and maybe this is just an unworthy
revenge fantasy on my part) it will be a bumpy ride for those who
have chosen to focus on their own agenda, and ignored the call to
fasten loving service around themselves.
LF
"I know Jesus because of my ‘stara matka,'" said Lenka, a
twenty-year-old Slovak woman. Lenka's grandmother, a victim of forty
years of Communist party oppression, snuck Lenka to a neighboring
village in the dark of night to have her baptized and instructed in
the Christian faith. Party officials would not, in the end, pass
over her "stara matka's" house without punishment, but the knowledge
and remembrance of Jesus had been preserved for yet another
generation in Lenka.
Remembrance. Knowing. Passing on. Passing over. Such are the images
of Maundy Thursday.
In Exodus, the passover story becomes a "day of
remembrance...throughout the generations" to be "observed as a
perpetual ordinance."
The passing on of tradition is also central in Paul's letter to the
community at Corinth as he both hands on what he has received, and
recounts the anamnesis, the "remembrance" in the words of
institution.
Knowing and understanding are pivotal in John's gospel as Jesus
"knew that his hour had come to depart." He acted, "knowing that the
Father had given all things into his hands." He chides Peter, "You
do not know what I am doing." He "knew who was to betray him." After
the foot washing, he questions his disciples, "Do you know what I
have done to you?" He challenges them to act on the basis of their
understanding: "If you know these things you are blessed if you do
them."
Indeed, passing over, remembrance, passing on, and knowledge are all
bound together in his Maundy Thursday mandate: "By this everyone
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another."
"Write this commandment in our hearts," we pray in the prayer of the
day. Amen. May it become a part of our permanent memory.
Dear Anonymous Poster: I guess you're trying to help. But I don't
think it's ethical for you to post the reflections of Twila Schock
and Bill Swanson from Sundays and Seasons without giving them
credit. How about this: type in your own thoughts! Join the
conversation! You are welcome here, and we'd love to hear from the
real you.
LF
People do not relate to footwashing as they would have in the time
of Christ. It was a necessity where people wore sandals, and the
dust was mingled with animal excrement. As such, they had the lowest
of the nine levels of slave, the doulos, do it. It was the lowest of
tasks. In Hawaii we keep the inside of the house clean with removing
our shoes. Even if there is no excrement there is red dust. One year
I washed the hands of the congregation (quite without notice)to
symbolize the footwashing and it was extremely moving and very
well-received. As I write this I am reminded of a story I once heard
in relation to the progical son, but that seems to relate to
Maundy-Thursday via the removing of shoes. It proclaims a God whose
shoes don't match. I am not sure the origin, I heard it in a sermon
years ago.
It is said that there was once a missionary to China who welcomed a
"back-slid" artist back into the church. The artist felt so
overwhelmed that he offered to paint a special work for the church.
The Sunday before it was to be revealed he proudly showed it to the
Pastor. The Pastor marveled at the skill of the painter but said,
"It is a masterpiece except for one thing. You have painted the
picture of the progical son from a perspective looking over the
father's shoulder, with the son coming to him. The father's arms are
crossed and he looks stern. If you read the Gospel, you will see
that the father runs out to meet the son." "But no Chinese Father
would do that, he would lose face" the artit said. "Exactly, no
earthly father would do that, but our Heavenly Father does." "I
see," said the artist and took the painting and left. That Sunday
before the service to reveal it, he called the pastor over to and
and pulling back the cover asked, "How do you like it now?" The
Pastor was overwhelmed. The scene now showed the moment just before
the father embraced the son. The son was leaning back and his eyes
revealed both the sorrow of repentence and the wonder and joy of
beginning to understand what his father was doing. The father had
his arms wide open and tears of joy streaming down his face. The
Pastor had tears in his eyes and then said, "I don't mean to be
picky, this is the best rendition of the prodigal son I have ever
seen, but the father's shoes don't match." "Of course they don't, in
China we keep our shoes at the door, and when he saw his son coming
home his joy was so great he did not look down to see that he put
his feet in matching shoes, he just hurried out to welcome him. We
have a God whose shoes don't match." We have a God whose shoes don't
match, who rushes to welcome us to the Lord's supper. A God who
feeds us and then saves us by the Cross.
B Rock
