Maundy Thursday, John 13:1-35
March 28, 2024
Pastor Jonathan Linman, Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
There’s no story in John’s Gospel about Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, our sacrament of Holy Communion, which is major focus of Maundy Thursday. The focus of the Last Supper in John is not the meal, but Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, the story which we just heard.
But there is in John’s Last Supper account an odd moment of what I might call an anti-Eucharist. For Judas is revealed as the one who would betray Jesus when Jesus dipped bread in a bowl and gave it to Judas. Listen again: “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” Then one of the disciples asked, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I dipped it in the dish.” Jesus gave the bread to Judas. And John reports, and here’s the striking and disturbing moment: “after he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into Judas.” It’s as if Satan became present in Judas when he ate the dipped bread – the same way that Jesus becomes present to us when we eat the bread and drink the wine. That’s why I call this an anti-sacrament. This is a disquieting moment in the story.
The effect of Satan entering Judas is that Judas then left Jesus and the disciples to begin the work of betraying Jesus and having him arrested. According to John this fulfilled the scripture, that is, one of the psalms: “the one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me” (John 13:18b, but referring to Psalm 41:9). Again, it’s an ugly moment in the story which otherwise is so beautiful.
Having just heard the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, let’s not overlook the poignancy and pathos of the fact that Jesus washed the feet of his followers who would soon flee him. Jesus washed the feet of Peter who would deny three times that he even knew Jesus. And Jesus washed the feet even of Judas who would betray him.
When Judas, Satan having entered him, got up to summon the authorities to arrest Jesus, this is precisely when Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.” Now that’s a strange kind of glory. But the point here is that not even Satan entering Judas through an anti-sacrament, not even Judas’ betrayal, can thwart God’s glorious plan for Jesus.
For the point of all of this – washing the feet even of those who flee, deny, and betray Jesus – is to reveal the radical extent God’s glorious love for us in Christ. And what an extraordinary expression of love – agape love; unconditional love, again, extended even to those who flee Jesus, who deny they knew Jesus, and who betrayed Jesus. This is truly divine glory. And Jesus practiced what he preached: he loved his very imperfect, unworthy followers to the very end (cf. John 13:1).
Of course, what Jesus does, he commands us to do: “I give you a new commandment,” Jesus said, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Because God in Christ loves us in such a manner, we can in fits and starts seek to love each other, obeying Jesus’ command. And when we show this love, “everyone will know that [we] are [Jesus’] disciples” (cf. John 13:34-35) Showing such love is a defining characteristic of being a disciple of Jesus.
Hence, we also obey Jesus’ command: “So, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
But it’s hard for us to get down on our hands and knees in servanthood love especially when it comes to those whom we might deem unlovable, and those who might have betrayed us. We cannot do this on our own steam, by our own efforts.
The good news, of course, is that we can love others because God first loved us (cf. 1 John 4:19). And we experience enactments of this divine love right now, tonight. God’s unconditional love was demonstrated and made known to us at the beginning of our worship with individual absolution of our sins.
Divine love is demonstrated in the ritual washing of feet, an action emanating from God’s loving word and deed such that our ritual tonight is dress rehearsal for the rest of our lives where we’re called upon to love even our unlovable neighbors.
Moreover, divine love is revealed in the reconciliation that is enacted among us in the sharing of the Peace of Christ.
Finally, God’s unconditional love is shown to us, made known to us, too, when we receive Christ’s true body and blood in the sacrament of the altar, the institution of which we commemorate on this holy night.
These grace-filled enactments and holy encounters give us the power and encouragement we need to seek to love each other and be reconciled with each other, even when we might feel betrayed by other human beings – in Christian community or anywhere else in our lives.
However you choose to participate in tonight’s rituals, I encourage you to use your imagination in spiritual meditation. Imagine yourself washing the feet of those who might have betrayed you – and they washing your feet in return. Imagine sharing the Peace with those whom you deem unlovable. Imagine gathering around the Communion table and eating and drinking with those you might consider your enemies.
It could be family members from whom you are estranged, or even other church members with whom you’ve had conflict. It could be people wearing MAGA hats, or the protesters who gathered on Camelback Road some months ago to angrily protest our welcome of all people, including those in LGBTQIA communities. It could be Christian Nationalists. It could be people you feel are too “Woke,” too leftist, too politically correct, too much into the self-righteousness of their virtue signaling. Whomever. You can fill in your own blanks in your mind’s eye.
But also imagine a world in which God’s love through our actions is extended even to the unlovable, even to those who might be considered enemies and betrayers of God’s gracious ways.
And pray for the grace and courage and generosity of heart in the power of the Spirit made known to us in tonight’s ritual enactments of God’s love, to seek consistently to do as Jesus did and commanded: to love one another for the healing of ourselves, our communities, the nations, and all of creation. Amen.
