A New Commandment
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 17, 2003
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
I. INTRODUCTION
Tonight is Holy Thursday. It is the night on which we commemorate Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples prior to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, his subsequent trial and crucifixion.
Unlike in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is not clear in the Gospel of John that Jesus is celebrating a seder meal. In fact, in John’s Gospel, Passover doesn’t begin until after Jesus is crucified. John draws the connection between Jesus and the Passover because in his gospel Jesus is crucified on the day that the lambs are slaughtered for the Passover sacrifice. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, is sacrificed on the same day as the other lambs.
So, in John’s gospel, the Last Supper is cast somewhat differently. It is not a seder meal, but a fellowship meal in which Jesus does a curious thing: he washes the feet of the disciples. Over their objections.
II. FOOTWASHING
Jesus’ act overturns all the conventional assumptions of roles and propriety. It is in accepting Jesus in the sprprising role of loving host and intimate servant that one has a “share” with him, that one receives the love of God incarnate.
Jesus asks the disciples to do nothing but to place themselves in his hands and to allow for themselves to be cared for by Jesus. This is a hard thing to do. The fact that Peter and Judas have a hard time with it shows how hard it is for us to do. So often we busy ourselves trying to figure out what it is we are supposed to do for Christ that we have difficulty allowing Christ to do for us.
What Jesus is showing us is how to be in relationship with him, how to allow Christ to serve us. And in so doing, he shows us how to be in relationship with each other.
III. LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Tonight is Holy Thursday, traditionally known as Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means “commandment” and relates to the scripture lesson we read tonight: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Christians haven’t always made themselves known by love. We have more often made ourselves known by infighting or bigotry. We have made ourselves known by pettiness and sectarianism. What is the most profound thing about tonight’s lesson is that in it Jesus shows us how to love one another. Through service and through humility. Through not being bound by rank or station, but by serving each other, by being servant to one another. In the act of washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus shows us all how much God loves us. The God who sends his only-begotten Son to suffer and die on the cross for the salvation of the whole world, is also a God who empties himself to serve those whom he loves, and who shows us how to love each other.
