Thursday 04/17/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “The biggest lesson of all”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Gospel Lesson: John 13:1-7, 31b-35
Brothers and sisters,
welcome again on this “Maundy” or “Holy Thursday,” of our “Holy Week.” Other
than “Maundy” or “Holy Thursday,” this day also has many other names. In some
Christian traditions, this day is known as “Holy Thursday,” or
“Covenant Thursday,” or
“Great and Holy Thursday,” or
“Sheer Thursday,” or “Thursday of Mysteries,” and of course “Maundy
Thursday.” The term “Maundy” comes from the Latin word “Mandatum,” and “Maundy” essentially means “Commandment,”
or “Mandate,” but has come to be connected with the “Washing of the Feet.”
This day then, has many meanings to
many different Christian traditions. Yet some non-believers might say, other
than Jesus celebrating a Jewish Passover Seder meal with his disciples, what
makes this day so holy? They might say, so Jesus broke bread and passed it, so
Jesus poured out wine and passed it, so he washed feet, and so them he told
them to “love another,” so what?
Yet within Christendom, there are over
two-billion of us who say that this day is in fact special. We say that the
events of this day are not common or ordinary. Instead, we say that the events
of this day are the continuation of the ushering in of the new kingdom of God
here on earth. For when Christ lifts the bread to the Father on this night,
blesses it, and then breaks it, he is ushering in a new kingdom, a new covenant.
For when Christ lifts the cup to the Father on this night, blesses it, and then
passes it to be drank by all, he is ushering in a new kingdom. For these reasons,
tonight we will celebrate “Holy Communion,” or the “Lord’s Supper,” or the “Eucharist.”
Part of what we do tonight then, goes far beyond just bread and juice, for at
the “Lord’s Table,” we find a spiritual and a powerful meal that fills the very
depths of our souls. Due to this, some Christian traditions as I said, refer to
this day as “Covenant Thursday,” because tonight with the bread and with the
wine, Jesus was telling his disciples that the old law is done, and that he is
now the new covenant. Jesus was saying that if you still want to try to keep
all of the laws of the Old Testament that you can do that, but all you need now
for salvation, for eternity, is to simply have faith in me, he said. That I am the
new agreement with God, that I am the new covenant, he said. For these reasons,
tonight we will gather at the “Lord’s Table,” as he told us to do.
On this night, when Jesus lifted the
bread and then the wine and prayed to the Father, he indirectly was saying as
Psalm 116 from tonight says, “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice
and my supplications.” The Psalm reading continues on saying, “I will lift up
the cup of salvation and will call on the name of the LORD,” and Jesus Christ
lifted the cup and called upon the Father to bless it. The Psalm then says, “I
will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the LORD,” as
Jesus will soon be the pure and spotless lamb that will die for us all.
You see my brothers and sisters, in
Jesus knowing on this day what pains would befall him tomorrow, he instituted
on this night the Sacrament or gift from God, of “Holy Communion.” This gift
from God, is a means of God’s grace, and is a Holy Mystery of our faith, that
Jesus invites us all to partake of.
When we look at the Apostle Paul’s
first Epistle or letter to the Church in Corinth, or the Corinthians from
tonight, the Apostle Paul speaks to the church about “Holy Communion,” or the “Lord’s
Supper,” or the “Eucharist.” The word “Eucharist” by the way, is originally
from the Greek, and it simply means “Thanksgiving.”
So the Apostle Paul tells the church
in Corinth, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that
the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had
given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this
in remembrance of me.” The Apostle Paul then goes on and says, “In the same way
he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my
blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” The Apostle
Paul lastly says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
So on this night, Jesus Christ gives us the Sacrament of “Holy
Communion,” or the “Lord’s Supper,” or the “Eucharist,” even though Judas
Iscariot will betray Jesus for thirty-pieces of silver, which by the way was
roughly the cost of buying a slave in Jerusalem at the time. Further, the
prophet Zechariah, the one prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem on
a donkey to shouts of Hosanna said in, 11:12-13 of his book in the Old Testament, “I
said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they
weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it
to the potter,
that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the
thirty shekels of silver and threw
them to the potter in the house of the Lord.” Yet another Old Testament prophesy fulfilled through Jesus
Christ.
After this Passover Seder meal, this “Last
Supper” was over, the gospel reading from John this evening says that, “Now
before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to
depart from this world and go to the Father.” The gospel than says, “Having
loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” You see my
brothers and sisters, “The biggest lesson of all” that Jesus Christ gives us
tonight, is that of love. To “love one another.”
Yet before he gives this commandment
formally, Jesus gets up from the dinner table, he goes and pours “water in a
basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel” that
he had just tied around himself. Peter of course being Peter, objected to the
Lord doing this, yet Jesus told him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no share
with me.” Peter once again being Peter, then said, “Lord, not my feet only but also
my hands and my head!” I can imagine in my mind Jesus just smirking at Peter,
as he said, “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. For he knew who
was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
When Jesus finished washing the feet
of the disciples, he the put his robe back on, and returned to the table with
the disciples. He then asked them, “Do you know what I have done to you?” Then
the Lord said, “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 another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also
should do as I have done to you.” Then Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, servants
are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who
sent them.” Jesus then said, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you
do them…”
This my brothers and sisters, is why
many Christian Churches on this day wash feet. This is why I on this night will
wash your feet or your hands if you’re more comfortable with that. I do this,
because no pastor or person according to Jesus Christ is any greater than any other
person. So this is what the “Maundy” or the “Washing of the feet” of “Maundy
Thursday” is all about, being a humble servant before the Lord.
So while some churches embrace this
ordinance or rite from Jesus Christ, most do not consider “Maundy” or the “Washing
of the feet” to be a Sacrament like that of Holy Communion or Holy Baptism. The
reason for this, is that most Christian Churches see the “Washing of feet” as an
authoritative example or command that Jesus Christ showed us, but not that is
required of us, like Holy Communion and Holy Baptism. Yet, if Christ taught
this to us on this night, then I want to do it, as Jesus taught it to us.
After giving us the new covenant of “Holy
Communion,” and after the “Maundy” or the “Washing of the feet” of the
disciples, Jesus is about to give the disciples one last command or lesson of
the night. To me, this lesson is “The biggest lesson of all” on this night.
Jesus first says though, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has
been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify
him in himself and will glorify him at once.” Then Jesus tells the disciples, “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.’
After all of this, Jesus gives then
gives the gift of this new command or lesson, this “The biggest lesson of all.”
Jesus Christ then says to them, “I give you a new commandment, 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
another.” Notice there as well, how Jesus said to the disciples, “everyone will
know,” which means not just some, not just certain kinds of people, but all
people. Jesus wants all people to be loved, and to realize they are fearfully
and wonderfully made creations of God. That the totality of this night, boils
down to “The biggest lesson of all,” Jesus says, believe in me, and love each
other. Don’t fight over trivial and little things, but instead Jesus says,
believe in me, and love all people, without question, and without regard to who
or what those people are.
For on this night, the Lord gives us “Holy
Communion,” or the “Lord’s Supper,” or the “Eucharist,” the Lord gives us the ordinance
or rite of “Maundy” or the “Washing of the feet,” and in his “biggest lesson of
all,” he commands us all to “love one another.”
You see when the Lord goes to the garden
of Gethsemane later on this same night, he will go toe to toe will all of the
forces of evil, he will sweat blood, he will then ask God in heaven to “take
this cup” of suffering from him. Tomorrow brothers and sisters, he goes to Calvary,
he goes to display this “biggest lesson of all,” that Jesus will himself would say
in John 15:13 “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for
one’s friends.”
Given all of this, I saw a Facebook posting
from one of my seminary brothers and colleagues recently that said, “If your
theology doesn’t lead you to love people more, you should question your
theology.” Brothers and sisters, everything that Jesus Christ did on this
night, started and ended with love. This is our Maundy/Holy Thursday. Amen.
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