Holy/Maundy
Thursday 03/29/18 Freeville UMC
Sermon Title: “God’s eternal plan in Jesus Christ”
Old Testament
Scripture: Exodus 12:1-14
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Gospel Lesson:
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
My friends, my sisters and brothers in Christ, welcome
again on this our Holy or Maundy Thursday, of this our Holy Week. This Holy
Week began this past Sunday on our Palm or Passion Sunday. We heard the story
of Jesus our Lord entering triumphantly into the Holy city of Jerusalem, Zion,
to the shouts of “Hosanna”! So many of us know that story well, as many of us
also know the whole story of this our Holy week well.
As this week has unfolded, Christ has continued to love,
heal, and forgive, as well as to teach and proclaim the Kingdom of God here on
earth. Yet, as he said in all four of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, his mission on earth is coming to an end soon. Jesus tells the disciples
and us, that he is soon to suffer and die for us, and three days later will be
raised to new life.
To me, Holy Week in all of its events and emotions are like
a grand symphony that is beautifully playing out, as the story of the Christ on
earth inches ever closer to the cross.
On this night though, we have a big dinner. Sometimes when
someone has been with us, whether visiting or living with us, we might end the
living arrangement or the visit with a great meal. For some of us, we can
remember maybe going out to a dinner after a graduation, getting a new job, on
a birthday, or something else. This idea of sitting down and spending some time
sharing a meal and some fellowship together is something that we still very
much do in our culture.
This hospitality, this love, and this caring, is played out
in the events of this our Holy or Maundy Thursday. On this night, the night
before Christ is tried, suffers, is crucified, and dies for us, he has a last
meal with his friends. Even though they have no doubt broken bread many times together
before this, this is an extra special meal. This Last Supper has been portrayed
in many works of art, the most famous of which is no doubt the painting by
Leonardo Da Vinci. This meal also occurred on the Jewish Passover. The Jewish
Passover was a festival or holiday that commemorated the Jews surviving death
in Egypt, and then fleeing slavery in Egypt.
In our book of Exodus reading for this evening, we have the
very first Passover, where God told Moses to have the Jewish people slaughter a
lamb without blemish (Ex. 12:1-5, NRSV). The Book of Exodus says:
“Then they are to take some of the
blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses
where they eat the lambs.
That same night they are to eat the meat
roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made
without yeast” (Ex. 12:7-8, NRSV).
The story then
ends with the angel of death passing over the houses of the Jews that had the
blood of lamb on them, thereby preserving the life of each firstborn child (Ex.
12:12-14, NRSV).
Many Jews and
many Christians still celebrate this holiday every year. If you have ever been
to a Passover Seder, this is exactly what this first Passover was. Essentially
then, the Last Supper that Christ shares tonight with the disciples is a Jewish
Passover Seder. Yet, this specific supper is different.
In the Jewish
faith, Jews believe that on that first Passover they were saved by the blood of
a pure and spotless lamb, and they then ate that lamb as part of a Seder
dinner.
In the gospel
of John 1:29, John the Baptist sees Jesus walking towards him and shouts:
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
(Jn.
1:29, NRSV)
Do
you see the connection with the sacrificed lambs and their blood that saved the
Jews on that first Passover in Egypt, and with Jesus being the Lamb of God?
This means that while the blood of pure and spotless lambs saved the Jews in
Egypt from losing their first born on the night of the Passover, Jesus is the New
Passover. Jesus won’t just save us from death for just one night, but instead
Jesus will save us from death eternally. His blood won’t cover our doorways,
but instead it will cover our hearts and our souls. Jesus, the “Paschal Lamb,”
is the New Passover. Jesus is the Lamb of God that will save us all.
It is interesting then, that on this night Jesus does a “one-eighty”
with the Passover Seder. Judas was also already planning to betray him, as they
sat in that Upper Room, left soon after the meal. Instead of just celebrating
the Seder like the Jews had for hundreds of years, on this night Jesus does
something different with the bread and the wine. The Apostle Paul highlights
this in our reading for tonight from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The Apostle Paul
says:
“For I received from the
Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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.”
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.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death until he comes”
(1
Cor. 11:23-26, NRSV).
On this night, Jesus gives us the gift of the sacrament of
Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. In this gift, Jesus offers the bread and
the cup as his body and his blood. The parallel between the first Passover in
Egypt with the blood of a pure and spotless lamb saving life and then eating
the lamb, is exactly what we have happening in this the Last Supper, or first Holy
Communion.
I not only believe then that this was “God’s eternal plan
in Jesus Christ,” as my sermon title says, but it was also God’s plan to save
the Jews and lead them out of slavery in Egypt hundreds of years earlier.
As I said, Holy Week to me is like a beautiful symphony,
where thousands of years of prophecy and the promises of God are coalescing,
and as they do, if we look closely, we can see “God’s eternal plan in Jesus
Christ” playing out.
So Jesus and his disciples have the Last Supper, there last
meal and Seder dinner together. There was certainly more there than just bread
and juice on the table, but since these are the elements that Jesus focused on,
we have Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper with the bread and the juice.
All of this is why this day, this night is called “Holy
Thursday”. Many Protestant churches however, call this day “Maundy Thursday”
though. Why do we call this day “Maundy Thursday,” instead of Holy “Thursday”?
The answer is this, in tonight’s gospel of John reading, it says in John
13:34-35:
“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 one another” (Jn. 13:34-35,
NRSV).
This “Mandate”
or “Maundy,” or “Mandatum” in Latin is why we call this day “Maundy Thursday”.
We are focusing the new commandment or the mandate to love one another.
Before Jesus
gives us this new commandment, this mandate, or this “Maundy,” Jesus first does
something extraordinary. Jesus gets up from the dinner table, the Passover Seder
table, and takes off his outer robe (Jn. 13:4, NRSV). Jesus then takes water
and pours it into a basin, ties a towel around his waist, and then he began to
wash the disciple’s feet. Peter of course wanted no part of this, but Jesus
convinces him otherwise (Jn. 13:5-11, NRSV).
It is
important to remember that this was an era of time that most people wore
sandals, as in the dessert there feet would get dirty, sandy, and rather
disgusting sometimes. It was the lowest task to wash someone’s feet, and yet
Jesus humbly does this on this night. The washing of the feet is not a sacrament,
but it is more of an ordinance, a ritual, or a rite. It is something that Jesus
taught us. I remember the first time that I saw Pope Francis washing and even
kissing the feet that he washed on Holy Thursday, it was moving to me, and
people crying that were getting washed.
When Jesus was
done with foot washing, he said:
“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. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (Jn. 13:13-17, NRSV).
Jesus Christ
our Lord, the living God, the New Passover, the Lamb of God, gets down and
washes the dirty feet of his disciples.
As I said, I
believe that everything in this Holy Week is a beautiful symphony of God that
is playing out. I believe that this was and is “God’s eternal plan in Jesus
Christ”. I believe that before time itself God and Jesus coexisted, and that God
planned to teach and redeem humanity through his son Jesus Christ. This is what
this Holy Week is all about.
So on this Holy or Maundy Thursday, we have three key
things that happened which we will celebrate tonight. First, Jesus gives us the
sacrament of Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Second, Jesus gives us the
gift of the ordinance, ritual, or rite of foot washing. Lastly, when this
service comes to end we have the chance offer each other the Maundy, or the
mandate to love each other. So these are the three things then, communion, the
washing, and the Maundy.
Tomorrow we will have Good Friday, which will be much more
sad and brutal. On this night though, we have the continuance of this beautiful
symphony of God that is playing out, which is “God’s eternal plan in Jesus
Christ”. Blessings to you and yours on this Holy/Maundy Thursday. Amen.
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