Date : Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010

Text : John 13:1-15

Title : Love, in remembrance of Jesus

This day, which we call Maundy Thursday, was named this because of the mandate that Jesus gave to His disciples at the Last Supper. The word Maundy comes from the word mandate, which is a direction or a command.

I always thought the mandate of Jesus at the Last Supper was in His words of instituting the Sacrament of Holy Communion. After consecrating the bread and wine, Jesus directed us to eat and drink in remembrance of Him. And, since Maundy Thursday is all about Christ’s Last Supper before His trial and crucifixion, it makes sense that He would be mandating us to remember that His Communion directly feeds us upon the same body and blood that He gave up in death so that we could have His eternal life abiding in us.

But, "Do this in remembrance of me," is not the mandate for which Maundy Thursday is named. At this Last Supper, which Jesus made into the Lord’s Supper, He got down onto His hands and knees and washed His disciples’ feet.

The Lord Jesus knows our sinful human nature. He knows that it is the Holy Spirit who creates faith in us because, without the Holy Spirit’s work, we are dead in our sins and enemies of God. Thus, the fact that we are able to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, eternal life, and salvation—this might sound odd—but, believing in Jesus is the easier of the two vital components of being a Christian.

Being a Christian means that two things will be at work in the believer. First, you believe. This is what the first three of the Ten Commandments is all about: having no other gods, keeping God’s name holy, and worshiping Him.

You might want to argue, but this part can be carried out, quite easily—at least when you look at it from the surface. It’s a piece of cake to come to church. Very little is demanded of you. You leave home. You give up an hour or so. You try not to fall asleep.

You don’t have to talk to anyone. You can walk into church, by yourself. You can greet folks if you want, or you can simply go to your pew. You can sing or just sit there. After the hour is up, you get to go back home. Your worship can be as stimulating or as simple as you want it to be. Either way, you don’t have to break a sweat.

Of course, to believe in the Lord and to keep the first three Commandments the way that God has designed them takes a lot more effort, but here’s the thing: God doesn’t need your effort. God is just fine and dandy no matter how many people worship Him, or how seriously you worship Him, or however much you might misuse His name and Bible. Your faith doesn’t affect God—you can’t hurt Him and you can’t help Him.

Here’s come the second vital component to being a Christian—the part where you can be a hurt or a help. It’s the second half of the Ten Commandments, numbers four through ten. Here are the ones that you had better not sleepwalk through, or else your Christian faith will be called into question.

Honoring your father and mother and all in authority, refraining from murder and adultery and stealing, minding your mouth from lying, slandering, and gossiping, and your heart from coveting, this is where you really show your faith, and where you have to break a sweat.

This is the challenging part of being a true believer in Jesus Christ. In your worship, you can pay lip service to God and trick the rest of us but, in the rest of your life, you can’t fool your family and friends and coworkers. This is where your faith meets your life.

Knowing this, Jesus left you a mandate. He got down onto His hands and knees and washed His disciples’ feet. "When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me "Teacher" and "Lord," and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.’"

Here is Jesus, who is God in the flesh and, in all of His days on earth, He never acted like a big shot. He never demanded anything from anyone. He didn’t spend His time criticizing people because He didn’t have anything better to do.

He didn’t make a point of pointing out people’s flaws. He didn’t expect everyone to wait on Him, hand and foot. He never showed off just to impress people. He didn’t toot His own horn. He wasn’t in it for the money.

He never had the attitude that it was His life and He could live it however He pleased. His concern was always for His friends, for the good of others, to be a help and not a roadblock.

He didn’t only care about His family and friends. Everyone was His family and friend. Most of the people, for whom He performed miracles, were strangers.

Jesus was the perfect man. He only and always practiced the Golden Rule. He showed that He loved His Father with all His heart and soul and mind by loving His neighbor as He loved Himself.

Now, if you dare to call yourself a follower of Him—one who believes in Him so that you possess the gifts of His forgiveness, life, and salvation—He has a mandate for you: behave yourself, mind your manners, watch your mouth, and be content with what you have.

When others need you to wash their feet, don’t you dare grumble—wash them. In other words, when your wife needs you to do this or that, do this or that because you are a follower of Jesus and His love flows through your veins.

When your parents ask you to do this, or mind your that, or watch your so-and-so, you do it because you love your parents and desire to show that you love Jesus.

When some stranger gives you an opening to make a wisecrack about him, or flaunts his life or money or possessions, you will mind your mouth and let it go because you know that Jesus also died for that person, and Jesus loves Him as much as He loves you, which means that you also love that person, even though you don’t know him.

Obeying Jesus’ mandate to do for others as He has done for you means that you will break a sweat. You will break a sweat for the good of others, no matter what it means for your life. Your life comes second. Everyone else’s life comes first.

Of course, the beauty of this selfishness-defying mandate of the Lord is that, when everyone treats others the way he wants to be treated, everyone enjoys a dandy life. No one goes without. Everyone helps each other. Love really happens.

That’s the Maundy of this Thursday. And, so that you have real spiritual strength to love each other as Jesus loves you, He gave the Communion of His body and blood—the meal in which He strengthens you for holy living. He refreshes the baptismal washing that you received when He made you His own. He speaks His Word of love through the proclamation of the Gospel: the good news that He laid down His life for you, His friends, so that you could take up your life, for eternal life.

In the mean time, you have the privilege of showing the world that you belong to Him, by doing for each other what He has done for you. Amen.