Mandatum (Maundy Thursday sermon)

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “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.” ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” ¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. ³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little 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.’ ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:1-17; 31-35

In 2007, Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who at age 47 still had so much life to live and so much love to experience, received the awful diagnosis of pancreatic cancer; he was told that he only had 6 months left to spend with his family and friends, with his students and community. He decided to spend his remaining time being with his kids who were way too young to lose their dad, but he did something else. But, facing his own mortality, he also did something else—he taught. In his professor way, teaching until the end, he wrote a final lecture, sharing the most important things in life, the most important things to remember when all else is stripped away, when all pretenses are gone, when the most important things in life seem to make their way to the top.

In his lecture, Randy wrote these words:

I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there's no other way to play. Show gratitude. Don’t complain, just wok harder. Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Work hard. Find the best in everybody. … you might have to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.”

What beautiful words to leave for us all as he was facing death—deep to think about, but not deep enough to get us confused and cause us to quit thinking; beautiful in their simplicity and ease of understanding.

And this is where we find ourselves this evening, standing in the shadow of death, worshiping and sharing a meal together, experiencing and remembering Christ’s last day on earth, hearing some of his final words to the disciples, to all of us. The time of crucifixion is very near, the reality of what is coming very real. The disciples and friends gathered there, all of us gathered here, want to hear more from Christ, to take it all in, to make sure we haven’t missed anything before he leaves us. We have sung the words to Jesus, asking for his help in understanding one more time: “Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love, show us how to serve, the neighbors we have from you.”

Jesus knows that the hour has come, that his time is coming to an end. And he leaves his disciples and friends and all of us with the most important message of all: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” When his life is coming to and end, when all other hopes and airs, presumptions and pretenses are stripped away, when Jesus and all of us are faced with his mortality, Jesus leaves us with the message of love. And, in case we are too dense to truly understand it, Jesus shows us how to love in the simplest way.

Jesus shares a final, simple meal with his friends. He eats with all of those gathered, with those who have left their lives and livelihoods to follow him, with the ones who will fall asleep on him in the garden and leave him at this death, those who will stay under the cross, shares a meal with the one who will repeatedly deny him, even with the one who has already betrayed him. Jesus invites all of them to the table, opens it to them regardless of who they are or what they have done. He doesn’t turn anyone away, and shares the gift of food with them. This simple act tells those gathered there, tells all of us, that love is about invitation. It is about welcome. That love is about the very hard stuff that comes with forgiveness. That is how you love.

After the meal has been shared, Jesus rises from the table, wraps a towel around himself, and pours water in a basin. He kneels at the disciples’ dirty, tired, and worn feet, taking them in his hands, massaging them clean and washing them dry. These actions are normally reserved for the lowliest of the low slaves among them, actions designed to remind the slaves of their station in lives, reminding them that they are subservient and always will be. In taking on that role himself, Jesus turns the table and shows love to all of them by touching them and their hurt places, by washing them clean, reminding them that we should all serve each other—that love means turning the most menial tasks into acts of love for each other. Through this amazing act, he also reminds them that no one is any better or any greater than any other: “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…” He reminds them and us once again that no one is greater or better than any other, that we are called to treat everyone equally, to love them that way. That is how you love.

And in case we haven’t gotten it already, Jesus loves us enough to leave us with a new commandment, to make his last words absolutely clear to those gathered around the table, to all of us: “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.” In case there was any debate left on the issue, any debate on what Jesus said or didn’t say, Jesus makes it clear—that disciples, that Christians, that all of us are truly known by how we love. Love means sharing meals with those who have never hurt us and those who have. Love means washing each others’ feet and offering waters of forgiveness. Love means getting rid of the terms “servant” and “master,” seeing and treating each person equally. Love means living by Christ’s new commandment through each and every breath of our lives.

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love, show us how to serve, the neighbors we have from you.