Maundy Thursday (John 13:1-17, 31-35)

Maundy Thursday (1^st April, 2010)

Text: John 13: 1-17, 31-35

 

Two years ago when I preached on Maundy Thursday, I talked about the meaning of the Eucharist.  Last year I spoke on the “New Commandments”.  Before I speak on another topic tonight I want to ask this hypothetical question.

Think for a while: What would you do if you knew you have 12 hours to live?  Would you want to be left alone so you can say your prayers?  Would you sit down and write some final thoughts?  Would you ask for your favourite dishes?  Or would you spend time with those you loved, and enjoy the last precious moments together? You answer is probably, “I never thought about that!”  

What did Jesus do 12 hours before he was to die on the cross?  In verse 1 it reads, “It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.”

Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and so he took off his cloak put a towel around His waist and washed the feet of His disciples.  Now, if you know that you are going to die very soon, I am sure you will try to do something that you think to be most important.  And washing somebody’s feet would be the last thing in your mind.  But why was Jesus washing the feet of his disciples?  Because it is important as far as Jesus is concerned. He thinks that it is important that disciples know how to humbly serve one another.  And that is the very nature of our God.

Part of our Epistle reading last Sunday, in Philippians 2: 3-8, this is what Paul says: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself..."

Why must Jesus humble himself?  It is because love in its fullness can only be effectively shown through humility.  You can show your love in a number of ways – through giving of gifts, through fellowships, through conversations, or through giving help.  But none of them can be compared to our humility before one another.   You see, God in his great might and glory needs not come down to this world and born as man.  He can do everything while staying up there in heaven because he is God.    But he made the choice to come down (to be humble), in order to demonstrate the full extent of His love for us.  So when Jesus took a basin of water and towel, stooped down to wash the disciples’ feet – he was showing to us that nothing indicates love more clearly than humble service to others.

And note that the Jesus washed the feet of all the disciples – including Judas, who had already made a decision to betray Jesus.  If it were you and I, we might think twice before doing it. Never mind washing the feet – even to shake hands of people we don’t like - we may find it difficult!  But Jesus made sure that even the one who would betray him would not be excluded form receiving the humble demonstration of his love.  That is a clear reminder to us: that we need to exercise responsibility and show humility, even to those who fail to reciprocate our love. Remember that Jesus washed the feet of Judas too.  He considered it a priority to serve others and to demonstrate love in humility.   

How was it possible for Jesus to show such humility before his disciples?  Jesus had no difficulty doing it because he knew who he was. Jesus has great confidence in His identity.  Read verses 3-5: “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. “

It takes an understanding of our identity to be able to humble ourselves.  We live in a world that tells us that we need to make ourselves look great in front of others, and that we need to exalt ourselves so that we shall be respected and feared.   Even we Christians believe in what the world is telling us, and ignore what Jesus had said – “that whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12)."  I know few Church leaders who quit in frustration, saying that they couldn’t understand it why they never received support and appreciation from people after the sacrifice they had made for the Church. They might have done many great things but they failed to win people’s hearts because of they didn’t know what it means to be humble.  

We have difficulty believing what Jesus said about humility because we don’t really understand our relationship with Jesus.   We think that if we dress up in coveralls, dig ditches and sweep floors, we shall lose respect of the people.  If we are good to our enemies, we think they will take advantage of us and step on our heads.  Indeed they may do it.  Judas still betrayed Jesus even though Jesus washed his feet.  But when he realized what he did, he was so remorseful that he committed suicide.  When you exercise humility over your enemies and your critics, they still can hurt you but they are powerless over you. 

I also can tell you that it is beneficial and even profitable to be humble.  An American billionaire, the late Dave Thomas who founded a successful hamburger chain, was asked why he so successful in his business.  He replied, “My MBA”.  He was not talking about a university degree because he never finished his high-school.  He was referring to “mop-and-bucket attitude”.  Even when he was already a billionaire, he would not hesitate to pick up the mop and clean the floor.  What else could his employees do other than to imitate the same humble attitude?  Mr. Thomas could have chosen other means to run his business: he could push his employees to work hard, and fire them for not performing to well, or he could use money and promotions as incentives; but he didn’t.  He decided to come down to the level of his employees, and when they saw it, they too responded by coming up to his level – and that created a successful multi-billion dollars business.  Mr. Thomas knew that working side by side with the janitors and waiters would not take away his true identity as a successful businessman.  In fact it earned him respect and admiration from his employees, customers and fellow businessmen.  And it helped to build up a simple hamburger shop into a multi-million dollar hamburger chain.

The third thing Jesus showed us by washing feet is our need to be served by Him.  Verses 6–9 tell us that when Jesus came to Simon Peter to wash his feet, Peter at first refused to allow it.  It looks like Peter was a humble man, but it was a false humility.  It was an embarrassment and not humility; for Peter knew that he should be the one to wash Jesus’ feet.   So Jesus made it clear to him: if Peter refused to be served by Jesus, then he could not have a relationship with him.  With that Peter had a change of heart. 

We too can have a false humility, and it often keeps us from understanding and receiving the grace of God. Many people reject Christianity because they find it hard to believe that God has come all the way from heaven down to earth to save humankind.  They think than man should be the one to take the initiative to come to God.  I call it false humility because it is in actual fact - pride.  People are offended by the idea because they want to be self sufficient; they want believe that it is their good works that enable them to go to heaven.  And it somehow offends them that the Son of God should have had to suffer and die for their sins.

So this story teaches us about true humility and about realizing that there are things in this world that we can never do or achieve on our own.  First, it teaches us that we need Jesus to help us.  Secondly, we need the body of Christ, meaning that we need one another to grow as members of the body. That is why we need to be humble before one another.    

One final thing that we can learn in Jesus’ foot washing is our need to be servants. Verses 12-17 say: 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. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

If Jesus, who is our Lord and teacher, found it necessary to serve, then it is even more necessary that we serve others.  In fact, to serve is what it means to lead. We cannot call ourselves followers of Christ and be leaders in his church, if we are not willing to serve in humble ways.  That doesn’t mean that we don’t have individual gifts and places of service.  The important thing is no matter where we are called to served, all of us should be willing to humble ourselves, to demonstrate our love for those we serve.

I have conducted services on Maundy Thursdays in the past where priests and members of the congregation actually washed each others’ feet.  Some people found it interesting, spiritually touching, and meaningful.  But not everybody got the message because some were laughing and making jokes out of it.  I won’t try it here because I don’t know how you will react to it. 

But foot washing is not really about literally washing someone’s feet.  It is about serving others at personal sacrifice.  It is to humble ourselves when we don’t have to. It may mean that some of us have to come to church early to prepare things for service.  It may be offering yourselves to do some little things in God’s Church.  It may be spending time to listen to someone who needs somebody to talk to, even though you don’t have time to listen.  It is about giving ourselves when we don’t have to.