"He Loved Them to the End"

Maundy Thursday: April 5, 2012

Gospel Reading John 13:1-17, 31b-35

       1Now 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.”

Sermon

My Nana was not much of a cook.  Veg-All made a regular appearance on her table and a bowl of cereal constituted dinner most nights.  We always had to stand guard over the coffee pot when it was time to make a new one, because she had a tendency to just brew a second pot with the same grounds as the first. 

But there were two things my Nana loved to cook: 'nana pudding and chocolate chip cookies.  My sister's favorite was the 'nana pudding, mine were the Nestle Toll House cookies.  They were a little burned on the bottom, but I didn't mind.  She always had a jar full of them when I visited.  When she got to where she wasn't able to make them anymore, she had someone else do it for her.  Nana had this sing-songy way of saying she loved you, with the same tone of voice she'd used when we were toddlers: “I luuuv ya!”  I never doubted that she loved me.  But I never believed it more than when I was munching on one of those extra-crispy Nestle Toll House cookies.

And so when my Nana was in the hospital nearing the end of her life, we gathered there with a little loaf of bread and a small bottle of Welch's grape juice.  I read Psalm 139 to her:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.  Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.  How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them.  I try to count them – they are more than the sand.  I come to the end – I am still with you.

I told her about how Jesus gathered with his friends on his last night on earth and took bread, blessed and broke it, saying, “This is my body, broken for you.”  I told her about how Jesus took a cup and poured wine in it, saying, “This is the cup of the new covenant, sealed in my blood.  Drink of it for the forgiveness of sins.”  Then we prayed, and I soaked some of the bread in the juice because she was having trouble swallowing.  And I, who had been so loved through chocolate chip cookies for my whole life, fed my Nana.  The next day, she left this life for eternal life. 

I'm still fond of burnt chocolate chip cookies.

On his last night on earth, Jesus did not drill his disciples on theology to be sure they had it all right.  He did not give them weapons and teach them how to defend themselves against those who were already plotting to persecute them.  He did not give them a grand flowery speech like a half-time coach trying to keep their team motivated while it's clear things are not going their way. 

He took bread, and broke it, and fed them.  He then showed his love for them even more in kneeling on the ground and, like a servant, washing their filthy feet, revealing the glory of God in the most mundane of actions.  The disciples knew Jesus loved them, but there could be no doubt about that love when he washed and fed the one who would betray him.  And then he gave them a new commandment – a maundatum – which we remember this Maundy Thursday. 

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.

When it is your last night on this earth, very little matters.  Ancient grudges, life's worries and hardships, revenge and anger: these don't matter.  All that remains on that last night is love.  Love in food lovingly prepared, in humble service, in forgiveness even before guilt is admitted.  Love nailed to the cross that could not defeat it.  Love is the only thing we take with us into eternal life, and it's the only thing worth carrying around in this life.

Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.  How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them.  I try to count them – they are more than the sand.  I come to the end – I am still with you.

Having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them...to the end. 

At this Table, we remember the Love that spent final hours on earth serving.  We remember the Love shown in being nourished: whether by burned chocolate chip cookies or by this bread and this cup.  We remember that Christ has commanded us to spend each day as if it were our last, knowing that if we love, it is not wasted.  Thanks be to the God who loves us even when we don't deserve it, who washes away our guilt with the waters of grace and who fills us with courage in the face of fear and death, to love as we have been loved.  Amen.