The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 13th Chapter
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. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus 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.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After 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? 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.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little 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.’ 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.”
Most people like a really good story and whether you know it or not, you’ve just entered into the first part on an AMAZING one! Today we hear the introduction... the set up... tomorrow, Good Friday is the main, cruel, plot twist and then on Sunday morning we’ll hear the stunning, exciting, unexpected conclusion! These three days together are ONE worship service, divided into three parts. The ancient church did it that way on purpose... both to allow us to follow Jesus through each of these days, but also to allow us the time we need for the enormity of each piece of the story to really sink in. It’s like an intense novel that you simply have to put down, for just a little while, so that you can catch your breath.
This three day story is high drama for sure, but at it’s core it’s really a love story. It is the story of our God and our God’s love... our God’s PASSION... for us and all of creation. It’s not the story of an angry or violent God who demands satisfaction. It’s the story that proclaims the lengths God is willing to go to insure we understand the depth of God’s love, because in that love, God knows that we will have LIFE! It is a story meant to inspire us to take that love and reflect it with every molecule of our being out into the world.
Tonight we hear the story of Jesus passing on to his disciples exactly what that love is all about. It’s not that Jesus had kept that a secret over the last three years of ministry, by any means. Literally everything that Jesus did, showed the kind of love that God was about. It was the same love that Jesus talked about and acted out every single day. That night, Jesus simply took all of the parables, all of the healings, all of the feedings, dinners and miracles and bound them up into a powerful package and gave them to us as a gift. “Love one another as I have first loved you.”
THAT is our one, overarching, Christian Value; that we love one another as Jesus first loved us. This commandment is THE commandment that we are to live by. It is the commandment that informs and interprets all other commandments from cover to cover. Love one another as I have first loved you. There is a lot of talk in our world about Christian values and religious freedom, but unlike the talk that so often leads to hate, exclusion and discrimination, this commandment comes from Christ himself, and it is a commandment for us to LOVE.
God’s love... Jesus’s love... is a specific sort of love too. It is not at all sentimental. It is a love that by it’s nature, changes everything it touches! It is a love that starts small like a mustard seed and grows into a tree that has room for every bird! It is a love like a hidden treasure, worth selling all you have to buy the land in which that treasure is buried. It is a love that never asks for selfish protections or personal comforts, but offers every ounce of our being in sacrificial service to the other. It is a love that demands care for the least, the lost and the last in our society and around the world. It is a love which is about making sure the hungry are fed, because when the 5000 needed to eat, Jesus told his disciples, “YOU FEED THEM!” never asking for the disciples to check if they were worthy, employed or addicted. Jesus said, “YOU FEED THEM” because being a disciple means reflecting his love and that unquestioning inclusion and care is the way Jesus first loved us... WITH NO QUESTIONS ASKED! This love is about making sure the old and weak are cared for, the outcasts are brought back into the community, the vulnerable defended and the sick find healing because THAT is the way Jesus first loved us. This love is about giving water in the desert, giving sight to the blind and giving life to the dead. THIS love is about changing the world!
You simply can’t love like Jesus loved and turn your back on the weak, powerless and poor. You simply can’t love like Jesus loved and only worry about the afterlife. You can’t love like Jesus loved and turn away from the places where the politics of power, pain, hurt, prejudice, discrimination and death live, because Jesus never turned away from those places... Jesus never backed away from them. Jesus paraded right into them on Palm Sunday and if we are going to be his disciples, THAT is the kind of love-in-action we are called to reflect to the world. Jesus loved you and me and every single molecule of creation, head on, no holds barred and literally to death... THAT is the kind of love we are called to reflect to the world.
That is the kind of love that God loves you with. We are reminded of that every time we come to this table and eat the bread and drink the wine. We are reminded that Jesus’s love is a radically inclusive love... Jesus ate with EVERYONE. This meal reminds us too of the first Passover, and in that, we are reminded that God’s love is about freeing those in bondage and providing food for the journey and this meal reminds us as disciples, that when we reflect God’s love and work to transform our world into the Kingdom of God, the world may very well look to do us harm, even to the point where they try to violently separate blood from body.
Love is at the core of this whole story and tonight we get a glimpse again of how deep that love really is. That command, to love one another as Jesus first loved you, is not an easy command to follow. It is not a command that we can faithfully follow only in words, or only within these walls. For disciples, this command compels each of us to transform ourselves and our world into the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, and we are to do that with Christ’s love, regardless of the cost. This story reminds us that it will cost us everything. Amen.
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