Dead Ends

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.”

This was NOT going the way the disciples had hoped it would go.  They all may have had different ideas about how they DID want it to go from here, but THIS was not one of them.  This was also not going the way Jesus wanted it to go.  In this story it looks like Jesus is calm, cool and collected but elsewhere you get the sense that this was not Jesus’s first choice either.  They could all read the writing on the wall for how things were going to go in the short term, but no one gathered that night could really wrap their minds around what would happen next.  You and I have spent our whole lives peeking ahead in this story.  You and I know that Easter is coming but the disciples simply couldn’t see past Jesus’s unavoidable, impending, horrible death.  

So what do you do when you can’t see past the thing that looks like the end?  How do you live and act and work, when the world refuses to go the only way you can see it possibly working?  The temptation might be to seek revenge or at least find someone to blame and someone to point your finger at.  The temptation might be to just give up… to just throw up your hands and say “I’ve given it my all!  I’m done!”  

Jesus knew that’s where the disciples would be tempted to go after his death, so he gave them a way through the seemingly impossibly blocked and broken future.  Don’t give up.  Don’t seek revenge.  Don’t find someone to blame or point fingers or refuse to get out of bed in the morning.  Instead… Love one another.  It wasn't just a suggestion either.  This was Jesus’s final command.  Love one another.  When the road ahead is impossibly blocked, love one another.  When things are completely going wrong, love one another.  When every calculation, timetable and plan, says this is impossible… love one another.  

Tomorrow we will hear the story of our God’s PASSION.  It’s not the story of an angry or violent God who demands satisfaction, revenge or someone to blame.  It’s a story that proclaims the depth of God’s love, and shows us that in love, God will bring the world to ABUNDANT LIFE no matter how impossible the road ahead might appear.  Tonight, Jesus commanded them to share that love with the world.  Not just in the good times, but ESPECIALLY in the impossible times, Jesus told them to react to the impossible by loving one another.  

The power of love was not a new revelation Jesus was sharing that first Maundy Thursday evening.  Jesus had shared the power of God’s love in parables, healings, feedings, dinners and miracles throughout his ministry.  Tonight he just bound them all up into one powerful package, and told them, “Love one another.  As I have first loved you, love one another.”  

Love is the way through the seemingly impossible road that lies ahead.  In every aspect of our lives… at home, at work, at church, in our city, in our country and throughout the world… LOVE has the power to break through and transform every dead end and turn it into a path toward ABUNDANT LIFE.  

God’s love is that powerful.  It is a love that by it’s nature, changes everything it touches!  This love makes a way for the weak, the powerless and the poor to find life.  This love dives into places filled with pain and hurt, prejudice and hatred and brings compassion, care, understanding and inclusion.  This love embraces you and me and every single molecule of creation, head on, no holds barred and literally to death... THAT is the kind of love that changes the world.  THAT is the kind of love we are called to reflect to the world.   

And THAT is the love we receive at this table when we eat the bread and drink the wine.  It reminds us that Jesus ate with EVERYONE and calls us to do the same.  It reminds us of the first Passover, and the love of God that freed those in bondage, fed them along the way and brought them to the promised land and it reminds us that even when the world seeks to separate blood from body, God’s love has the power to transform even that into life. 

Tonight, Jesus gave us his bequest and LOVE was the Divinely powerful tool Jesus gave to the disciples that evening… a tool so powerful it can break through every wall the world might try to build… a tool so powerful it can free captives, feed the hungry, heal the broken, welcome the stranger and transform death into life.   You and I have been given this tool so that it might transform us, our church, our city and our world into the Kingdom of God.  Love has THAT power.  May we love one another as Jesus first loved us. Amen.