Love and De Feet

John 13:1–17, 31b–35

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.”

Tonight, whether you know it or not, you have entered into the first episode of a Trilogy greater than The Original Star Wars movies, The Lord of the Rings, and The Godfather series... COMBINED!  The first episode of our Trilogy is called “Maundy Thursday.”  It’s the opening… where the characters and the conflict are introduced.  In tomorrow’s episode, called Good Friday, we encounter the cruel plot twist which results in a seemingly inescapable horror as everything that could go wrong, goes completely wrong.  Then on Saturday, in the final episode, called the Great Easter Vigil, we pick up the story in its darkest depths and witness the impossible, yet world changing conclusion!  

Because the ancient church didn’t have George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Francis Ford Coppola, or film for that matter, they shared this epic Trilogy in worship, rather than on film.  ONE incredible story… ONE incredible worship service… told every year for over 2000 years, and always told in these three parts over the course of three days.  Each piece… so emotionally packed, it had to be told over three days so that each part had a chance to fully sink in before moving onto the next.  It was, and still is, too enormous, too overwhelming, too life changing to fully absorb in just one sitting.  

And while this trilogy does contain incredible, edge of your seat drama, action, and horror… it really is, at its core, a love story.  It is the story of Christ’s PASSION.  Now, Christ’s Passion is NOT, as you may have heard, Christ's betrayal, blood, suffering and death, dealt out by a violent God demanding satisfaction.  No!  All of that is what the world tried to throw in the way to STOP Christ’s Passion!  What Christ was and is most passionate about is sharing God’s love with us so that we might truly embrace it, wrap ourselves fully in it, and in so doing experience the Abundant Life in which God created us to live.  And then, having been changed by that love ourselves, we'd pass it on to the broken world ourselves!

In tonight’s opening episode Jesus gives us the Cliff Notes version of his passion.  “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  Now, if you know any of the Jesus prequel episodes, this Cliff Note's version shouldn’t be a surprise.  Literally everything Jesus said and did up to this point illustrated that love.  But in this opening night of the Trilogy Jesus takes all of the parables, all of the healings, all of the feedings, dinners, and miracles and binds them up into one, small, world changing, easy to carry package and gives it to us as a gift.  “Love one another as I have first loved you.”  People still, to this day try, to distort that gift.  Twisting it with hate, exclusion, discrimination and oppression… but none of that is what Jesus is about.  Jesus is about “LOVE one another, as I have first loved you!” 

Love, not hate.  Inclusion, not exclusion.  Freedom, not oppression.  And this Jesus Way of love is special.  It starts small like a mustard seed and grows into a tree with room for every bird!  It’s a love like a hidden treasure, worth selling all you have to buy the land in which that treasure is buried.  It’s a love that offers itself… every ounce of itself… in sacrificial service to the other.  It’s a love that makes sure the hungry are fed, just because they are hungry!  No questions asked!  Jesus’ love is about giving water in the desert, giving sight to the blind, and giving life to the dead.  Jesus’ love is about nothing less than changing the whole world from what it is, into what God created it to be.  That is the love to which we are called tonight.  

So we simply can’t love like Jesus and turn our backs on the weak, powerless and poor.  We simply can’t love like Jesus loved and only worry about the afterlife.  We simply can’t love like Jesus loved and turn away from the places where the politics of power, pain, hurt, prejudice, discrimination and death seem all powerful, because Jesus never turned away from those kinds of places... in fact, Jesus paraded right into the heart of them!  Jesus loved you and me and every single molecule of creation, head on, no holds barred, and literally to death... and in this first part of the Trilogy, we are all reminded, in that short little phrase, "Love one another as I have loved you," that if we are going to be disciples of Jesus, then THAT is the way WE TOO are called to love the world.   

We will see that kind of love tonight at God’s table.  We will practice that kind of love tonight as we wash one another’s feet.  The world in Jesus’ day was obsessed with violently separating blood from body and sadly our world is not much different.  But then as now,  Jesus calls us out of that way to live a different WAY.  The way of love.  That Way… the Jesus way… the way of love… THAT is our calling as disciples for these three days and for every day of our lives but as we will see in tomorrow's episode, that kind of discipleship is not without cost.  

Tonight, we live in the love that is Christ’s Passion.  Tonight we practice that love on each other, loving one another as Christ first loved us, over there and over there.  Tonight is about the love.  Tomorrow is about the cost of loving the world the Jesus way.  Tomorrow we'll see again that loving the Jesus Way costs everything.  Amen.