“HOW GOOD IT IS TO HAVE OUR FEET WASHED”
Saint John 13.1-15
Maundy Thursday: 8 April Anno Domini 2004
Fr Watson
Holy Thursday is also called "Maundy" Thursday. Maundy is from the Latin, mandatum. It's where we get our word "mandate." It means commandment. In verse 34 Jesus says "A New Command I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you." It is "new" only because of what the Lord had just given to the 12 in the "upper room." It's fresh because He had made them fresh. But it's not like the old commands which they had always had. It's not the law that we talk about tonight with any emphasis. It's Jesus' washing of us. How good it is to have our feet washed.
One of the main reasons you are here this evening is that you feel your sin. You know and understand the weight of your daily, incessant trespassing. It weighs you down; it hurts; it makes you dirty as stinking, smelling feet after a day in the dust of a Jerusalem dirt street. You've heard the Word of God. You have heard His words to you "Do This," and you hang your head because you haven't complied. You have not been the dutiful son or daughter you should be. He's already given you the mandate, the commandment, the Law -- 10 of them. He's even summarized them for you with the word Love written large: Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul and mind; and Love your neighbor as yourself. DO THIS. We don't, thus we are here, dirty as feet anxiously waiting to be washed.
Only the Evangelist St. John has the account of the "foot washing." He ought to know, for he was there. Only the synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have the account of the Holy Supper. Both occurred. The first three evangelists give us the facts. John shows us the result; he gives us again the Lord "in action" doing all the work. John is called by the church the Apostle of Love. Not because John loved more or better than Peter or James, but because he was given to write by the Holy Spirit so beautifully of the love of Jesus for us. He tells us in his Epistle that God is love. He shows us tonight in his Gospel that love is real; that it has flesh and blood and a face; that it serves; that it empowers, emboldens, and moves us to greater faith and works.
John's words of the Lord are true: "having loved His own who were in the world... He loved them to the end." It is also John who tells us "For God so loved the world..." But the "world" is not saved, only those who believe and are baptized; only those who have received the gift of faith from the Spirit; only those who have been washed, claimed, clothed and fed. Christ loved/loves His own to the end. Yes, to the bloody end when He hanged His "sacred head now wounded" to His beaten chest and said: "It is ended," but also to the final earthly end, when at the last day He "loves" you from this, the kingdom of Grace right into heaven, His kingdom of Glory... world without end.
Jesus knew that fateful night, that the Father had given all things into His hands... (gesture out with hands in cruciform style ) When a hand is clutched, closed in fistic rage, defense, self, it cannot pick up the tender flower, the lamb, the baby, the neighbors head, or burdens. A hand held closed cannot love. Our Lord was able to pick all of you up into His precious hands by letting go off His own life, by letting flow His own blood.
Supper having taken place......there is now one more thing before Christ and the 11 exit into the night. Our Lord's "High Priestly Prayer" will be spoken, but first, first the washing. The Sacrament of The Altar had been instituted. The "friends" of Jesus had been given His Body to eat and His Blood to drink. Now, the Lord goes on to show them in another way, Who does all the Work (all the saving) and How the Lord's "Doing" is service. How the faith that comes from the Sacrament satisfies the commands; the laws, the mandate.
He laid aside His garments.... garments that would soon be laid aside by other hands, roughly, coarsely, with laughter, cursing and gambling. He girded Himself with a towel... as He soon would be girded, tied to the Tree. He poured water into a basin. He pours the same water into the font, into the Church, for it His Life Blood, His purity, His self, which flowed so freely from the Rock in the desert of Sinai, which gushed forth a showering torrent of Grace from His riven side; His Sacred Heart, at Calvary's bitter end. And He began to wash the disciples' feet. The feet; that part which was physically the dirtiest. Our Lord ever the teacher. See Who always does the washing.
What a beautiful picture of the Eucharist, of Baptism, of the "Office of The Keys." The Sacraments in action--Christ cleaning.
"What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand...." And while it did seem that Simon Peter rarely understood what Jesus was doing, this statement so clearly bespeaks the Gift of Holy Baptism itself. "Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such belongs the kingdom of God, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom as a little child, shall not enter therein." [Mark] "Knowing," that is advanced congnitive skills--intellect, memory, problem-solving skills are not pre-requisites for Baptism, only trust; the passive trust of a babe that knows it's been picked up in hands of it's parent... the one that loves it.
Jesus washing their feet is also a picture of Confession and Absolution; the Third Holy Sacrament as our Lutheran Confessions speak... the Sacrament of Repentence. For St. Peter had faith (admittedly weak at times); He had heard, believed, and made a great Confession. Peter had known, and followed St. John the Baptizer, and therefore had already been baptized. Jesus shows Peter and us, that He continues to wash us daily when we in contrition remember our sins, our "dirty feet" and let His gracious Baptism continue its eternal washing. Years after you were carried to the font, you now know and understand. Know you're dirty, and know Who it is Who washes you.
"You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I AM." But what kind of teacher? What kind of Lord? He is the "example" not be copied by "way of the Law" be like Jesus. No, He is the example that continually shows us Himself, Who continually gives you Himself. Yes, it is good to wash one another's feet; that is, to forgive your neighbor, to love your neighbor and to do good to all men, especially those who persecute you. And you will. But tonight, take your eyes off yourself, look not to your own actions. Receive Him Who forgives, cleanses and brings life. Let Jesus be Jesus (Savior) in His Supper for you; In His Baptism of you; in His daily remission of your sins.
The Lord has fulfilled the mandate; the "mandatum." DO THIS. He says to you, I love... I do this for you. Receive the Lord.
How good it is to have our feet washed.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost