In the name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Tonight
we enter the Triduum, the three holiest days in our liturgical year. It’s not
that other days aren’t holy, but Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter
provide the essence of the entire Christian story. Love, sacrifice, and redemption
are the themes of the Christian life and those are the themes of the Triduum.
While there is much
packed into tonight – the first Eucharist, Jesus washing the disciples’ feet,
and the Stripping of the Altar which signifies Judas’ betrayal and Jesus’
arrest, Maundy Thursday gets its name from the commandment that Jesus gives to
his disciples: that we are to love one another. In Latin, “commandment” is
rendered as mandatum, and so this
night is known as Maundy Thursday, or the Thursday of the Commandment, or the
Thursday of Love. It is fitting that we plunge into the depths of Holy Week by
focusing on love, as that is going to be the only way to understand the horrors
of Good Friday and the power of Easter morning.
Jesus does not simply
give a commandment to love one another, but Jesus embodies it. So often we
ponder what it means to love our neighbors and our enemies. We spend time wondering
what sort of ministries we should be involved with. Jesus though is showing us
the way forward. Love is not an abstract idea, it is not a feeling of the
heart, rather love is defined by Jesus as an orientation to the other. In his
washing the disciples’ feet, we see this love on display, as an example for us
to follow. He says “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I
have done to you.”
Jesus got up from dinner
and tied a towel around his waist, and then he washed the disciples feet. This
was a radically subversive move. In that culture, it was the job of a slave to
wash the feet of guests. The master or teacher wouldn’t have done this. And so Peter
tells Jesus that this isn’t right. It puts Peter in a very odd, and likely uncomfortable,
situation. It not only challenges social norms, but it can be quite awkward to
be served in such a vulnerable and undignified way. We focus too much on
dignity and hierarchy, so this sort of service is seen as weakness. Imagine if
you were walking down the street and you notice that your shoe was untied. You
start to bend down to tie it, but before you do, your boss, whom you respect and
see as a mentor, bends down and ties your shoe for you. Being served in such a
compassionate and public way isn’t always comfortable. Seeing a towel around
his master’s waist was too much for Peter.
Jesus says “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.” Servanthood is the way of love. Though, to be fair, “servant”
is a poor translation. The word really is “slave.” The reason for the “softer” translation
of “servant” is all of the negative connotations of slavery, especially given
the dark sin of the Slave Trade, which built this nation. It’s not just that we
are to serve others, but we are to be slaves. This love that Jesus is modeling
is getting even more radical. Why might Jesus be modeling slavery as the model
for loving service?
A slave knows that he or
she is not his or her own master. It’s one thing to do something nice for
someone else, like washing their feet, or feeding them at a soup kitchen. But
it’s something else entirely to see yourself as a slave. To be a slave is to
surrender any sense of autonomy. A slave lives for their master. God, as our
master, is not like the masters we have on earth. God is fair, God gives us
freedom, God loves us. But still, the invitation is there to see ourselves as
slaves who are not the masters of our own destinies, but as workers in God’s
vineyard.
When people talk about
the Trinity, a question that sometimes comes up is “Why is God a Trinity?” The
real answer is that we have no idea, but one of the responses that seems most
fitting is that God is love, and love always pushes us beyond ourselves to
others. And so in God’s very being is a relationship of love. The Trinity is
about orientation to the other. It follows then that, as creatures of God, that
we are to also be oriented to the other. We are not created only to receive the
love of God, but to make it even more expansive. St. Augustine once said that “God
loves each of us as if there was no one else to love, and all of us as if we
were but one.” We are created to be in relationships of mutual love and service
with each other. This is what Jesus shows us tonight, that love is about
orienting ourselves to others.
And it is only when we
accept that God is our master that we are able to do something as radical as
Jesus did. I’ve always found the fact that Jesus washes Judas’ feet and eats
this final meal with him, knowing full well that just hours later Judas would
betray him, to be the most profound aspect of the narrative. When we acknowledge
God, and not ourselves, as our master, then we are able to put aside things
like ego and pride, and are then able to serve even those who would betray us.
When you think about the
symbols of our faith, what comes to mind? Obviously, there is the Cross. You
might also think about the empty tomb. Fire symbolizes Pentecost and the Holy
Spirit. Water symbolizes the saving waters of the Exodus and Baptism. The
Eucharist, of course, is a profound symbol of our faith. But missing from these
symbols of our Christian faith is the towel. Jesus clearly says “So if I, your
Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s
feet,” and yet, none of us carry around a towel so that we might actually do
this.
Some churches do foot
washing as a pat of tonight’s liturgy. We’re not, but we may in future years.
When I’ve been at churches that do foot washing, people always comment both how
profound and awkward it is to participate in this ritual. Perhaps the reason
why we’re uncomfortable at the prospect of having our feet publicly washed is that
we’re not well practiced in serving, or being served. We’re pretty good at
sharing articles on Facebook and writing checks, but that isn’t the sort of
servanthood to which Jesus is calling us. Jesus says we should need a towel to
do our ministry. We need something to wipe up the blood, sweat, dirt, and tears
that we’ll encounter.
And when someone with a
towel comes up to us, we shouldn’t let our pride, or our sense of what is “proper”
prevent them from being Christ to us. It can be hard to accept help from others.
Toward the end of the Odyssey, when
Odysseus comes home after being gone for a long time, he wishes to keep his
identity secret and poses as a stranger. However, when his housekeeper washes
his feet, as she would do to welcome any wary traveler, she immediately
recognizes him when she sees his scar on his leg. When we allow others to serve
us, our scars will be exposed. When we allow others to serve us, it a reminder that
are not self-sufficient. Maundy Thursday reminds us that love isn’t just about
serving, it’s also about allowing others to serve us.
Maundy Thursday brings to
the forefront a lost Christian symbol – the towel. We give thanks for the
example of loving service that Jesus gives us tonight. May we have the grace
and humility to allow others to serve us. May we remember that we are not our
own masters. And may God give us the heart and the will to start carrying around
a towel with us, so that we’ll be more ready to follow Jesus' command that we
love one another. Amen.
