God of all things, grant us to follow in the
way of your Son this week, that through his Death, we might receive the riches
of your grace ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
“How is this night different from all other nights?” That is one of the questions that children ask during the Jewish Seder. As an aside, Jesus and his disciples did not celebrate the Seder as we know it, as the form in use today didn’t exist then. Secondly, Christians should not be celebrating a Seder, unless invited to one happening in a Jewish household. The notion of a “Christian Seder” is religious appropriation and leads Christians to erroneous conclusions about their own faith. And thirdly, the way John depicts it, the events we heard about happened on the night before the Passover so that’s not even what we heard about in the Gospel reading. That being said, that question which is a part of the ritual of the Seder is a helpful one for us on Maundy Thursday – how is this night different from all other nights?
For
the past three nights of Holy Week, the sermons have focused on different
aspects of sacrifice, and that theme carries through tonight as well. The motif
of sacrifice is, of course, an ancient one. The reading from Exodus recounts
one of the most well-known understandings of sacrifice in the Old Testament –
the Passover sacrifice. The Lord
tells Moses to go down, way down to Egypt’s land to tell old Pharaoh to let God’s
people go. But Pharaoh has a hardened heart that gnats, boils, darkness, and locusts
cannot soften. God though is a God of the promise and will not be thwarted. So
God says that this is going to be the start of something, so much so that when
you remember this salvation, it shall be the start of the year for you.
As
we know from Genesis and Leviticus, the life is in the blood. So God instructs
the people to take a lamb, to slaughter it, eat it hurriedly, and take the
blood from this animal and smear it on the doorposts of their homes. This blood
will be a sign for the plague of Death to pass over that house. The Passover
lamb is slain not to atone for sins, but to ward off death. Of course, this
plague does soften Pharoah’s heart, at least temporarily. The people are able
to flee from Egypt and God will come to their rescue at the Red Sea.
Even
though John does not situate his narrative on the evening of the Passover, the
broader context of the Passover is in the air, as that is why everyone has
gathered in Jerusalem. John has a different point to make, and so the
Crucifixion happens on the day when the lambs for the Passover are slaughtered.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and, presumably, Paul in 1 Corinthians have the Last
Supper occur at the actual Passover meal. What matters for us is not the date,
but rather the significance. Everyone knew the story of the Passover. As their
rabbi, Jesus would likely have been the one to lead the ritual. But it was such
a familiar set of words that any of them could have recited the words from
memory, in the same way that many of you know the words of our Eucharistic
Prayer by heart.
What
made this night different was what Jesus said when he took the bread at supper.
Speaking about the unleavened bread of the Passover meal would have been the
norm, so imagine the surprise when Jesus holds up the loaf of bread and says, “This
is my body, given for you.” There is so much here, we’ll only be able to
scratch the surface when it comes to the depths of this radical claim. Jesus,
like the Passover lamb, is to be eaten and his blood will save us from eternal
Death. Jesus, like the manna in the wilderness, will sustain us in our journey.
Jesus, like the bread offered by Abraham and Sarah to their three divine
guests, is a sign of hospitality towards us from God. Jesus, like the bread
made from oil and flour that never ran out that the widow at Zaraphath offered
to Elijah, represents the abundant grace of God. Jesus, like the bread that he
teaches us to pray for, brings us into companionship with God and one another.
Jesus, as he became known in the meal at Emmaus, comes to us even tonight in
the breaking of the bread. Jesus, like the rich foods of the banquet of God
that Isaiah prophesies about, is the bread of eternal life.
One
of the aspects of our Eucharistic theology is that we view the Eucharist as a
sacrifice. To be clear, we are not sacrificing Jesus, rather, the sacrifice of
Jesus is re-presented to us every time that we gather in this Sacrament of
praise and thanksgiving. By the mysterious and gracious nature of God, what happens
at the altar is not a reenactment but a portal. The very same giving of his
Body that happened on the evening of his arrest is what we receive. This is one
way in which tonight is different than every other night, because tonight is
not tonight. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are simultaneously brought
to that most holy night when Jesus was at table with friends and we are brought
to the banquet of the Lamb at the end of all things. Tonight is not like other
nights.
Tonight
is also a different night because on it, Jesus, in a great reversal of norms,
shows us that humble service goes with the grain of the universe. Peter, understandably,
is hesitant to have Jesus wash his feet. This was not something that a teacher
or master would do for his students. But, as we have seen throughout the life
and ministry of Jesus, he stoops down to us as one who serves.
So
much of life is spent trying to get to the top – we climb over others, we leave
behind morals when they weigh us down, we fix our eyes on the next rung of the ladder
of wealth, power, success, or prestige. But this night is different because, on
it, Jesus tells us that upward is the wrong direction. He tells us, “For I have
set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” In writing
about the Eucharist, one liturgical scholar has asked “Was ever another command
so obeyed?” He’s right, we’ve done a really good job at following Jesus’ words
to “Do this in remembrance of me.” Using that same logic, we might ask of
foot-washing, “Was ever another command so ignored?”
Yes,
in non-pandemic years, we do wash feet on Maundy Thursday, which can be a
powerful experience, but I don’t think that’s exactly what Jesus had in mind.
Jesus says that if we know these things – that it is more blessed to give than
to receive, that humility is one of the most important virtues, that serving
others is how we follow in the way of Jesus – if we know these things, then we
are blessed in doing them. Not that we will be blessed because we do them; no,
that’s a modern-day heresy known as the prosperity gospel. Rather, we are
blessed in the serving of others. The service itself is the blessing because in
serving, in making ourselves lower, we get closer to Jesus because down low is where Jesus tends to be.
My
brothers and sisters, this world could use some more lowliness, some more
humble service. We have white supremacy and racism to contend with. We have an
ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. We have children that go to
bed on empty stomachs. We have people who are in debt because of medical
expenses. As we’ve been returning to a sense of normalcy in this country, we’ve
also seen the return of the sadly normal mass shootings. We have a fractured,
divided, and largely ineffective political system. We have a false version of
Christianity that is driving so much of the greed, racism, homophobia in our
society. We have an ecological crisis fueled by unchecked capitalism and
materialism. Now, to be clear, Jesus is not asking us to save the world, that’s
his job. And I’m not suggesting that we need to solve all of those problems,
that is too heavy a burden. But what Jesus would have us to do is to wash some feet
– to take off the robes of comfort, status, and privilege; to get on the level
of those who are suffering and spend time with them; to serve them and attend
to their needs. This is another reason why this night is different than all
other nights – it shows us both the simplicity and the challenge of discipleship:
we have to wash some feet.
You
can probably come up many other ways in which this night is different from all
other nights, but I’ll leave you with just one more. This night, more so than other
nights, is a mirror in which we see our need for a savior. John tells us that
Jesus knew that he would be betrayed. It is not only Judas though who betrays
Jesus. To be sure, Judas allows the trap to be set, but Peter will deny Jesus,
the other disciples will flee, and the same crowds that spread their cloaks and
branches before him on Palm Sunday will be shouting “Crucify him!” by tomorrow
morning.
We
didn’t hear the particular verse read, but at this meal, Jesus says, “It is the
one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish [that
will betray me].” That is all of us. We have all received the bread from Jesus.
Some of us deny Jesus, perhaps others of us betray him, others might just get swept
up in the power of the crowd and find us shouting things that we could have
never imagined shouting, but all of us have a part in this. This night is a
mirror for us in which we see the ways that we fall short of the glory of God. And
yet, knowing all this, Jesus still washes and feds us – so it is also a night
of tremendous grace.
What
we have entered into is the Triduum – the three most sacred days in our faith.
You’ll notice there is no Dismissal in tonight’s liturgy. That is because it is
not over tonight. The Triduum is one liturgy spread over three days – Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and the Easter Vigil are like different movements
of the same symphony or scenes of the same play. In the same way that you wouldn’t
walk out after Act 1 of a play, I encourage you to stay with Jesus over these
three days. Jesus tells us “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has
been glorified in him.” This is what makes this night different – the glory of
God is on full display in it. And that glory is the power, the depth, and the
beauty of love.
Jesus loved us to the end. Love is our source. Love is our calling. Love is our salvation. Love is our identity. Love is purpose. Love is our end. These three holy days are the story about how God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that we might have life and have it abundantly. Yes, this night is different because on it we remember the gift of the Eucharist that Jesus gave to his Church. It is different because we see that humble service is the example that Jesus gives us. It is different because it is a mirror that shows us our sin. But what truly makes this night different is that this night is also a window into the very heart of God – and what we see is “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
