Sermon 13 April 2006
Maundy Thursday, Year B
John 13:1 – 17

“Wash what?�

We have just demonstrated…

This is common practice now for Christians on this night…

What was the original reaction?

Jesus’ disciples were rather shocked by his actions. Peter especially. Jesus was doing the unthinkable – washing someone’s feet. Jesus was the Rabbi, the Master, the Teacher, the Lord. It was beneath him to do this! Only a slave would do such a menial task. The disciples had to do a lot of work: according to the traditions of the day, they had to do whatever their Master commanded them to do, without questioning him. If he wanted them to carry water or chop wood, they had to do it. If he wanted them to take a message to someone, they had to do it. If he wanted them to stay up all night, they had to do it. They had to do anything he told them to do.

Well, almost anything.

Disciples were basically like slaves. They had to do what they were told, no matter how ridiculous or unfair it seemed. But there was one way in which they were distinguished from slaves: slaves had to wash people’s feet, whereas disciples did not. Disciples were near the bottom of the food chain, but that one activity, washing feet, separated them from the very bottom – slavery.

Because of this, a disciple always knew that he was better off than at least a few people in the world: he didn’t have to wash feet like THOSE SLAVES over there. So a disciple could sit back and relax and be higher than at least SOMEBODY, for a few minutes at least.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, this passage makes it clear: Jesus really could care less about all of our societal pecking orders, our superior/inferior relationships, our propriety, our “rights�, our privileges, our money, or anything else we use as a status symbol. So he does the unthinkable: he strips to his undershirt and takes on the clothing style of a slave. Jesus, the honored teacher. Jesus, the socially respectable Holy Man. Jesus, who, in the minds of the disciples, is in a higher social class than any of them. This Jesus who can command bread from heaven for 5000 people now becomes one who takes orders.

JESUS, YOU CAN’T DO THAT!!! Peter yells.

But he does it anyway.

Moreover, John shows us something even more shocking. Jesus washes all of his disciples’ feet, even though he knows one of them – and, in fact which one of them – will betray him. Jesus washes Judas’ feet, too. He doesn’t even flinch.

Jesus washes Judas’ feet.

With such a stigma against foot-washing, why would Jesus have done this? One of our clues is in verse three. “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…�

Jesus was confident in who he was relative to God. He was secure in his origin and he was secure in his future. Even amidst all the uncertainty of the week leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus knew that God had sent him to do something very specific: to live and to die as one of us, to reconcile us to the Father. Because of Jesus’ confidence in this call and in his origin – and even in his ultimate resurrection – Jesus did not have to depend on normal means of self-justification to show who he was. He did not require social status to define his identity. He did not require a certain style of dress to indicate who he was or his level of authority in society – neither business suit and tie nor robe and clerical collar were necessary parts of his wardrobe. He did not need to show himself to be better than anyone to be the person God called him to be.

By washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus demonstrates that confidence in his identity in God. In this he declares that no position in society is foreign to him. He can stoop to the lowest of the low; he can be exalted to the heavens. Yet his ego is neither inflated nor deflated by this. He has confidence in who he is.

This is Good News for us – we who live to imitate Jesus. In stooping to wash his disciples’ feet, he makes to wash all of our insecurities away. As we imitate Christ, we become free to operate in a society that has its clear status boundaries even today. No one is too low to look someone in the eye. No one is so high as to reduce another to second-class status. Jesus shows us this – beyond a shadow of a doubt – in this act of washing his disciples’ feet.

Nevertheless, there is a second reason we can see that Jesus does this. We see this in his interaction with Peter. Evidently, by the time he gets to Peter, he’s already washed some of the others’ feet. There hasn’t been nearly the level of protest from them that Peter gives, we gather.

When he gets to Peter, he stops in his tracks. NO, JESUS! You’re not going to do that to me, right!?! And Jesus responds, “you don’t get it now, but eventually you will. Let me see your feet.� Peter protests, “NO! You’ll never wash MY feet.�

Then Jesus responds in a rather curious way: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.�

+ Why does Peter react how he does?

+ Don’t debase yourself like this, Jesus!
+ Don’t touch my dirty feet
+ My feet are nasty

+But

+If Peter can’t fathom Jesus’ humility to wash his feet, he has very little chance of understanding Jesus’ perspective on the cross. Jesus sees the cross as his exaltation, not as his humiliation.

So then Peter thinks he needs to be bathed completely. Jesus, referring to baptism, tells Peter that such an act is unnecessary. He does this to serve them and to demonstrate to them how to participate in his cross.

And so we, having heard his command, understand that to participate fully in his cross, we, too, are to wash one another’s feet. In a few minutes we will show our participation in his cross – in his body and blood – by participating in communion. Communion has powerful symbolism for us this night. Nevertheless, Jesus invites us to “share in him� by following his example to wash one another’s feet. In doing so we give up our sense of superiority over everyone else. We are all reduced to common humanity – with dirty feet – served by someone just like us. In doing so, we participate in Christ by imitating him, joining as one together in this common activity.

In this act, we demonstrate the values we hope to live out – not just this weekend, but throughout our life together – as First Baptist and as members of this community in the Mahoning Valley. We will serve one another, and others, as those who do not care about our social position in this community. We place ourselves at the feet of others whom we love enough to serve. In doing this, we demonstrate that we understand the humility of the cross – indeed, its humiliation. We show that we take the cross seriously. We declare that we are not greater than Christ, that we should abstain from this kind of activity. We state that we are not cleaner than Peter, that we do not need such a cleansing. We proclaim that we are not dirtier than Peter either, that having experienced baptism we are equally clean – but in need of a “spot clean.� We announce that we are imitators of Christ, who follow the example he set for us and obey his commands to do this for one another. Furthermore, we say to one another that we love one another as Christ loves us, in fulfillment of the command for which this night is named Maundy Thursday.

[Invitation]