Maundy Thursday

John13:1-15 - Maundy Thursday - March 24, 2016
Jesus Serves His Honored Guests

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son …” (Hebrews 1:1-2a)

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The Lord had promised Abraham a son.  The Seed that was once promised to Adam and Eve – that is, the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head – God more specifically promised to Abraham, saying that this Seed would be one of his own descendants.  In him all families of the earth would be blessed.  Abraham believed God, and God counted his faith as righteousness in his sight (Romans 4:9).  What Abraham believed was substantially the same as what Adam and Eve believed.  And though we see it fulfilled and hear it all the more clearly preached today in the New Testament Church, yet it is also substantially the same faith that we believe and by which we also are saved.  We believe in one Church that spans all ages.  Christ is and has always been the object of saving faith.  He “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).  The one true faith has always been faith that trusted in God to be merciful for the sake of his own suffering and death – because by doing so he would remove all hostility between himself and sinful men (Ephesians 2:14, Hebrews 12:3).  The message of the gospel has always been at least this specific. 

As surely as Adam needed Christ, so also did Abraham.  So surely do we.  And so just as we today wait for Christ to return to deliver us from sin and death once and for all, our fathers anxiously waited for God to reveal in what way and in what manner of time he would make good on that first promise he made (1 Peter 1:11).  They waited for God to become Man and redeem his people.  For this reason, it is very exciting and encouraging to examine the lives of those to whom God spoke in ages past.  We see beautiful hints of the New Testament all over in the Old.  And so also we see how marvelously Jesus fulfills the words he himself long ago spoke even before he assumed our human flesh and blood. 

God promised Abraham that his elderly wife would bear a son for him.  Through this son the Savior would one day come.  He waited for the impossible, hoping against hope that God could do what he said he would.  He waited.  As Abraham waited, and as the child never came, he grew weary.  His faith was tested.  And what could offer him comfort in his waiting?   One thing: To hear God’s promise repeated again – and again and again.  Only God’s reassurance could strengthen his hope and refresh his resolve to wait with patience. 

So that’s exactly what God did.  In Genesis 18 we hear how the Lord came to Abraham while he sat under the shade of his terebinth trees in Mamre.  He came to assure him.  All Abraham saw were three men.  Scripture tells us that they were angels.  One of these angels is called the Angel of the Lord.  This means it was Christ himself before he became a man.  So, think of this.  The very Seed of the woman before he was born of a woman, the very Seed of Abraham before Abraham’s wife had even conceived, came to Abraham to assure him that he was not waiting in vain.  In nine months, Sarah would give birth to a son.  Through him a great nation would arise. 

Abraham did not know at first who these three strangers were.  But he treated them with hospitality.  This is what is referenced for us in book of Hebrews: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (13:1-2).  What Abraham did to entertain these three men is a very interesting example for us of brotherly love.  And so I’d like to draw a couple connections to what happened on this night nearly 2000 years ago when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and instituted the Sacrament of the Altar. 

Abraham asked the men to stay.  He was determined to honor them with kindness.  They appeared weary and he would not be satisfied until they rested.  He gave them water to wash their feet and then rushed to have his wife prepare some unleavened bread for them to eat.  He had his servant prepare a young calf, and set out butter and milk.  He brought these things to the seemingly weary travelers and stood a ways off while they ate so as not to disturb them.  Afterwards, the Lord spoke to Abraham about the child Sarah would soon bear.  The two angels then continued on their way, but the Lord remained with Abraham a while. 

Now let us compare:

Just as Abraham showed brotherly love by entertaining weary strangers, so Jesus, weary with the thought of his own impending crucifixion, defined brotherly love by entertaining his disciples.  The angels were on their way to warn about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wicked sins.  Jesus was on his way to feel in his own soul the burning wrath of God for the sins of all humanity.  Abraham showed love to those whom he did not know.  Jesus showed love to them who, being strangers and enemies of God, had come to know God as their Friend, and as their Teacher and Lord.  Abraham served his guests by giving water to the Lord and his two angels so they could wash their feet.  Jesus served his friends by kneeling down himself; and as the incarnate Lord, he washed his disciples’ feet for them.  Abraham served his guests with unleavened bread and meat, also giving them butter and milk to drink.  Jesus served his disciples with unleavened bread which was his own body, and wine which was his own blood.  He gave them not the meat of a young calf or milk from its mother.  Rather he gave the very meat of the Lamb of God and the very blood that would flow from his wounds. 

By serving the three strangers, Abraham unwittingly served the pre-incarnate Christ and two of his angels.  But by serving his disciples, the incarnate Christ wittingly served the children of Abraham with things that angels long to look into (1 Peter 1:12).  Jesus did more than Abraham did.  Instead of receiving honor from a man, Jesus honored man as only God can do.  Though Abraham once served angels unawares, by serving us Christians with full awareness, Jesus causes all the angels in heaven to rejoice with all of us – both present and departed – who by faith are Abrahams true descendants.  It is as we pray before we receive the Sacrament, “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee.” 

These are beautiful connections between the Old Testament and the New, between the promises of God and Christ’s fulfillment of them.  Christ serves us.  We are weary.  We are heavy laden.  We are pilgrims who frequently make our stop under the terebinth trees of Mamre, so to speak.  That is to say, we come to where Jesus is in order to be his honored guest.  We need rest.  He insists we stay.  We need our feet washed and our bellies fed.  He welcomes us into his home.  We who are riddled with doubts and often tired of waiting, find repose and assurance where we are visited and served by the very Seed of Abraham himself.  He washes our feet by teaching us to follow where he has trod.  He teaches us what true love is.  True love is stooping beneath your brother to lead him where Christ would have us go.  True love points not to what we do in service to God or stranger, but to what Christ has done and continues to invite all nations to receive. 

Christ leads us to himself, where he willingly drinks the cup of God’s wrath against our sin. He who walked where we are going already knows the way.  He paves the way.  He who lived as our Brother under the same law that exposes our weakness and condemns our impatience and doubt, lived this life of ours perfectly.  He lived a life that pleased God so well, because he lived a life trusting and obeying God with all his heart.  And he lived this life all so that he might trample down the thorns and crush the devil’s head as he long ago promised.  He treads death and hell beneath his feet and reduces it to dust on the path we follow so that it might be for us the path to eternal life. 

So as often as our feet are soiled on our journey, as often as we fall into sin that seeks to claim us and define us, as often as temptations prove too strong and shame sticks to our feet and up to our faces so that we are ashamed even to lift our eyes to God, as often as we see and feel our own bodies slowly return to mortal dust on account of the wages of sin – so often, Christ is here for us ready to wash our feet, ready to feed us and honor us with divine hospitality, ready to forgive our sins and claim us as his friends.  The thorns that pierce our conscience in this cursed world, he bears with honor as they crown his head and reveal him as our glorious King. 

We think it must be something that we have to deserve.  We think that we should serve him in order for him to serve us.  But this is not true.  We think that there must be some worthiness in us before we presume to let Christ honor us so.  Or perhaps we think there is some worthiness in us for which Christ honors us so.  But it’s not true.  We think this is all a reward for our faith as though our commitment renders us fit to come before this rail.  But it’s not true.  All worthiness and merit is in Christ alone.  This was the promise.  This is why God promised to join the human race – to obey and do and desire what we could, would, and did not.  He came to please his Father in all things so that it might please his Father also to lay on him the iniquity of us all.  Our faith is not rewarded with the gospel.  Oh, no! Our faith depends on the gospel.  Therefore, our worthiness to come to the Lord’s Supper is found not in how firmly we believe, but in what we believe.  We believe that Jesus means what he says: “Take eat, take drink.  This is My body; this is My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” 

Peter did not understand it.  But he soon would.  He would soon learn how poor and miserable a sinner he was.  His resolve to serve Jesus was strong.  He would even die with him.  But he buckled under temptation when suffering with Jesus was on the table.  And so it is with us.  In our failure to live lives that bring honor to God and that show genuine love to others, we learn how foolish we ever were to think that our relationship with Christ could possible depend on our own commitment and service.  When faced with the extreme weakness of our sinful minds, and with the dark and dangerous lusts of our rebellious hearts, we learn how unwilling and unable we are to drink the cup that the Father gave his Son to drink.  We avoid the cross.  We seek pleasures that are either forbidden or that keep us from fulfilling more noble duties in service to our brothers and sisters.  We are sinners, weary and hungry for what we do not deserve. 

And so our Savior gives us rest.  He insists tonight that you stop and stay so that he might serve you more grandly than Abraham served him.  He does not demand his feet be washed, but demands that he wash yours.  He who drank the cup of wrath gives you the cup of blessing. 

And as he serves us, so we are enabled to serve one another in brotherly love, since that is what we are: brothers and sisters.  Abraham served strangers.  We follow his example.  Jesus served his friends.  We follow his example.  We who eat together, suffer together, mourn together, and rejoice together.  As Jesus, by forgiving us our sins, equips us to follow where he has gone, so we equip one another in the same way – forgiving, encouraging, rebuking, warning, serving – so that we might journey together until we reach our eternal rest under the shade of the tree of life with all who have been washed and fed by Jesus. 

Amen.