Maundy Thursday
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
It is no small thing.
On this last night with his friends,
those who had given everything up to follow him,
those who believed he was the Son of God,
that Jesus does this most significant thing.
He washes their feet.
The significance of this is found in how it was a servant’s job to wash the feet of his master’s guests. And if the wasn’t a servant, it was the host’s job.
Jesus was their leader, and he was humbling himself to wash their feet.
This was his whole existence on earth: St Paul tells us
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
He then commands that the disciples should wash one another’s feet.
He wants them all to be equal. No one is better than the other.
He wants them to be humble.
He then gives them a new commandment:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
Does this replace the old commandment? Love your neighbour as yourself?
No. That stands as a rule for all people.
Our neighbour is anyone we come into contact with,
even if we can’t stand them, we are to love them.
Jesus is now speaking of a different love.
He is speaking of a special bond of love that is to unite all those who believe in him.
He is speaking to us and how we are to be with each other.
How we are to be with the person sitting next to us.
We are to love them the same way Jesus has loved us.
The first part to come to terms with is to know how Jesus has loved you.
That will be a personal thing between you and him,
and only the two of you will know how that has worked in your life.
But, the result of that love from Jesus should be visible to everyone.
How it happens is personal.
How you respond to it in your life is public.
And most especially with those who share the faith.
We express our response to Christ's love for us in how we treat our brothers and sisters in the church.
The way we treat each other is really an acting out of our understanding of Christs love for us.
This is very telling.
Love your neighbour as yourself, yes. The old commandment is universal.
The new commandment is narrower, but more intense.
Love your fellow Christian the same way Jesus has loved you.
This commandment and obedience to it are evidence to the world of true faith.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.
Imagine if we actually did this.
Imagine if the church was actually like this.
Imagine how irresistible the church would be.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.
Out of that love would flow a love for all humankind.
When the church keeps the new commandment, the world will be able to keep the old.
Love one another, as I have loved you.
The love Jesus has for us is shown is shown in all its depth tomorrow.
The ultimate act of self giving and self sacrifice by dying on the cross.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Good Friday
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Jesus showed humility by washing his friends feet.
Knowing what was to happen, he goes to the garden, and prays to the Father that his cup be taken from him.
He is betrayed by one of his friends.
He is arrested by the powers that be. The civic rulers and the religious leaders.
The people have turned on him, their cries of hosanna changing to crucify him.
He is mocked, spat upon, whipped, flogged, beaten.
He is made to carry the cross that he will be executed on.
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said ‘I am thirsty.’
The cup he asked to be taken from him, he now asks for.
It is finished.
As the crucified , Jesus identifies with every person who has ever suffered.
Every victim of torture, rape, murder.
With every person ever killed in crossfire.
With every single one of the over 40,000 children who die of starvation every day.
With his cry from the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he is one with all who have doubted, with those who feel that the world is so unjust they can’t see how God can exist.
He is with every mother and father who has cradled their lifeless child.
He is with every person suffering alzheimers, losing all sense of recognition.
Jesus is the suffering God.
He is agonised, he takes on all suffering. He is in solidarity with all human misery.
By Jesus suffering and dying, he shows that he is involved in all human history, he is affected by it.
He is not a God who sits above it all and watches, he is a God who is intimately involved. He bears all humanities burdens. By his taking flesh, he shows that human history is the place of real struggle, not just a cosmic plaything.
Only a God who suffers can save humanity.
Only a God who knows the pain of betrayal, humiliation and violence can be with us in our pain.
In Jesus we see a suffering God with and in suffering humanity.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Easter Vigil
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
In his humility, Jesus showed us how to be with each other.
In his example of dying on the cross, he suffered for and with all human suffering.
In his dying, Jesus enters the darkness, so when we enter darkness, we know he is with us.
God goes into the darkness and makes it light.
By his dying on the cross, death itself dies.
Killing Jesus was like trying to kill a dandelion seed head by blowing on it.
Like shattering the sun into a million fragments of light.
The powers had done everything they could to stop God’s work.
The divine undercurrent that had been with Jesus seemed to have ceased on the cross.
But it was only hidden.
It bursts out of the tomb.
Nothing can stop it.
Nothing can stop the gospel.
The resurrection of Jesus is the gospel.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name
Jesus had taken the disciples on a journey where he had taught and healed.
He had led them into confusion, and on Good Friday, to darkness.
Without his resurrection, there they would have stayed.
His resurrection throws everything he said and did into light.
All the confusion ceases.
Henry Scott Holland writes:
In the resurrection, it was not only the lord that was raised from the dead. His life on earth rose with with him. It was lifted up into its real light.
Jesus came not only to preach a gospel, but to be a gospel.
Without the resurrection, there is no Gospel.
AS the risen Jesus says to Mary
Do not be afraid.
Over the coming weeks we will hear how the disciples reacted to the Risen Jesus.
But now, it is how you react to the presence of the risen Christ in your life.
Do not be afraid to believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead.
Do not be afraid to let go and believe that Jesus conquered death.
Do not be afraid to believe that by believing in him you no longer die but will have eternal life.
Do not be afraid.
The resurrection is the hope of life.
It is the hope that knowing that God is with us in our suffering,
and that it is not the end.
The resurrection is the hope of freedom from the bonds of death.
Death is no more, it has been conquered.
Jesus showed us that nothing can separate us from God, not even death.
Do not be afraid to believe in new life in Jesus Christ.
Do not be afraid of hope.
Do not be afraid to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
No comments:
Post a Comment