Maundy Thursday, April 18, 2019
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.” Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!” Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. John 13:1-17
If you
count the disciples in the picture you’ll see there are twelve. The question is: If Jesus is washing his beloved disciples’
feet, why in the world is Judas there?
In the normal course of the world’s power structure, CEO’s do not serve
janitors, and powerful people do not do the getting your hands dirty
stuff! And even if the leader of the
band would tune the violin for his first chair, you don’t coddle and include
the one who is trying to sabotage the concert.
Judas is the enemy. Nobody likes
Judas; have you ever heard of a new Mom or Dad joyfully naming their child
Judas? And on top of it all, Jesus said
to those disciples that he was doing this to teach them (and us) to follow in
his footsteps, wash the feet of friends and enemies alike; when you get
clobbered on one cheek, offer the other.
In the
words of great theological thinkers like Pogo or Snoopy – what’s up with
this? It doesn’t make sense. And while that is true on so many levels,
when it comes to this world’s view of the way things ought to be, and
the way Jesus says they must be, you have a case of oil
and water; sooner or later those ingredients will separate. You cannot mix darkness and light for
long. You cannot have short and tall,
skinny and portly…and when it comes to pleasing God, you’re not going to please
worldly-minded people at all. To turn
another phrase in this cacophony of mixed metaphors, it’s either His way, or
Hell’s way. And, for good measure, we
throw in a little Bob Dylan:
Well it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,
but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.[iii]
Sooner or
later it dawns on most people who want to follow Jesus that the focus of Jesus’
way is counter-clockwise, or counter to this world’s cultural expectations and
preferences. Bob Dylan had a brush with Christianity,
and he got it, that everyone is hard-wired to serve somebody. Even the person who sits in the oval office answers
to someone higher…sooner or later. And,
when you lay your head down on the pillow for the last time in this world, it
makes sense that it will have been a wise choice to surrender your life to His
way, much as it will make the world uncomfortable.
For You Today
Jesus
loved Judas enough to wash his dusty feet; how are you doing with that annoying
neighbor of yours?
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