Maundy Thursday brings with it a huge range of emotions and challenges for us all. It is the day when we remember that righteousness and truth and justice and peace were neglected in favour of betrayal and a lust for power. The day when it seemed that love had been beaten into submission by hate.
We have the arrest, court proceedings and torture of the Son of God in the middle of the night following the heart-breaking hours of the Last Supper. The gathering of friends for a farewell meal is filled with sorrow because they know it will bring the end to a time of intense friendship and teaching, and consistent fellowship.
The disciples may not have known what was coming but they knew that their relationship with Jesus was changing. They knew the days of following him and teaching and praying together were coming to an end – what was to follow they couldn’t grasp.
The twelve, and the rest of the followers of Jesus, had heard him speak words of Truth and Justice to them and to the crowds; they had seen him heal the sick time and time again; they had felt and seen his power; three of them had seen him glorified in the mystical transfiguration on the mountain, but now, suddenly, they are seeing him in the role of the servant.
It is not a comfortable experience for them. He picks up a towel and starts washing their feet. This was very different from the ritual washing we see in some churches on Maundy Thursday. This was no staged presentation - Theirs were dirty feet. They had walked many miles, they had been bare or in sandals, on dusty roads that had hardened their soles and imbedded the dirt in the cracks.
The courteous thing for a host to do was to wash the feet of the guests - or, more likely, to have the lowest ranking servant perform this act of ritual honour. Jesus is their host at the meal, but now also he is their servant. He doesn’t ask one of them to do the washing; he does it himself. The disciples must be stunned, but only Peter protests.
Peter thinks he knows his place and wants Jesus to know his own place also. But Jesus is not playing by the rules. He never has; Peter ought to have remembered, but he doesn’t. Peter is frightened. Everything is changing and he doesn’t seem to like change. Later, in the night, he will be so terrified of his master’s different role that he will deny his dearest friend. But right now he shows his usual stubborn independence: “I will not allow you to wash my feet.”
Jesus, who is being very tender to all of them throughout the meal, puts Peter quickly in his place. “You better let me do it, Peter, or you will not be with me - you will have no share with me.”
It is this change in their relationship that the disciples will remember later, and in the remembrance they will find meaning and understanding. Enough to change the world.
They have been followers and friends, they have been students and companions to Jesus. In the early days when Jesus attracted the thousands with his signs of the Kingdom and with words of authority, they basked in the popularity of their master and felt some of his power rub off on them. They were filled with pride. They were the chosen.
But tonight, on this unforgettable Thursday night, their roles are changing drastically, and they are afraid. The change comes with sorrow, but also with great tenderness, and with an example of servanthood. “Having loved his own, he loved them to the end.” It is this deep love, thispeace that is preparing them for the change.
They are warned that when his arrest and death come, they too will be in danger and be despised. Jesus himself knows that soon he will enter into the most agonizing hours of humiliation and abandonment. But first, he must give hope and strength to his friends. He is pouring this love out to them by giving them his new commandment: “Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.”
The hours pass. The agony of the garden follows, then the humiliation of the court procedures, the torture of his body, the knowledge of those feet he had washed earlier running away and abandoning him…. The disciples forget his words, they forget the times of joy out of concern forsaving themselves. Peter denies him... They are facing the end of hope.
Later, they will remember: they will recall this last meal together, his tenderness, the washing of their feet… You can imagine that throughout the remainder of their lives, every time they enter a home to have their feet washed, they will remember this night and their Lord kneeling in front of their feet and the memory will be nearly unbearable. Above all, they will remember that he loved them and that he went willingly to the cross because of his great love for them.
They will remember and they will understand the meaning of his words and of his acts. And they will share this remembrance with the rest of us. This is why we are gathered here tonight: partaking in this meal - we too will remember – and we too, like them, must respond.
They will remember and they will understand the meaning of his words and of his acts. And they will share this remembrance with the rest of us. This is why we are gathered here tonight: partaking in this meal - we too will remember – and we too, like them, must respond.
Perhaps, as Jesus held those feet, the feet of his disciples in that room at the Last Supper, he thought of where these friends had been with himover the past few years, maybe he thought of the happiness they had shared, the laughs, the parties, the late night discussions, the many miles they’d travelled together; and maybe he also thought where these feet would take those disciples in the years to come… Knowing what was ahead for them and for him, maybe there were prayers for courage, for strength…
He knew that these had to be the feet that would take out his message, because these were the feet that would take these disciples out into the world to proclaim the Good News, to offer comfort and healing, to teach and preach, to convict and challenge, to love unconditionally.....
And we must never forget that this Good News is now ours to share. AMEN.
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