🦁 Lent 7-1
Readings: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35.
Reflection
Good morning. This is Tim. Trouble coming to you from the Sacramento, California. Today's readings are actually this chapter 12 versus one 214, Psalm one, 16 verses one and two and 12 to 19 first Corinthians 1123 to 26 and the Gospel of John, Chapter 13, verses 1 to 17 and 31 be to 35.
Today is Monday. Thursday. Today is the day of the Last Supper. It is at night that Judas will come and betray Jesus and He will be taken to the temple, to the high priests, where they will examine him. They will accuse him. They will hand him over to the Romans to be crucified tomorrow. It starts with Passover. That's our reading from Exodus. This is the Lord giving directions to the Israelites who are currently slaves in Egypt and what they are to do on a specific day and the Pacific time frame in a specific way so that when he passes through Egypt and kills the firstborn of all living things, they will be spared.
That's why it is called the Passover, because he passes over the houses of the Israelites. In our reading from Corinthians, we have Paul talking to the church at Corinth and telling them what Jesus did in the Last Supper, that this is the cup of the newcomers. The body that was taken, remember, is broken, and do it in remembrance of me and the blood of the New Covenant. And then, John, we have the full narrative of the night in Maundy Thursday. They've eaten. Jesus gets up, takes off his cloak, gets a towel, fills a basin with water, and proceeds to do what is considered a menial task.
And that culture at that time, they didn't wear shoes they had. If you were lucky, you had sandals. There weren't really paved roads, just there was the Appian Way. The Romans had put some, you know, had some road building, but not like the roads we think of today. They were cobblestone. You walk dirt trails, your feet were constantly covered with dirt. They were filthy. And one of the things a host did when they had guests over, when you came into someone's house, especially someone of means, they'd have their servants come out and wash your feet.
Jesus, who says, I am your teacher? I am your reward? And you say, this man is rightly so, humbles himself to a menial, lowly task of washing the feet of his disciples. And when he gets done, he tells them, You're not going to get this yet, but you'll understand. Peter Of course. Peter The rock of the church. Peter The one who will deny him three times before the cock crows twice he wants. First of all, he starts off, No, you can wash my feet and Jesus tells him, Now you, if you don't, if you don't allow me to do this, you have no part with me. You're not with me. If you don't allow me to do this. Then Peter, of course, wanted to take his step for all the grace of reason. Wash my hands and my head. No, no. And Jesus. No, that's. That's. You're clean. You bathe. It's just washing your feet.
In leadership, there is a concept called the servant leader, where a leader is not so good or so big or so hearty that they can't do basic tasks, the basic jobs, doing the basic things. There are many times we've seen this, you know, it's it's our AHIP. Remember that one rank has its privileges. Jesus is the opposite of that. And in doing this, he teaches us, if you want to follow me, if you want to be like me, you humble yourself, you bring yourself down a notch, or two or four or a dozen.
No task is too small for you. This is a loving, caring savior who became human, took human form. And now we come to the twilight of his time on earth and in his final moments alone with his disciples, they share a meal, the Passover meal He introduced to us what we in the Episcopal tradition call the Holy Eucharist, colloquially known as communion, because we commune together. And this is a very, very strong, powerful message. He gives us something to remember, not just images and words, but in action.
I am not getting into the theology of whether it represents the body of Christ or becomes the body of Christ, transubstantiation and all that. That's that's missing the point in my book. To me, when on Sunday, when we have a priest and I walk, I go down the aisle, I am honoring and remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made and the promise of the New Covenant that we are to love God with all our hearts, all our minds and all our soul. And we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. And the example that Jesus gives us on Maundy Thursday, as he assumes the role of the servant, the teacher, the Lord becomes the servant. The bottom rung and washes the feet of his disciples and gives them that mark where he says that doing this is an example to you that you should do as I have done in verse 15, a tradition in most liturgical churches and a few others. The Maundy Thursday service is held in the evening and during the service before we leave. Before the end is we do foot washing and it is a very sobering, very powerful experience. Different places do it differently. Some places you have the priest washes everybody's feet. The one I prefer is the one where we rotate through. So you come up, one person sits, they get their feet washed, they stand up. The person that washed their feet sits down and then they wash their feet. And you go through that way so everybody gets a chance to have their feet washed and to wash someone else's feet. I think it misses the point. It's not complete for me if I don't if I just get my feet washed, I need to humble myself and I need to remember that human melody is Jesus. And if Jesus can humble himself to wash his disciples feet, then I can humble myself, because that is what we are as followers of Christ. Amen.
