Maundy Thursday
Transcribed from a
sermon given
In 2011
At St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church
By the Rev. Valerie
Ann Hart
Do you have anyone that you knew
who died that you remember the last thing they said to you? Or the last
conversation you had? Or the last evening with them? I can still remember
thirty years later my father and what we talked about the last time I saw him.
There is something about that last conversation, the last time we are with
someone, even if we don’t know that they are going to die, that when we think
back we remember vividly what happened. We remember where we were, what they
said, how they said it. Even if it was an insignificant conversation it takes
on a great significant when it is the last conversation that we have had with
someone. And of course if the person we are with knew that they were going to
die it takes on even greater significance. Think of a parent wanting to tell
one more thing to their children, of wanting to give a little advice, a little
bit of information, a little bit of wisdom before they die. Or perhaps one last
chance to say I love you.
So for the disciples this last
meal with Jesus stood out in their memories. They rehearsed it in their minds
over and over again. They remembered every detail of who said what, and when,
and how. We have the story in all four Gospels of this last dinner together. Oh
yes, they are not identical, because each person remembers different specific
things. Certainly if you had sat with two of your siblings when one of your
parents died you would all remember it slightly differently, and yet all of you
would be sure that you remember exactly the way that it happened.
The story is there in the
scriptures, and it is very clear that that last supper was important. Of course
Jesus knew that it was going to be his last time to eat with his disciples. He
knew that. He was a teacher, and he realized that this was going to be his last
opportunity to teach. The last class. The last chance to get through the thick
heads of those disciples exactly what it was he had been trying to teach them
Jesus came from the prophetic
tradition. If you read the prophets in the Old Testament often they punctuate
their teachings by doing outrageous things. Jeremiah at one point takes a brand
new pair of pants, wears them once and them fold them up and sticks them in a
crevice in a rock. Six months later he takes them out and they are full of
holes. Then he says that God says this is the Judean people, full of holes in
their relationship with God. Another prophet had the king fire an arrow through
a window and then says this is how you are going to conquer Syria. Another one went
up to the future king and took his cloak and ripped it into twelve pieces and
threw the pieces in all different directions to show that the tribes of Abraham
were going to be scattered. The prophets did this because they knew that people
remembered those kind of dramatic actions. And Jesus wanted people to remember
his last meal and what he was teaching. So he did some dramatic actions.
He could have had the last meal
and he could have talked intellectually. He could have sat with his disciples
and say, “Okay, I want you to get the theology correct. This is the exact
nature of God and it is important that you believe this correctly.” But he
didn’t do that.
And he could have talked about
spiritual things. He could have talked about the things that were kind of hard
to understand. About heaven and abstract things. But he didn’t.
Instead that last supper was very
incarnational. It was all about the world, being here, now. It was about bread
and wine and water and a basin and a towel. Concrete things. Simple things.
Nothing expensive. Nothing fancy. Things that were in every Jewish household.
Bread and wine water, a basin and a towel.
He took these things and he used
them to teach. First he took the bread. Now the bread that he picked up had
great meaning, if it was indeed a Passover feast. The bread represented the
flight from Egypt, the hurry to get out of slavery into freedom. The bread
represented freedom. It also represented the manna that God gave people when
they were in the wilderness. Bread represents survival, sustenance, the basic
foundation of living. It nurtures and feeds. It is very rich in meaning. And he
picked it up and he blessed it. Then he broke it and said “This is my body,
broken for you.” He gave bread a whole new meaning, a whole new level of
meaning.
And then he picked up the chalice
of wine. The one cup that would be passed around and they all would drink from.
Like at a Passover supper where they blessed the wine.
Now wine also is rich in meaning.
Wine. We call alcohol spirits for a reason. Wine was considered to have spirit
to it. To have spirit in it. And at the time of Jesus there were worshipers of
the God Dionysus or as the romans called him Bacchus. The God of wine. Wine was
considered to have a spiritual aspect. Wine was one the things that was offered
at the temple and poured onto the altar. Wine was rich in significance and
meaning.
Jesus picked up the wine and he
blessed it. Then he said, “This is my blood which is shed for you.” This is my
blood? This is my blood! Imagine, imagine the reactions of the disciples who
were all good Jews. Jews never, ever, ever drink blood. When an animal who is
killed for Kosher food all the blood is drained out it. Blood was considered to
carry the life force of the animal or the human being. That blood, that life
force was only to be offered to God. The idea that the disciples would drink
blood? That got their attention!
Then he said “Do this to remember
me.” Well you can be pretty sure that the disciples weren’t going to forget
that.
And if that wasn’t enough, the
next thing he did was he took off his outer cloak and got down to his basic
underwear, a simple garment much like the albs the clergy and acolytes wear. He
was now dressed much like a servant might be dressed. Then he took a towel and
a basin and a pitcher of water and he began to wash the disciples’ feet. Having
one’s feet washed was something that a host might offer to guests.
It is not like today. When you
come here and know we are having foot washing you want to make sure you took a
shower beforehand. You don’t want your feet to be dirty when you come up to
have your feet washed. Back then they were wearing sandals, and they were
walking on the dirt streets that the chariots and donkeys and camels all walked
down. There was the mud, and grim and all the stuff that you would not want to
have between your toes. That’s what they were walking through on the way to
dinner. So, when you came to a person’s house, if you had been traveling, to have
your feet cleaned was a great gift. But it was never done by the host. If the
host was rich one of the slaves would do it, but it had to be one of the slaves
that wasn’t Jewish because according to the Torah, you couldn’t make a Jewish
slave wash someone’s feet. It was beneath them. So it would have to be a non-Jewish
slave that would wash your feet. The bottom of the bottom. If you didn’t have
slaves, then if you were a good host you provided a pitcher of water and a nice
clean towel and a basin where a person could wash their own feet. But never,
ever would the host wash someone’s feet.
Yet here was Jesus, their Lord
and their teacher, down on his knees washing their feet. No wonder Peter said, “don’t
do this.”
After Jesus was finish and had
done all these dramatic things, much like in the prophetic tradition, came the
teaching that all of that was leading up to.
Jesus said, “You know what I have
done for you.” Then he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Love one
another as I have loved you.
How did Jesus love them? Jesus
loved them in the material world. Jesus fed them. Offers his body and his blood
for them. Jesus gets down on his knees and washes their feet. Like a servant. That
is how they are to love one another.
When Jesus says love one another
as I have loved you, he is not saying have a nice warm feeling about everybody,
because that is not how Jesus loved people. And he wasn’t saying love in a sort
of abstract sense of well I love everybody in the world, because that is not
the way Jesus loved. The way Jesus loved was material, and real, and right here
and in depth. It involved bread and wine and water, a basin and a towel. It
meant being the servant. It meant touching with love. It meant offering his
life. It meant dying for them.
That was his final teaching. That
is what he wanted the disciples to remember. That was the summation of all his
teaching and all his ministry. Love one another as I have loved you.
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