“Resting On Jesus”

Maundy Thursday, April 14, 2022: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard.  Amen.

Tonight we begin. 

Tonight we enter into a three day service – the Paschal Triduum.  And as I note each year, there will be no dismissal or blessing at the end of the services tonight and tomorrow night – no neat ending before we leave, or coffee hour afterward… because it is not yet over.  Tonight’s service continues tomorrow night, and concludes on Easter, which we celebrate on Sunday morning. 

The Paschal Triduum, this most Holy time, is the story of our faith– where darkness and light, betrayal and love, death and life – are intertwined. 

And so we begin this journey here – with Jesus at table with his friends on the night before he would be crucified.  It is Maundy Thursday, Maundy being the Latin meaning mandate or commandment.  And that mandate is the one we hear tonight.  Jesus asks his followers to love one another – and then lives out the very thing he teaches – he kneels before each of them and washes their feet – something only a servant in those days would do.

The reality is that this wasn’t his sole act of love he offered to his disciples – they abided with him in his love from the moment they were called to his side.  Yet he chose this night, the night on which he would be betrayed, the night prior to his suffering and death and the denial by one of his own – this is the night he chose to kneel before them – even before his betrayer Judas and his denier Peter.  And he commanded them, and now us, to do the same.

What great love is this that he calls us to?

It is love in the face of betrayal, in the midst of the loneliness of being denied.  Now, you may wonder about that, because while we heard a bit about Judas and what he was about to do, we didn’t get the rest.  There is a part of the story of this last night that is not included in tonight’s passage from the Gospel of John.  First, we don’t hear Jesus telling Peter that he would deny him three times before the cock crowed the next morning.  We focus so much on Judas, do we not, but Peter denied knowing Jesus – three times – in his darkest hours.  So, here are two of his closest followers – Peter and Judas – and one will betray him, the other will deny him.  And Jesus kneels before each of them to wash their feet too.

This is the night of betrayal.

This is the night of denial.

And, how we know that feeling of betrayal, and of denial, don’t we?

During this pandemic, we have felt betrayed by disease and denied the comfort of in-person connection with those we love. We have felt betrayed by a government that was slow to respond in the beginning, resulting in just under a million deaths in the US, and over 80 million worldwide. 

We have seen the betrayal of the Ukrainian people by their former country, Russia, as Putin’s war seeks to deny them the very right to exist.

We have witnessed the betrayal of people of color, of immigrants, of the poor, by those entrusted with their care and protection.

And there is the personal betrayal – perhaps of one we love, or of our own bodies when disease strikes, or of ourselves when we are lost to addiction, or when we are suffering from spiritual or emotional pain.

We also experience denial, which is another form of betrayal, isn’t it? 

People today are denied – the right to live with dignity, the right to healthcare, the right to vote, the right to live in peace, the right to live and love as God created them.

Perhaps each of you know denial’s sting on a deeply personal level.

And when we needed to be here in our sacred spaces to worship together the most these past two years, for our own protection we were denied that comforting gathering, and the restoration found in the body and blood of our savior Jesus Christ.

We are tired, exhausted really, worn thin by all that has happened to us, to those we love, in our nation, and around the world.

And so perhaps we need to hear more of this story, because there was something else left out this night.  Something so important.  There is another there at that table with Jesus.  The so-called beloved disciple – the one whom Jesus loved – was there. 

Now, we need to remember that, unlike the famous painting of this moment by Leonardo DaVinci, people in those days did NOT sit in chairs to eat at a table as tall as we use today.  Instead the table was lower to the floor, and people reclined around it.  And the verse about this beloved disciple says that she or he was reclining next to Jesus.  In those days, those privileged to sit or lie next to a teacher or Rabbi, were those who were closest to the master.  Peter wasn’t even close enough to ask Jesus a question directly, but interestingly enough – Judas was close enough for Jesus to hand him a piece of bread.  And then there is this… while the translation has it that this beloved one was reclining next to Jesus, the Greek puts it more directly.  That this disciple was lying back on “the bosom” of Jesus, and it is to “this one” that Peter asked to find out from Jesus who was to betray him. 

Lying on the bosom of Jesus. 

Resting on Jesus as one beloved by him. 

To our weary souls, after all we have been through, this would be such a blessing, would it not?

The thing about this beloved disciple featured only in the Gospel of John, is that she or he is never named.  Oh, there are many theories about who it might be: John, son of Zebedee was the earliest choice, but others have a bit more merit to the claim: Lazarus, the one whom Jesus loved; Mary Magdalene, the one closest to Jesus by all the resurrection accounts, and by the later gospels found in Nag Hammadi; or, perhaps even James, his brother. 

But no matter who it may have been then, the beloved disciple is still here.  You need only look in the mirror.  Because the good news is – you are the beloved one.  Perhaps that is why they are unnamed, because we each are the beloved disciple of Jesus.

You are beloved by Jesus, and he calls you to rest on him. 

Rest from your fears in his arms.

Rest from your pain at his side.

Rest from your weariness on his bosom.

For he is there for you, for all of us, always, in our darkest night – showing us how deeply we are loved.

So do not fear the darkness of our time, or of this night.

This is where we must be – with him – surrounded by denial and betrayal – and resting on Jesus.

This is where we must begin – there is no other path to Easter but through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. 

Tonight we experience God’s love in Jesus’ humility amidst his own betrayal and denial – as we face our own long night of suffering from all that we hold in our hearts.

Tonight we enter into our three day journey that changed the world, that will change us, if we let it. 

Tonight we commit ourselves to him – to loving one another as he loved us, most especially in his, and our darkest hour.

Tonight, we rest on Jesus, for we are his beloved disciple.

Amen.

For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):

Sermon Podcast

The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
April 14, 2022
Maundy Thursday
1st Reading – Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Gospel – John 13:1-17, 31b-35