“Do You Know What I Have Done For You?”

Maundy Thursday – April 6, 2023: 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 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 from the Latin Mandatum, meaning mandate or commandment. And that mandate is the one we hear tonight. Jesus asks his followers to love one another after he kneels before each of them and washes their feet – something only a servant in those days would do. Not just any servant, but it would likely have been a woman.

This act of humility and love should not surprise us.

Before he entered Jerusalem, Mary kneeled and anointed Jesus’ feet with oil.

A humble donkey, not a war horse, carried Jesus into the city.

And now tonight, before his arrest, Jesus gets on his knees to wash the feet of his disciples – including the one who would betray him, and the one who would deny him.

Humility is one of the threads that weaves through all of Holy Week, really – all of Jesus’ ministry.

After Jesus washes his disciples feet, he asks them, “Do you know what I have done for you?” Clearly they know the outer act. And, it was something that would be expected – though not by the Rabbi, not by the teacher. This was another overturning of societal expectations by Jesus – the Master, the man, serving the students.

Taking a step back a moment, let’s understand the context. While foot washing is strange to us now, it was not to those gathered around him. In fact, it was expected. Hosts would welcome guests by having either the woman of the house, or servants if they had them, wash the feet of those coming into the home. These were the days of open sandals, dirt roads, and bare feet worn by long days of walking. It would be important to allow a guest to be rid of the dust and dirt that covered their tired feet.

Today, while our feet may not be dusty and dirty, they are worn and weary by the weight of our lives – and the many steps of our journey they have borne for us. But, when it comes to someone washing our feet…well, this night can create discomfort for some, and not for the reasons Peter protested. No, our feet aren’t exactly the body part we want people seeing much less touching – unless, of course, they are completely clean already and we are in a massage chair getting a pedicure.

But that is exactly what Jesus wants – no, not a pedicure (though I think he wouldn’t have minded it). He wants to care for us. And if we really think about it, feet are a good thing to turn over to Jesus, because they truly do bear the many steps of our lives – their cracked, swollen, and calloused soles are a sign of our life journey. And so Jesus welcomes in his hands the part of ourselves we won’t usually let others near, because Jesus loves every part of us, even the parts that we would rather others did not see. But let’s get back to his question of those first disciples.

“Do you know what I have done for you?”

The One who would later this night allow himself to be handed over to a criminal’s death on the cross, kneels before the disciples, not only as an act of radical hospitality, but as a model of how his disciples must live, because he knows that the saving grace for a world weary by evil can come only through God’s transformative power that works through hearts filled with humility and love.

“Do you know what I have done for you?”

Do we?

Until we can allow ourselves to kneel in humility and love before another and care for their worn and tired lives – until we can consider the basin of water a symbol of our baptismal vows to love and serve him – then we will never really understand the depth of what Jesus has done for us.

But one thing we do know is that tonight – tonight everything changes.

Tonight, as his disciples did, we offer not only our feet, but our very lives to be held in his loving embrace.

Tonight, as Jesus did, we turn to face the evil of our world – where war rages, where children are killed because we love guns more than their lives, where people are oppressed because of the color of their skin or the shape of their eyes, where women and girls are abused and marginalized, where Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith are threatened and killed, where LGBTQ+ people are excluded and fearful, where God’s creation and all the creatures of the earth suffer from our neglect, where children of God live in poverty. We will face this evil as Jesus turns to face it in the cross.

Tonight we also come to know that amidst all the worldly power of Rome, and the heavenly power of Jesus, his humility and love is what will reign in the end.

It was true that first Holy Week, as it is true for us now.

For that is the death and resurrection that awaits us.

“Do you know what I have done for you?”

No Lord, we may never truly know, but let our hearts be fully open to you.

Let us fall readily to our knees before one another – before you who is in least, the last, the lowly, and the lost.

Let us be known only by our humility and love in your name.

And by this, come ever closer to understanding what you have done for us.

Amen.

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