Maundy Thursday (March 24, 2016) – John 13:1-17, 31b-35
John 13.1-17, 31b-35
A Share with Jesus
Maundy Thursday – March 24, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Unless I wash you, you have no share with me, says Jesus to Peter.
Unless I wash you, you can have no share in my life.
Humility and service, maybe, are something we can maybe only learn from the great.
Well, okay, not only, but it does make an impression when someone great is truly humble.
When I was a theology student in Vancouver, a great scholar I really admire came to town,
Kenneth Cragg, a towering theologian and scholar.
One of my teachers had set up a retreat with him in the interior of BC,
so the three of us drove out together.
My teacher picked me up first, and as we were going to pick up the elderly Dr. Cragg,
he said to me, “Whatever happens, do not let Dr. Cragg sit in the back seat.
he is going to insist you take the front seat, but don’t do it. I know him.”
And sure enough: we picked him up, I got out to help Dr. Cragg with his bags, and as we were
about to get into the car, he insisted that I, a lowly student, take the front seat.
I never forgot that, that he wanted me, a lowly student, to have the more comfortable front seat.
I didn’t let him do that, but I never forgot it – it changed me.
It was a lesson to me in the importance of everyone from the Christian perspective,
and how the great always strive to serve the least.
Jesus wants Peter to have a share with him.
Jesus wants Peter to see others the way that he sees them, as people to serve.
Jesus, I’m sure, hopes it’s a lesson that Peter will never forget,
an experience he will never forget.
Like Dr. Cragg’s thoughtfulness changed me and changed the way I thought about people,
so Jesus hopes that his service will change Peter,
will give him a window into Jesus’ mind,
a mind in which greatness is the greatness to serve, the greatness to love.
Normally in the ancient world it is a nameless slave who washes the feet of the dinner guests and
makes the beautiful meal possible through this service.
Tonight, though, it is Jesus, the rabbi, the teacher, the leader, the Divine One.
It is as if Jesus is saying to Peter, “Let me do this; it will change you.
And you’ll receive a share of my heart and a part of my brain.”
Jesus’ hope is that it will change Peter,
and that he in turn will become eager to wash the feet of others, and serve as Jesus serves.
Having received this gift from his lord and master,
Jesus’ hope is that Peter will pass that gift of loving service on to others.
Jesus hopes that by washing Peter’s feet, something beautiful will happen in Peter’s life:
that it will change him and that he will become a person of loving service.
Think of the communion room workers at First Lutheran Church:
their service enables something beautiful to happen every time we celebrate Communion.
Think of the dishwashers at our Food Banks and Community Meals:
their service enables something beautiful to happen every other Wednesday.
Now think of this evening, when you will have your feet washed by a worship leader,
or a fellow member, or a friend.
It enables something beautiful to happen to you: it enables you to wash another’s feet in turn,
thus opening up a beautiful sharing in Christ’s life, a sharing he intends you to have,
a sharing in his love for all people, expressed in beautiful loving service.
It will change you, this having your feet washed.
It is something you will not forget.
Being washed and then washing we enact the love we pray to embody every day as
followers and imitators of Christ, as sharers in his life, as sharers in his love.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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