Sermon on Maundy Thursday - Clarendon Team Online Service – Thursday 1st April 2021
Exodus
12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-7, 31b-35
There can be
no doubt that this year, as with last, this important service in our Christian
Year, Maundy Thursday, has to take on a strange and unusual form as we
celebrate it together online. Normally,
we are familiar with the physical aspects of this service which give us such a
vivid imagery of what took place on that evening immediately before that first
Good Friday – the washing of feet, the partaking of bread and wine and the
vigil in the garden – all real and actual physical elements of those important
events.
Whilst we cannot
do anything of these things together this year, we can, nevertheless, reflect
strongly on their significance and the words associated with them. In our Gospel reading John reminds us of
Jesus’s words to Peter when he demanded that Jesus wash all of him, of Jesus’s
revelation that one of those who was going to sit at the table and eat and
drink with him at the last supper was to betray him. We all know the story so well, I dare say,
but have we ever thought to really reflect how these words connect with us
today? How the disciples must have felt
to hear them and the disbelief and anguish they suffered after Jesus was
arrested?
Let’s look a
little closer at each of these elements.
The washing of feet.
This was usually the task of the lowliest person in a household – an
unpleasant task as the feet, however clean the rest of person might be, would
still be rather dirty and smelly as their owner had trudged through the dusty
dirty streets in open sandals to reach the house of their host. The host would
therefore arrange for somebody to undertake this task so that the guest would
be completely clean. Jesus is thereby reminding his disciples that he came into
the world to serve, not to be served and implores his disciples to likewise
serve each other. We are his modern day
disciples and we too are expected to act humbly and serve one another. We no
longer wash the feet of our guests because we have rather more sophisticated
footwear these days but there are many other ways in which we can show our
humility and service – by giving our time and money, without detriment to our
family, to help others. During this past
year of the pandemic it has been wonderful to see so many doing just that by
helping those who find it difficult to get out or who have struggled in other
ways.
However,
this story of the feet washing has another major point to illustrate. Peter,
once more, doesn’t really understand what Jesus is trying to portray. He asks
Jesus to wash him all over thinking that he, in allowing Jesus to do this, is
currying favour with him by allowing him to do this and fully cleansing
him. As mentioned before, it would be
expected that the guest had cleaned himself up already before attending upon
his host except for the feet which, of the necessity of travel, would have
become dirty. That is why Jesus says “You have no need of further washing if
the rest of you is clean” and then goes on to reveal his knowledge of his
forthcoming betrayal when he says “but not all of you are clean”. A clear
reference to Judas Iscariot’s complicity.
The bread and wine. We are informed in the bible that
after the meal was concluded Jesus took the bread and wine and this was shared
out amongst the disciples. In our
Epistle reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us of
the words spoken by Jesus as he did so. He reminds us that the bread and wine
are symbols of his soon to be broken body and shed blood. Of course those words are very familiar to
all of us as part of the Liturgy for the Eucharist or Holy Communion. As we normally go up to the Altar to receive
them during the Holy Communion service these words are repeated as the bread
and the wine are administered to us.
Today that cannot happen because of the Covid-19 restrictions. However, I would like to suggest a good way
of using these elements to remember the great sacrifice he made for us.
Back in
those times, wine, corn/wheat and oil were often the means by which people were
paid for their labours. These were essential – corn or wheat to make bread, oil
as fuel and wine as purified water. Every day people would eat bread and drink
wine – a common every-day and essential occurrence. In asking his disciples to
remember his sacrifice on the cross each and every day of their remaining lives
he took those everyday necessities and used them to symbolise his forthcoming
fate. Likewise, as his modern day disciples so should we remember him in our
everyday lives and be in communion with him; not just when we take the
sacraments in church on a Sunday or at a formal church or worship service but
every time we sit down with our families and/or fellow Christians to eat and
drink. Meal times were very important to Jesus, he loved a good party or feast,
and similarly to the early Christians as we read in Acts how those early
Christians met in each other’s home to break bread and presumably also drink
wine remembering Jesus’s sacrifice as they did so.
At Passover
celebrations in the Jewish faith, an empty chair is set aside for Elijah at the
meal table, who, it is believed, will return to join in those Passover
remembrances one day in the future. It
is therefore very significant that Jesus’s trial and execution occurred at
around that time of year when the Passover is celebrated and why Jesus used
that special supper as the occasion to meet with his disciples and tell them
what was about to happen. The symbolism is massive but at the same time simple
and ordinary. That is how Jesus wants us
to remember him and have a relationship with him – in our everyday lives as a
fellow diner with us. In many
traditions, for example in the navy, during or after a meal there is a toast to
absent family members, friends and fellow serving officers and ratings – to
remember them and feel close to them.
Jesus wants us to feel close to him too at those times.
The vigil in the garden. The third element of the Maundy
Thursday services is the vigil in the garden. In past years many of our
churches have gone to wonderful efforts to make these gardens inside our
churches so realistic to enable us to re-enact the time Jesus spent in the
Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples in order to pray to his Father before
he was arrested, tried and executed. He
asked only one thing of his disciples, minus of course Judas, and that was that
they stay awake with him. Of course we
know that they fell asleep! If any of
you have undertaken the vigil on Maundy Thursday you may have yourself started
to nod off. I have to confess that I
have. In a way that was also a betrayal of Jesus, and, as we afterwards learn,
they also denied their involvement with him and/or ran away. It is a reminder that we should at all times
be vigilant in our Faith, to be alongside him as he is alongside us – remember
when Jesus said to his disciples – “you know not when the thief may come in the
middle of the night”. It is yet another
reminder that our Faith should never be put away in a box to bring out on
Sundays or on special occasions, but that we should to awake to his presence
with us at all times.
As we move
forward in our Easter remembrances and celebrations, hopefully with family and
friends as much as we can, let us apply all of these elements to our thinking
and remembrance of the great sacrifice which Jesus made for all of us, atoning
for our sins and the great debt we owe to Him every day of our lives.
Amen MFB/156/31032021
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