Maundy Thursday
April 17, 2014
John 13:1 – 17; 31b – 35
Why doesn’t John tell the story of the Last Supper, as the other gospels do? It’s one of the most important stories about Christians. John just says they had supper (verse 2).
John tells of Jesus teaching about bread in Chapter 6. Scholars call Jesus’ words “proleptic,” referring to something as if it has already happened. He speaks as if the miracle of feeding was a Eucharist, which John’s first readers and we already know about.
John’s Jesus preaches several long, proleptic sermons. For John’s readers and us, the sermons add up to advanced courses in theology and discipleship. Before that final Passover, John has Jesus preaching, a lot, in the place where he and his disciples have gathered to eat. John’s first readers, like us, already know what happens at the table, and what comes next.
After supper, before he starts to preach, John’s Jesus washes feet! What’s that about?
Here’s the second question: Why isn’t footwashing a sacrament? On the basis of the story the other gospels tell, and Paul’s re – telling, we call Jesus’ proleptic farewell meal a sacrament. Jesus tells his disciples to do as he has done. In John, Jesus tells his disciples to do as he has done, too (verses 14 and 15).
Jesus goes on and announces a “new commandment,” again to do as he has done (verse 34). This is law for disciples: love one another as Jesus has loved you. Does that mean washing feet?
The Last Supper and the Last Foot – washing have one important thing in common. In both acts Jesus acts out his complete self – giving for the sake of those he loves. (John can’t allow Jesus to love Judas here, but we ought not set limits on Jesus’ love.) Jesus humbles himself at table in the other gospels, and in John’s Chapter 6, by identifying himself with things as common as bread and wine. In our reading Jesus puts all his love into a common act of hospitality, an everyday thing. Even rock – headed Peter isn’t too thick to get what Jesus is about, stooping so low, thereby lifting Peter and his friends so high.
On Maundy Thursday many of us will celebrate the Lord’s Supper in ways both simpler and more solemn than on Easter Sunday. Will we hear Jesus call his disciples, including us, to do as he has done? Jesus calls us to serve one another as he served his disciples. To humble ourselves before one another as he humbled himself. To love as he has loved.
When we sit at table in the church hall, passing a loaf and a cup, do we know we are serving one another, offering gifts not our own, but which we both need? When we sit in our pews, silently receiving and passing along the bread plate and the heavy tray of little cups, are we humbled to realize we need each other as much as we need what we’re sharing?
Once, before the Communion service at a synod meeting, I invited anyone who was bearing a grudge or carrying a persistent disagreement to go and sit next to the subject of his or her ill will before sharing the bread and wine. As I prayed with eyes open I saw one person move across the church. Two men were humbled. It was truly sacramental.
One Sunday at Communion I encouraged the congregation to look one another full in the face as they passed the dishes down the rows. Later, a woman told me of how she discovered the person sitting next to her had been a manager at her former workplace, on the opposite side of a dispute. They hadn’t seen each other since. One served the other. Both shared in a sacrament of service.
