Maundy Thursday: It's About You
John 13:1-5
Sometimes we wonder where did Maundy Thursday come from. The word "maundy" actually comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means "command." It's where we get the English word "mandate."
That word "command" is specifically referencing a moment Jesus shared with His disciples the night before He was crucified. Most of us know the story of what happened. It seemed like an ordinary Passover dinner. The parade was over, but the after effects were still lingering for the disciples.
Jesus knew what was coming. He knew this moment was different from all others. He wanted one final opportunity to eat with His closest friends. He wanted to share with them what was going to happen. He wanted to give them a living example of what He was calling them to become.
Ultimately, Jesus gives the command, the mandatum that would mark the event. He tells them - -
34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" - John 13:34
Jesus has been teaching, healing and demonstrating the power and reality of the Son of God. But now, at this moment, Jesus becomes intensely personal with the disciples.
Everything has been about bringing healing to the people of Israel and to the far ends of the earth. But now, it’s no longer about everyone else, it’s not even about the person next to you. It was becoming personal. Because it was about you!
In order to wrap their minds around the words of Jesus, to go into the world and love one another as Jesus loved them, they needed to understand what Jesus meant.
Before they could ever understand what the command called for them to do, first they had to wrap their minds around what that command revealed about them.
See, before the command to love others is about others, it's about us. Before it's about the person sitting next to you, it's about you. If this unique love was ever to be for anyone else, first it had to be for them.
They had to grasp the depths of what Jesus was telling them. You see, in verse 1, John tells us - -
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
What does that mean to love them to the end? Does it mean what it says, I loved you until I died, end of statement? No that’s not what John is telling us. A better way to translate that last part, would be to say "He loved them fully, or to the utmost. He loved them to the greatest possible extent."
It’s not so much a statement about loving to the end of time, but it’s more about the depth of His love for them. It’s a statement about how deep the love of Christ was for the disciples. What does it look like to love a person like that? What's so special about this night is that Jesus pauses to make it very clear to show them.
You see, as the night began, the disciples didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It was another Passover celebration. They would remember the exodus from Egypt, laugh a little and remember the power of God.
But, in the middle of the meal, Jesus interrupts it. He shakes up the ordinary - -
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist.
5 Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.
WOE! Jesus gets up and He takes off His garment, which would have left Him in a tunic, a shorter garment, kind of like an undershirt. This garment was actually what servants in that day would wear to serve a meal. And Jesus gets up from the table and He physically looks like a servant.
Years later, the apostle Paul would write to the Philippian church the famous words of Philippians 2, writing -
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a SERVANT, being born in the likeness of men. - Philippians 2:5-7
Understand what Paul meant with these words. He could hzve said Jesus came and served. But Paul actually says Jesus took the form of a servant. Jesus actually changed His clothes and became a servant.
This is really important because there’s a difference between choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant. When we choose to serve, that might be a good thing, but at the end of the day, we’re still in charge. We still decide whom we will serve and when we’ll serve. We usually make those choices when it’s in our favor.
How many times have we served, because we knew it would make us look better. We knew when to work and when not to work. You see, when you choose to serve, you’re still in control. You choose when and how you’ll serve.
But when you become a servant, serving actually becomes a way of life. You relinquish, you give up the need to control and the need to gain anything from those whom you serve.
In those days it was customary for the servant of a host to wash the feet of their guests. It was a sign of hospitality. Roads were dirty. There was no sewage system. You could see the wear in a person’s feet.
It wasn't a pleasant job. If we were to be honest, we wouldn’t want to be the one touching someone’s dirty, smelly feet. Think about their toe nails that were uncut, hammer toes, bunions and all. Nope, that’s not my job.
You wouldn't want anyone except for the lowly, the people you didn't care much about, to see and touch your feet. If you were trying to earn the love of someone about you, trying to impress them, then maybe you would, but you wouldn’t want the person whose love you were trying to earn wash yours.
Jesus was showing them a new way. You see, John wrote in verse 3 - - - "Jesus knew … He knew He had come from God and was returning to God. So Jesus got up and became the servant. He became the one’s who don’t have anything to prove, because they know who they are.
Jesus knew he had come from God, and he knew he was going back to God. His capacity to serve was directly related to His security in that identity.
Before we can go into the world, we need to hold onto what Jesus is calling us to do and who we are to be. Before we can love others, we need to know the Gospel is about us. Before it's about the other person, it's about you. We love because God first loved us and showed us how to love.
We all have something we want to hide. We all have a past, sometimes we’re not very proud of that past. Yet, Jesus takes off His outer garments and became a servant . . . not for your neighbor, but for you.
He wanted to show you the most supreme example of love. My prayer for you tonight is that you would hear the words of Jesus. You would accept His gift of love, and you would accept His gift of servanthood. You see, when Jesus tried to wash Peter’s feet, there was a little disagreement.
6 Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to Peter, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. - John 13:6-10
Peter understood Jesus had become a servant and Peter couldn’t accept that. Peter was not worthy of Jesus washing his feet. Yet, when Jesus told Peter that he would have no part in His kingdom if he refused, Peter wanted Jesus to wash all of him. But Jesus said, you don’t need it, you just need your feet washed.
That means Peter was already cleansed by his faith and belief in Jesus, but Peter, just like us would need that daily cleanisng for his and our sinfulness.
Friends, the same is true for us. When Jesus comes to us and says “Let me wash your feet . . . don’t turn Him away. He’s giving you the supreme example of what love is. Love is sacrificial. It is bending over as a servant, it is humbling yourself and considering others to be more important than yourself.
Do you know that love? There's an author by the name of Brennan Manning who writes about God's love this way. He wrote, "Jesus came not only for those who skip morning meditations, but also for real sinners, thieves, adulterers, and terrorists, for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams." To the worst of the worst, to the one beyond hope, to you and to me, he says, "Give me those feet." Do you know that love?
The command Jesus gave that night is great, and it has changed the world —
"Go out and love, just as I have loved you." But remember, before this command is about others, it's about you. Before you can love others, you need to allow Jesus to love you! It has to be for you. Jesus said, "Just as I have loved you." Do you know that love?
Between the commotion and celebration of Palm Sunday and the noise and celebration of Easter, let things get profoundly personal. Let yourself be loved with a love that shakes up the ordinary, a love that loves to the deepest depths, a love that reaches deep into all the shadows and the contradictions of life.
Jesus is asking you right now . . . "Give me those feet."
Let’s pray!
