Daily struggles, Trials and Reconciliation - Maundy Thursday 3 Part Reflection

Service Link: https://youtu.be/J_WeUAG3agg

Reading: John 13:1-17, 33-35

Washing of the Feet - Daily Struggles

Jesus was about to die and yet one of the last things he does is wash the disciples' feet. If we only had a few hours left to live and be free, would this be one of the things we choose to do? Why does Jesus do it? John gives us the context in vs. 1-3, which points us to the reason. 

First, it happens during the Passover, that annual celebration remembering how God saved Israel from judgment and death. This hints at the fact that Jesus’ act is tied to how God will deliver us. 

Second, we hear that Jesus knew he was about to go to God. This tells us that Jesus' death is the reason he washes their feet. There is something that ties the two together. 

Third, we hear that Jesus loved them and this was a way in which he loved them to the very last second.

Fourth, we hear that Judas was already being led by Satan to betray him, and yet Jesus chose this moment to wash his feet too. Telling us that Jesus wants to wash even those that have or are planning on betraying him. He wants to save everyone.

Fifth and lastly, Jesus washed their feet because all power had been given to him. It was one of Jesus’ great acts of power to humble himself for them. 

This act of washing someone’s feet was a sign of honor, which a master would usually bestow through a servant on his honored guest. It is Jesus who is all deserving and yet humbles himself to lift us up. He wants to save everyone even those that are about to betray him (though we can still choose to reject Jesus). He will love us to the very end, even if it means immense sacrifice, and this is tied into our great salvation which will lead us to the promised land.

We are meant to do this for others too, serving, speaking, giving, and lifting them up in such ways, but we need to experience this washing clean. You might be thinking of baptism, but that is the washing of our whole selves. This is the washing of our feet, the dirt, and grime that we accumulate in our daily lives and for that we need to daily turn to Christ, repent, and be washed clean.

Reading: Matthew 26:19-30

The Last Supper - Reconciliation

Again, as Jesus is about to die, he serves the disciples supper, but not just any supper, the Passover Seder. This is a dinner full of stories and symbolism - pointing us both to our grief and our greatest hope. But we do not hear that part of the meal, instead, Jesus adds to it. He breaks the bread and gives it to them telling them that this is his body given for them. He is creating a lived-out prelude to the death he is about to die for all of them. So he tells us why he dies, it is for us. 

Then he takes a cup of wine and he gives it to them saying “Drink from it, all of you, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”. He tells us to share in this one cup. He shows us that the wine we drink and the blood that Jesus will shed on the cross is creating a new promise of a restored relationship with God. Sadly, just like the washing of the feet, it will not be for all as many will reject it, but it is for the forgiveness of sins. It is so that all of our evil and wrong might be washed away, inside and out and so that we might find a new relationship with God through a promise. 

We might not realize how much we need this forgiveness, but we do. Just take a moment to think about how distant you sometimes feel from God. Or think about the inability sometimes to know his presence or hear his voice. Those are all signs of the distance that our sin has created. This supper is an invitation from God to come to him, to meet him in a physical substance, and to know him more fully. 

This meal is most fully known in the supper we are about to have together, but I think in profound ways this is supposed to be every meal we eat too. Jesus chooses bread and wine for a reason. These were staples in practically every household and diet and in the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us that every time we eat or drink we should remember him. Not just at church but every time. Every meal is a reminder of a sacrifice, the animals, the farmers, and God’s sacrifice to fill us, sustain us, and lead us to an even better life with Him. So, every meal should be the Lord’s Supper. 

Reading: Luke 22:39-53

Prayer in the Garden - Trials

The very last thing Jesus does before he is arrested is to go up to a mountain of olive trees. Like every single one of these acts, this has more symbolism and speaks into the grand narrative of Scripture in ways that I won’t be able to speak to at this time, but ultimately this becomes a great moment of testing for Jesus and the disciples. 

Jesus knows what he has to do, but he doesn’t want to. Like us, Jesus doesn’t want to suffer or die. That is a natural desire, but sadly right now it is a reality. For Jesus, it didn’t have to be. He was God, He could have called on his angels to lift him up into heaven like Elijah and Enoch. There, in a garden under the trees of bounty, Jesus chooses to give up his will, his life for God’s will. Where Adam and Eve were in a garden and chose themselves and only earned death, Jesus chose God and gave up his life so that we might live. 

Where only a few minutes earlier, Jesus had given his disciples a cup of promise, forgiveness, and new relationship, Jesus now accepted the cup of wrath that should have been ours. It is as if we had a cup of poison in front of us and Jesus switched it for his own. He took our punishment. Jesus did what was right and shows us how we are meant to follow God.

The disciples did not live up to it. They could not even stay awake to pray, just like we so rarely keep up our prayers. They would soon face the trial and they would not measure up, but they should have been praying to be delivered, to stand up to the test. 

You see in our daily lives we are faced with many little choices, how we treat others, who we reach out to, how we act and think. All of these things have effects on people, the world, and their relationship with God, but they are often simple and easier. Small wrong choices can pile up to create a heavy load, clouded eyes, or a wall that blocks us and others, so we need to daily have those washed away through prayer, repentance, and humble service in community. But every so often there is a trial in our life, that challenges our faith and relationship with God. These become pivotal moments where we either make God’s kingdom known or we destroy a pocket of it. We need to be praying and preparing ourselves for whenever these trials come.