Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for Maundy Thursday
April 8, 2004
“Know ye what I have done to you?”
“Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
These words of Christ challenge us both to rise and to fall, to increase and to decrease, to come up higher and to seek the lowest seat. It is akin to His words, “the last shall be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:16 Or, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” Matthew 23:11 If you don't understand what He is saying, or why He is saying it, you do understand Him. You're just built the wrong way to have it make sense right away.
Our world is upside down. It's like our childish idea of living down under in Australia, upside down, stuck by your feet to the world, but the world is above your head and your feet are up there on Australia and your head is down in the sky and the sky is way down below you. Your head is pointed toward the South Pole. Your feet are pointed up toward the equator. The Australians live upside down naturally, having done it all their lives, Mate. They feel just as we do up here: for them the sky is up, their feet are down on the ground and nothing is out of the ordinary. December is hot, and July is cold. Everything is normal, y'know.
To be truthful, if you know geography, we in northern California are living on the side of the world, sticking out at a funny angle, and not right up and down either.
All this to say that our world can be upside down, and you would never know it. Not upside down physically , which is merely an orientation to some arbitrary up and down, like the axis of the earth, where magnetic north is “up.” I mean spiritually , where “up” is God and “down” is the direction away from God. We live in a world that is upside down. It is backwards, like living in a rear view mirror, and it is inside out, like a crab whose skeleton is on the outside, no bones inside at all. And yet, because we have always lived here, and lived this way, it seems right to us.
But it is upside down and the reverse of God's plan. At some time in every life, we sense the disquieting feeling that something is really wrong at the core of our experience. The world doesn't work the way it's supposed to. We might like to idealize all humanity as though everyone is a child of God and everybody can in harmony. If they would only try. Then you meet somebody who is just plain mean and selfish, hateful and proud, who uses ugly language to injure the innocent and who thinks even uglier thoughts—and that person stares back at you from the mirror, and it's you .
“I am upside down. This isn't the way I was supposed to be. But how do I know that? I don't know, but if I don't get some help from whatever is right side up, I'm going to die here. This isn't living right. This isn't the way I'm supposed to be.”
Into this upside down world comes Jesus . He is the perfect man. He is God reaching into His creation, a creation made perfect but became perverted through a terrible revolt. God incarnate as man is reaching to us, and showing us what it is to be right side up. It looks strange to us. We don't understand the things He says: “The first shall be last... To him that has, more shall be given... A man went out to sow seeds...” What is He talking about? How can my righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? How can I be perfect like the Father in heaven? What is this new teaching? How can it be true?
Into this upside down world comes Jesus . He is Master and Savior. He says , “I am the way, the truth and the life... He that has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:6,9
Supper is over. Jesus stands up, walks to a corner of the room, and begins to undress. He takes off His outer garments, and gets right down to his under clothes. Then wrapping Himself in a towel, He pours water into a large bowl. Kneeling on the floor, He instructs His amazed Apostles to let Him wash their feet. He takes to Himself the role of the lowest slave boy in a household. Whoever is least cleans the feet of the guests of the Master. Never the Master! What is He doing?
He turns this upside down world right side up. Our own path for achievement is that “ Might makes right .” The powerful oppress the weak, the large oppress the small, the rich oppress the poor, the glamorous oppress the plain, males oppress females, adults oppress children. Every human structure created for order has been abused, and everyone who has risen to power has at least been offered the chance to crush someone beneath him or her.
Christ comes with a different Spirit. He shows us that the Master in God's kingdom washes our feet. And if any would be a ruler among Christians, that person must be the servant of all. Likewise, any husband must, in the pattern of Christ, both lead and serve his wife; every parent must oversee and serve her child; every boss must rightly use authority and give service to employees. The one who, in authority, is above another, gets down and lifts the other up. All human enterprise, in Christ, is lifted upward. Everyone who is found in Christ returns to God. The backwards world is being renewed frontward, but until we get through it, we will still think it's wrong.
Peter wouldn't do it. It was wrong to have Jesus wash His disciples' feet. They should wash His feet ! You remember that John the Baptist complained in much the same way: “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Matthew 3:14 Jesus answered him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15 Whatever that meant, Jesus was going to take the role of the penitent, of the slave, of a servant, of the meek, in order to teach us how to overcome the world. It was on the Cross that, as a condemned criminal, Jesus overcame the world. That's all wrong, our senses cry out. True, but to turn an inside world right side out, many things must be done that seem wrong, for the whole world needs redemption.
Jesus rebuked Peter, as usual, and Peter overdid his repentance. “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” It was not necessary to take a whole bath. So, what was Jesus showing them? At baptism we receive water on our heads, but by the Spirit we are washed all over thoroughly. The sins of our earlier life are all washed away. We become new creatures. These new creatures still must live in a sinful, upside down world. We must walk on dirty streets. The sins of our human existence cling to our feet, and our feet, only our feet, need a repeated washing. The washing of the feet isn't really about dirty feet, but about the sins that beset us, even us Christians, even we the redeemed. We need regular cleansing. We need to periodically confess our sins.
Jesus commanded them to do it for one another. Now, foot washing never became a regular feature of Christian worship. They finally understood. Matthew, Mark and Luke don't even relate this foot washing incident. But confession, absolution, the Body and Blood are things everyone needs for maintenance and growth. Christ's ordained ministers are empowered to provide these sacraments as a regular cleansing. After His resurrection, Jesus would more directly commission them: “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”
Only one person is recorded in Scripture as having washed the Savior's feet. A woman of the city came to see Jesus as he sat at dinner in a Pharisee's house. This sinful woman washed His precious feet with her tears, and for a towel, she wiped them with her hair, and kissed them. Blessed was that woman in her humility. Everybody in that room other than Jesus scorned her. But he forgave her of sin and blessed her. He turned the whole world upside down for those proud men that night.
Know ye what I have done to you? What the deacons and I have done? We have walked the path of sweet humility through service. We have given you the joy of being cleansed and lifted up. Be lifted up. When the world is finally right side up, everything that is in Christ will be lifted up. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. And we will see it and say, “It's right. Yes, it is finally right.”