Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010

“ 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 first shall be last, and the last, first. Jesus spoke important words to His apostles, words we can use to guide our lives.

         This world is upside down. It's like living in Australia, or what we used to think that living down under would be like, stuck by your feet to the world, but the world is above your head and your feet are up there and your head is down here and the sky is way down there below you. That is what living in Australia must be like. Their heads pointed toward the south pole. Their feet pointed up our way. It's weird, isn't it? I actually saw a world map yesterday at Chico High School drawn with the South Pole at the top, and the North at the bottom. But even living upside down to us, Australians feel just as normal as we do up here in the north: for to them the sky is up, their feet are down on the ground and nothing is out of the ordinary.

         And just to be truthful, you know, we aren't living on the top of the world at all: we're living on the side of the world, sticking out at a funny angle, like this.

         All this to say that the world is upside down. Not physically , because physical “up and down” is merely an orientation to some arbitrary “up and down.” Spiritually, however, “up” is God and “down” is away from God. We live in a world that is upside down. It is backwards, upside down, and inside out. And yet, because we have always lived here, it seems right to us. “Everything is normal here,” we believe . “Anyone who thinks this is wrong is out of their mind!”

         But it is upside down, and somehow the disquieting feeling that something is really wrong at the core of our experience eventually comes to every life. The world doesn't work the way it's supposed to work. We may believe that everyone is a child of God and just has to realize it to live in harmony, but then you meet somebody that is just plain mean and selfish and hateful and proud, uses ugly language and thinks uglier thoughts-- and that person stares back at you from your mirror and it's you . And you think: “I'm upside down. This isn't the way I was supposed to be. If I don't get some help from whatever is right side up, I'm gonna die here. This isn't living right. This isn't the way I'm supposed to be.”

         Then comes Jesus . He is the perfect man. He is God reaching into His creation, a creation made for perfection but which has become perverted through a terrible revolt. God as man is reaching to us, and showing us what it is to be truly right side up. At first it looks quite funny 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 in the world is He talking about? How can my righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? How can I be perfect as the Father in heaven? What is this?

         But now comes Jesus : He says , “I am the way, the truth and the life... He that has seen me has seen the Father.” Then Jesus stands up, walks to a corner of the room, and begins to undress. He takes off the outer garments, and gets right down to his under clothes. Then He wraps Himself in a towel and pours water into a large bowl. Carrying it to each reclined disciple at the table, and kneeling on the floor at their feet, He instructs His amazed Apostles to let Him wash their feet. He takes the role of the lowest slave boy . Whoever is least in a great household cleans the feet of the guests of his Master . Such a role is never taken by the Master! What is He doing?

         He is turning this upside down world back right side up . Our way of doing everything is that might and power make things 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 originally created for order has been abused, and every one raised to power has at least been offered the opportunity to crush those beneath him or her.

         Christ brings a difference . He shows us that the Master in God's kingdom washes your feet . And if any would be a leader among Christians, that person would 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 children; every boss take authority and give service to his or her employees. The one above gets under the one below and lifts her or him up. The whole structure of human enterprise, in Christ, is being lifted upward, and all in Christ go back up to God . The backwards world is being renewed frontwards, but until we get through it, we'll still think it's wrong.

         Peter wouldn't do it . It's wrong to have Jesus wash the disciples' feet. We should wash His feet! John the Baptist complained in much the same way: “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Jesus answered him, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Whatever that meant, Jesus was going to take the role of a penitent, of a slave, of a servant, of the meek, in order to teach us how to overcome the world. It was on the Cross, as a condemned criminal, that Jesus overcame the world. That's all wrong, we cry out. True, but to turn an inside out world right side out, many things must be done that seem wrong, for the whole world needs redemption, and we sit quarreling about how right or wrong we feel about it?! Jesus rebuked Peter , and Peter overdid his repentance. It was not necessary to take a whole bath. What was Jesus showing them?

         At baptism, we are washed all over. The sins of our life are washed away. We are new creatures . These new creatures still must live in this sinful world, and we walk the dirty streets of life. The sins of human existence cling to our feet, and our feet, just our feet , need a washing from time to time. Now, it isn't really about feet , but about those sins that beset us, even Christians, even the redeemed. We need regular cleaning . We need to occasionally confess our sins.

         Jesus commanded them to do it for one another. Now, foot washing never became a regular weekly feature of Christian worship. They understood, at last, that it meant something deeper, more profound. Confession, absolution, the Body and Blood ... these were things everyone needed and Christ's ordained ministers were empowered to provide this regular cleansing. After His resurrection, He 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 sinful woman of the city came to see Jesus as he sat at dinner in a Pharisee's house. She washed His precious feet with her tears, and for a towel, she wiped them off with her hair, and then kissed them. Blessed is that woman, and her humility. Everybody in that room but Jesus scorned her . But he forgave her of her many sins and blessed her. He turned the whole world upside down for those proud men that night. The sinful but repentant woman's world had already been turned right by Jesus.

         Know ye what I have done to you? I have obeyed the Lord and have begun to learn the sweetness of humility in service, and have given you the blessed joy of being lifted up from above. Be lifted up . When the world is finally right side up, everything will be lifted up that exists in Christ. The first shall be last, and the last first. And we will see it and say, “It's right. Yes, it is finally right.”

PFH+