Maundy Thursday Sermon 2021

 

Maundy Thursday 2021

John 13

 

You cannot love your neighbor unless you know that God loves you.  It is not that you must first love yourself.  If you don’t know how to love God or your neighbor, how are you supposed to love yourself properly?  We love ourselves too much.  That is the problem.  Every sin is self-love and self-esteem.  Every sin arises from pride that eschews loving God above everything and your neighbor as much as yourself. 

 

The Law requires that the servant wash his master’s feet.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve.  But who is your God?  There is no God but the man who took of his outer garments, knelt down on the floor, and washed His disciples’ feet.

 

 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.

 

You cannot wash your neighbor’s feet unless Jesus washes your feet.  Our Lord is not instituting a footwashing ceremony.  He is teaching us who He is.  You cannot love your neighbor or God unless God loves you, and He does, and you need to believe it.

 

Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”  Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

 

It is only after Christ’s death that Peter understands.  Jesus washes and cleans His disciples right before they all abandon Him.  One denies Him.  Another betrays Him with a kiss.  One runs away naked. He washes all their feet.  He goes to die for them all, for those who would not help Him, but would add to His burden. 

 

Peter said to Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet.”  Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”  If Jesus doesn’t wash you, you have no part with Him.  You don’t have any of Jesus, if He doesn’t forgive you.  You don’t have anything of God’s if He doesn’t serve you.  You can accomplish the greatest things the world admires; you can give all your possessions to the poor and give your body to be burned, but you will have no love if God does not kneel down and wash your dirty feet.  You will not have the true God; you will not have any real and abiding love; you will have no hope in this world; you will have no confidence about what God thinks about you; you will have no good works that last and endure through death; you will have only judgment and your own pride, if God does not stoop down, and in flesh and blood like yours wash away all that is wrong with you, all that is filthy in you, all that is sinful.

 

Jesus said, “You are clean, but not all of you.” Because He know who would betray Him.  That is Judas.  Jesus washed Judas’s feet as well.  But Judas did not believe.  He let sin rule over him.  Greed began in his heart, and it grew, and money became more important to Him than His Lord and His words.  The forgiveness of sins is never forced on anyone, but Jesus lays down His life even for those who betray Him, deny Him, and abandon Him.

 

Examine your life.  Is sin ruling over you?  Are you addicted to sin?  Do you foster in your heart resentment against people whom you should love?  Do you hold a grudge or anger against someone, and refuse to forgive?  Do you fantasize with lustful thoughts and keep doing it, and even fan the flames with unclean behavior?  Do you refuse to be content with what God has given you, so you love money, and you hold it for yourself and your own plans without thinking of God and your neighbor?  Do you cheat?  Do you lie?  Are you continuing to do this, thinking that you can control this sin?   Do you excuse your behavior by blaming others, parents who weren’t good enough, a boss who isn’t kind enough, a spouse who isn’t loving enough?  You are not clean.   You are dirty.  Repent.  Do not come to Jesus to have your feet washed when you don’t want them washed.  Going to the sacrament without repentance and faith is deadly.  It kills you.  Judas ate and drank Jesus body and blood to his own judgment.  He came unworthily.  He came without repentance.  He ate and drank without faith that God forgives him, without discerning the Lord’s body, and with no intention to amend his life with God’s help. 

 

Repent.  Understand that unless Jesus washes you, you have no part with Him.  None.  There is no part of Jesus you can claim if He does not forgive you those sins which are too strong for you, too dirty for you to wash off.  You cannot claim Jesus as your Savior if He doesn’t wash you.  You cannot claim to love your neighbor, if you don’t accept His love. 

 

Every doctrinal error stems from not wanting Jesus to wash you.  It stems from thinking you can clean yourself.  It’s thinking that you can have some share with Christ of life and God without Him washing your feet.  It’s foolish. It’s expecting a baby to change its own diaper.  There is no love unless you are loved by God.  And God is the Man who stoops down, kneels in front of you, and serves you. 

 

And so Jesus teaches us what the sacrament of the altar, the Lord’s Supper is.  It is not our sacrifice to God as the Papists teach.  It is not a symbol of something He did, so that we have to rouse up our own minds to serve God by properly thinking about Jesus.  It is not our serving God.  It is not our washing Jesus’ feet.  It is Jesus serving us. 

 

He gives bread and He says, “This is My body.”  There is no reason to believe that He is speaking symbolically, allegorically, or metaphorically.  Three evangelists and St. Paul all give the same meaning of Jesus’ words.  Jesus explained many parables that were hard to understand. He doesn’t need to explain this, because He means what He says.  It really is His body. It is the body the eternal Son of God joined permanently to His divine Person.  It is the same body that was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered, under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.  It is the same body that served you.  It is the same body that only loved and always bore your burden.  It is the same body that was obedient in your place.  It is the same body that knelt and washed His disciples’ feet.  It is the same body that was whipped, that was spit on, that was punched, that was pierced with nails and a spear.  It is the same body that heaved bitter sighs and bore the anguish of sin and all of the guilt you could ever feel – and this body that felt it all, that endured the punishment He gives to you to eat to give you peace.

 

That is why He also gives His blood.  He gives you chalice of wine and says, “This is the New Testament in My blood,” “This is the blood of the New Testament, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  This is what He washed you with.  It is the same blood that flowed through His veins when He walked on earth.  It is the same blood that He sweat in great drops, in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is the blood that flowed when the whipped Him, and pierced Him.  It is the blood that washed away the sin of the world.  This He gives to you. 

 

The Papists teach that the Supper only forgives venial, or lesser sins.  That is a lie from the devil.  The body of Christ bore the sin of the world.  The blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us from all sin. 

 

Therefore, confess all your sins.  You can’t count them.  Who can understand his errors?  It is all one big mess. We are so filthy. Even as Christians, who know that we stand righteous before God by faith in Christ, we have this flesh that is sinful; we have the carnal mind lurching after pride and vanity and worthless things; we have a world tempting us and seducing us with her power and pleasures; we have an enemy prowling around, trying to devour us.  And that is why we need this God kneeling down in front of us, and serving us. 

 

And we have Him.  We have Him today in the sacrament of His body and blood.  As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.  Our sins caused this death.  And so we throw it all in a heap and we say, “There is nothing in me but sin and guilt and death; I have no part with you, Jesus, with what is good and godly and heavenly and right, unless You wash me!  Unless you come to me with that merciful and lowly heart that you showed to those who would abandon You, deny You, and even betray you – unless You wash me, I will have no part in you. 

 

So wash me; cleanse me with the hyssop branch that sprinkled the blood on the doors of Israel.  What sin can stand against this blood that pays sin’s debt?  What guilt can stand against this body that endured sin’s punishment?  Take all that I am and have done with all that You made, and wash; plunge me into Your wounds.  There is no condemnation there.  There is God serving me and strengthening my weak faith, and kindling in me the fire of His holy love. 

 

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways.  I will love them.  I will take off my outer garments, that is, I will lay aside my pride and position and whatever I think I am entitled to, and I will kneel down and forgive my neighbor, not just those whom I love, like my wife and children and parishioners, but my enemies, those who hate me without cause, those who deny me and betray me – before them I will kneel as You, my Servant-Lord, have so often done for me.  I will try to amend my life and make it better by Your help alone, by Your mercy alone, since You alone can guide a Christian’s life in mercy and love. 

 

And so come, dear brothers and sisters, to this altar for the love that you need.  Come and find Your God, who is the Man Christ Jesus, using a sinner like His apostles were, to wash your feet.  He washed His apostles’ feet, and how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace.”  And there is peace in  the forgiveness of sins.  If your Lord and master is kneeling down in front of you to serve you, then kneel down and be served, and you have every part with Him, every good, every joy, every promise, every hope, and a certain conviction that you belong to Him who has conquered death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel that you believe.  Amen.