Maundy Thursday, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Maundy Thursday, Yr A (2023)                                             The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

John 13:1-17, 31b-35                                                                  St. Andrew’s on-the-Hill

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            who was, and is, and is to come. Amen.

Jesus and his disciples gathered together to celebrate the festival of the Passover

as they had many times before.

But…

this time was different.

Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to depart from this world.

He knew what lay ahead,

            and although he had been telling his disciples again and again

     that he would be betrayed and beaten and mocked and killed,

they did not believe him.

Or at least they did not really understand.

It was not that they were calling him a liar…

            they just could not fathom that the man they believed to be their Messiah,

                        their King,

    the one who was to overthrow unjust power and bring healing and Life to them and their people…

                 it just could not be that he would suffer and die.

That was not possible.

So, they could not act on that reality.

Except for Mary.

She knew.

She anointed him with costly perfume…

            and a heart overflowing with love and tears,

      wiping his feet with her hair

so that she could carry the scent of his love and death and life with her…

                  the new life he had offered her,

                                    the life she would never forget.

So…

            this night…

       this Passover…

 was different.

As everyone sat around the table -

            carrying on as usual -

      Jesus got up,

                 took off his outer robe,

and tied a towel around himself.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet

            and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

He knelt down at the feet of each of his disciples, one by one.

Jesus,  

the Teacher,

the Messiah,

the Anointed One…

     He knelt in a place of humility,

            caressing each foot as Mary had caressed his own.

Peter objected

            as Jesus continued to wash.

Peter,

            who not too long after

     would deny that he even knew Jesus…

                        not once,

                                    not twice,

                              but three times!

And Jesus knew this.

Nevertheless,

 he knelt down at Peter’s feet

and washed them.

And Judas.

Dear Judas.

       Jesus knew that Judas was soon to leave them and betray him to the authorities.

Nevertheless,

Jesus knelt down at Judas’ feet

            and bathed them.

The gospel writer tells us before relating this story that Jesus

            “having loved his own who were in the world,

                        he loved them to the end.”

He loved them to the very end.

He loved them knowing that they would betray him and deny him and abandon him.

And then Jesus turns to them and says,

            “If I have washed your feet,

        you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

“I give you a new commandment,

                     that you love one another.”

“Just as I have loved you,

you also should love one another.”

As Jesus’ disciples we, too, have received the command to wash one another’s feet…

            to anoint one another with love.

That can be hard to do,

            especially if we have been betrayed or

or our personhood denied or harmed in some way.

And it is often more difficult when the one who has harmed us

is someone we know and love.

And yet, Jesus says that this is how others will know that we follow him.

            He does not say it will be easy.

Richard Rohr says,

“[Jesus] threw himself headlong in the direction of inclusivity and wholeness:

toward a purity of heart that comes not from withholding,

but from letting everything flow….

“For we know that’s what real love does:

it changes outcomes and creates whole new people….”

If you have ever hurt someone else,

            and they offered you forgiveness and love,

                        you know how that creates space for healing…for new life.

      You know the power of the anointing of love.

As we love one another,

we participate in a continuous, mutual anointing of love.

On this night Jesus washed his disciples feet;

            he will soon be mocked and beaten and hung on a cross.

He will not fight back with any power of violence.

He will show that love overcomes fear.

Love one another, Jesus says,

            as I have loved you.

Kneel before one another,

            look into the eyes of the other,

                        step into the other’s pain and share your vulnerability.

Mary’s anointing…

            Jesus’ washing…

      the anointing of an endless outpouring of love.

This is what it means to share in the Body of Christ.

            This is what it means to be the Body of Christ.

In the words of Téresa of Avila:

Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world.
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world.

Amen.