Based on Exodus 12:11-14, 1Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:3-16
Here we are at Thursday night in Holy Week – a momentous night in an already momentous week in Jesus’ life. Jesus, always the dutiful Rabbi, planned to eat the seder meal with his disciples. He picked a special place, and all the required elements were assembled, including his students. They gathered to recount all of the saving acts of God toward God’s people, and in so doing, they imagined God continuing to do what God had done. This will not be a standard seder meal, however, because Jesus wants them to experience God’s salvation in a new way – through loving touch and servanthood.
Salvation is a difficult concept for most Christians because it has been manipulated and reinterpreted by different branches of Christianity for millennia. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible defines salvation in this way: “God’s deliverance of a people or an individual from a threatening situation from which that group or person is unable to rescue itself. The threatening situation may range from political oppression, unjust accusations, military disaster, difficult labor or physical illness to a spiritual consequence of sinful behavior or the experience of God’s wrath. The agent of salvation may be a human liberator, king or judge; nevertheless, clearly it is God who provides the agent, and it is God alone who ultimately saves….” The description of salvation goes on to note that “…Salvation has yet to be realized completely in the life of believers. Jesus speaks of an end to history and the coming of the Son of Man, the final saving act of God….”
There is an imaginative song that is sung during the seder meal called the Dayenu. The Disciples and Jesus would have sung it to remind them of God’s saving acts of the Exodus. Here’s an excerpt: “If G-d had taken us out of Egypt and not made judgements on them; [it would have been] enough for us. If G-d had made judgments on them and had not made [them] on their gods; [it would have been] enough for us. If G-d had made judgments on their gods and had not killed their firstborn; [it would have been] enough for us…If G-d had split the Sea for us and had not taken us through it on dry land; [it would have been] enough for us…”
Our scripture readings started with the night of the last and most terrible plague, and through all of them we are reminded of the salvation of God. The reading from Exodus is a snippet of a much larger narrative focused on getting the Hebrews prepared to leave Egypt and providing a new commandment of remembering. God knew that this final plague would trigger the release of the Hebrews and so God wanted them to be ready to move as soon as possible. God commanded Moses to tell the people to eat fully clothed and to leave nothing behind. God was going to save the people and through Moses bring them out of their enslavement in Egypt to God’s holy mountain where they would worship God.
The reading from 1Corinthians amplifies the reading from the Gospel according to John. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is in the Upper Room with his students on the night of his betrayal sharing the Passover meal. While the meal was in progress, Jesus got up and worked his way around the table washing each of the disciples’ feet. Jesus lovingly touched each of his students, including Judas who would betray him with a kiss, and taught them an important lesson about how they needed to be in the world and be together after he was gone. Jesus’ salvation lesson was all about unconditional love – loving everyone rightly, even those who might betray our kindness and our love. The Disciples would need to carry that lesson out into a world that would treat them the same way it did Jesus.
On this night, how do you imagine God’s salvation in your life? Chaplain David Keck gives us some thoughts on how to imagine the salvation provided by Jesus, writing, “…One problem here is that the lectionary gives us only the beginning of Jesus’ farewell discourse. His later words in chapters 14–17 (of the Gospel according to John) clarify the provocative washing of feet and declaring of a new commandment. He (Jesus) speaks of joy: ‘If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. . .I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete’ (15:10–11). Earlier in John, he speaks evocatively of abundant life (10:10).
And in the Maundy Thursday reading, Peter boldly calls for a full shower instead of just a foot washing. At some level Peter is already aware of what Jesus makes explicit in chapter 14: that Jesus is indeed the way, the truth, and the life and that to be separated from him would be simply unbearable. Yes, there is to be betrayal, abandonment, suffering, and death, but this is all a part of the glorification of God. The atmosphere is victory; joy most certainly will be complete. Sorrow will be turned to joy, just as the travails of childbirth lead to delight in the newborn (16:20–22). The words and gestures of our Maundy Thursday lesson are part of the fullness of joy that awaits the disciples - the joy that Jesus also extends to the church….”
“Maundy” means command, and the command to love one another extends to going the extra mile to make another feel that love – not just metaphorically, but actually, physically, concretely, repetitively. We are commanded to love in a way that positively changes the lives of the people we touch. This is what the Holy Communion meal reminds us, as we once again take the essence of Jesus into our bodies. We are not just to be reminded of what Jesus did – we are to remember to use our bodies to do the things that he taught. This is how we grow into our salvation – into the mind and heart of Jesus; one loving act of transformative touching at a time.
Imagining God’s salvation resident in the teachings of Jesus is not difficult – most of his teachings are pretty straightforward. Where we often fall short is in imagining how to do what Jesus commanded…loving God with all that we have and all that we are and loving everyone else as much as we are loved by God. To be the people who love in a way that builds deep relationships with others, and through that transformative touch our lives become part of God’s salvation work in our world.
The events of Holy Thursday remind us that we are commanded to bring God’s salvation love to all. Let us imagine that we will go from here this night, empowered and enlivened by this meal to love unconditionally and to find ourselves rescued by God’s love from the situation which we have been unable to rescue ourselves - the situation of not loving God and each other fully and well. For God’s salvation always comes through unconditional love. Amen and amen!