Pastor Dismer’s sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 9

“Footwashing 101”: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

When police interview eye witnesses, if every one of them tells the same story with the exact details, the police suspect the story was carefully concocted.

More believable are stories with some variation: events not remembered in the exact order, some differences in details – accounting for different points of view, different abilities in observation.

Imagine that you and 2 or 3 siblings decide to each write an account, 20 years later, of your family’s life over a 3-year period.

As you write, when you aren’t sure about something you might call one or the other siblings and say, “Did such and such happen before or after Dad’s surgery?” Or, “Was Aunt Sue there for the anniversary party, or was that Aunt Betty?”

Where you didn’t doubt your memory, you would probably just write, without checking with the others, even though you might, in fact, not recall all the facts.

In the end, how different would the various stories you and your siblings wrote be? Not only would some or even many of the details not exactly match, but where the emphasis was put on any single event, and what it meant to each of you would surely be different.

Our gospel text today is John’s account of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. It doesn’t exactly match with the other gospels, as theirs don’t exactly match each other.

In John’s account, this meal took place on Thursday evening. On Friday evening, the Jews would be celebrating the Passover Feast, in memory of the time when they were slaves in Egypt. It was the time when Moses had been pleading with the Pharaoh, in vain, to “Let his people go.”

Moses had instructed the Jews to slaughter a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts, so that the angel of death would pass over their houses and spare their eldest sons. The angel of death would visit instead only the homes of the Egyptians. This horrendous event was the last straw for the Pharaoh, who finally let the Jews leave Egypt.

I mention all this, because according to the chronology of John’s gospel, Jesus would have been nailed to the cross at the same time the Jews were eating their Passover meal. As Jesus was dying for our release from the bondage of sin, the Jews were remembering their release from bondage to the Egyptians. In his gospel John used such symbolism to help us see beyond.

John’s gospel is full of such symbolism. John used symbolism to help us see beyond the historical story, beyond the basic facts, to what he thought was the meaning of the event.

Here in John’s account of the last meal, there is no mention of Jesus breaking bread and saying, “This is my body. As often as you eat it, do it to remember me.” The other gospel writers focused on this in their accounts. John, instead, told a tender story of love; of Jesus’ love for his disciples.

John told the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet – a story full of love and symbolism. Jesus knew that he was soon to be betrayed, that he was soon to be arrested and that he would die; that he would be “going back to the Father.” And knowing this, he acted out, he demonstrated by his actions, what it all meant. His dying would be his final act of obedience to his father. His dying would be his final act of servanthood, on behalf of all people.

And so Jesus got up from the meal, disrobed and wrapped a towel around his waist, and began to wash the disciple’s feet. This was always a symbolic gesture of loving service – most generally performed for each other by a husband and wife, or parents and their children. The disciples might well have offered this service to Jesus, their Lord and Teacher. But they had not. Now Jesus was doing this for them!

And when Peter questioned Jesus, Jesus used their conversation to explain why.

First Peter didn’t want his feet washed; then he demanded that if Jesus was going to do this, he’d better wash all of Peter. You can imagine Peter thinking: Lord, it’s not just my feet that are dirty. I am full of sin!

And Jesus replied that washing the feet was sufficient – and more important, that it was necessary: Unless I wash you, you have no part of me. Here is more of John’s symbolism: we cannot be a part of the cross – we cannot participate in the forgiveness – if we are not first washed. What does it mean?

Perhaps we could see the water of the foot washing as symbolic of the water that washes us in baptism. We are made members of Christ’s body in the washing of baptism, and so we are made a part of the cross. We are forgiven, and we become a part of the forgiving community.

When Jesus had finished washing the feet of all the disciples he explained further: DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I HAVE DONE FOR YOU? IF I, YOUR TEACHER AND LORD, HAVE WASHED YOUR FEET, YOU ALSO SHOULD WASH ONE ANOTHER’S.

And then Jesus made it even clearer: a servant is not greater than his master; a messenger not greater than one who sent him.

This says to me: If Jesus would stoop to this lowly position, kneeling on the floor, washing the feet of those he loved, I cannot think myself too good for such behavior. I cannot think myself above such behavior.

In John’s account of the last supper, what he chose to focus on was obedience and service.

The question for me today, on this Thursday is: am I willing to be such an obedient, loving servant of others? Am I willing to “wash feet?”

Foot washing is not a custom of our culture, but there are endless ways that I could, symbolically, render humble, loving service to others.

Let me share a touching example of loving service. This is another story from Rachel Remen’s Book: Kitchen Table Wisdom.

Rachel was on a plane, seated behind the bulkhead. Next to the window, with an empty seat between them, was an elegantly dressed gentleman. Rachel said hello, then pulled out a book and read until the stewardess serve a small lunch consisting of a salad, a bagel, and a container of yogurt.

Rachel continued reading as she ate, until she heard the gentleman by the window gasp. She looked at him. He was staring out the window. Then she saw that the yogurt had slid off his tray and spilled on his foot, his overnight bag, and the floor.

Rachel waited for him to do something. All he did was slowly pull his foot under the seat. Then she saw that his other foot was swollen and in a brace. Rachel signaled for the stewardess. When she came, Rachel asked for a wet towel, and nodded towards the mess. The stewardess went ballistic: there are 450 passengers on this plane! I am doing the best that I can. You’ll just have to wait!

When Rachel made it clear that she was willing to clean up the mess, the stewardess went and got a wet towel.

Rachel’s seatmate was still staring out the window. So Rachel began to talk to him. She told him that she had loved flying until her eyesight became poor. Now it was a struggle.

Still looking out the window the gentleman told her that 8 months before, he had had a stroke. Now he had no feeling in either arm, from the fingertips to the elbows. Yet, he was flying across the country so that he could visit his son. In a whisper, he confided that since the stoke he now had to wear a diaper.

Rachel shared that 30 years ago she had had an ileostomy, and explained: most of her large intestine had been removed, and she had a plastic appliance attached to the side of her abdomen, to collect partly digested food. Even after all this time, she still worried that it would leak, especially when she was on a plane.

Then Rachel indicated the spilled yogurt: “May I,” she asked. And she knelt and cleaned up the yogurt mess on the man’s foot, and on the floor.

John 13:34 (Jesus said) A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

FOOTWASHING 101. Amen