The Messiness of Salvation: John 13:1-17, 31b-35 - Maundy Thursday

 ¹Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then 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. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

  ¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

  ^31b“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NRSV)

He called her “his guardian angel.”

 

My grandfather was cared for by a nurse’s aide named Maria, who worked at the nursing home where he lived out his final years. Incidentally, she cared for my grandmother when she went into that same home in 2007; and she even cared for my great-grandmother when she was a resident in that same home during the mid-1980’s. Back then, Maria and her sons had just emigrated from Guatemala. 

 

Maria did for them all the things they could not do for themselves—bathing, dressing, getting in and out of bed. Not everyone can do the work she did with such gentleness and compassion. Even if she hadn’t been a devout Catholic, she was still God’s servant. And I could not help but think of her while pondering Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.

 

From their perspective, this was a bizarre thing for Jesus to do. Normally, this task was relegated to household slaves. But here is the rabbi; the teacher; the Lord—washing their feet; debasing himself right before their eyes.

 

But this humble, gracious act has much to teach them about who Jesus was, what his death will mean.

 

Soon, the disciples’ entire world will crumble around them. Judas will betray Jesus, Peter will deny Jesus, and the remaining disciples will desert Jesus. Soon, they will face the enormity of their failure as disciples. Soon, they will see all the forces that defy God destroying their Lord. But here is Jesus, washing their feet; setting an example for them to follow; loving them to the end. 

 

I imagine all twelve of Jesus’s disciples could wash their own feet. They hardly needed Jesus to perform this task for them. And yet, there are two times in your life when you cannot do such a thing for yourself—particularly, when you’re an infant, and when you are infirm. Unless someone else does this for you, it’s not going to get done. 

 

One of the worst crises you’ll ever face is the loss of self-sufficiency—when you cannot do things for yourself that you once did. It is a crisis when you reach the limit of your own capabilities. You want to keep going; you want to carry on; but you can’t. Your strength fails you. 

 

You are captive to sin and cannot free yourself. You confessed this at the beginning of worship. Sin is dead weight, pulling you deeper and deeper into its quicksand. You are captive to forces more powerful than yourself—the forces of chaos and death; the forces of evil at work in the world. Unless someone stronger and more capable does for you, you are done for.

 

This is where Jesus comes in. This is why he washes your feet. More importantly, this is why he bears his cross. You cannot free yourself from sin’s deadly grip. You cannot defeat death. But God can do it. 

 

Jesus is nailed to the cross with every sin commit against God and neighbor, yet he loves and accepts you unconditionally. Death does its worst to Jesus; and still, his love for you and the world is so strong that death cannot keep him in the tomb.

 

I believe Jesus washes feet because the salvation of the world is a messy business. If salvation meant Jesus sparing you from every misfortune, and pulling you out of your troubles like Superman, you would never know what it means to be saved by grace. If Jesus taught you how you could rise above life’s problems through positive thinking or right beliefs, you’d eventually outgrow your need for him. 

 

What makes Jesus so amazing is that though he is God, he saves you in a state of humiliation: washing your sins away and taking them upon himself, accompanying you through the messiness of life, going into the grave ahead of you, descending into hell to free you. What you are helpless to do for yourself, Jesus does for you. 

 

The best teachers of Jesus’s love are those who follow his example—be it through their graciousness in doing the work they are paid to do, like my grandfather’s nurse’s aide, or by those who do for you (or others) because the need is there and because it is the right thing to do. You cannot fully understand grace until someone does for you what you cannot do for yourself—and not just because you need their good works, but because of your inherent worth as a child of God.

 

To follow Jesus’s example does not demand doing anything dramatic or glamorous, but by your willingness get down and dirty in the messiness of life, where the seeds of salvation are sown. This is where and when Jesus does his best work, and where you can make the greatest difference. 

 

This new commandment is not just an example to follow, but who we are to be to each other and to the world—that we live each day in Jesus’s victory over death and the devil, so that no one is left behind, but all are cared for and loved.