Good Morning Friends,
I imagine that from time to time you have served a meal to the less privileged at the expense of receiving service from them. In today’s text at the Last Supper Jesus washes the feet of the disciples along this theme in the Upper Room at Passover. But this action on Jesus’ part is met with resistance from Peter. It would not be the last time Peter picked the wrong answer to a probing question. Still, Peter needed to learn, like each new generation, that regardless of status we are to have a heart of service given as well as received. For this is the way not only to a happy life but to salvation as well. We too may need to realize that some things are for God to do for us and some things we are to do individually as an act of love for God. Here we find peace in what makes us unique. And sometimes we are to do things together that are more than just shared memories but actions where we both give and receive to maximize the benefits of love for God and for others as ourselves. But too often we have a challenge. And so, I pose this question, Are We Willing To Both Serve And Be Served For God’s Glory This Holy Week?
Scripture: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 (NRSV)
What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you! For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NRSV)
Now 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. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, 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 came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus 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.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After 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? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
John 13:1-15 (NRSV)
What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
Psalm 116: 12-18 (NRSV)
Message: A meal shared with family and friends in the face of death was the setting for the first Passover and it is carried over into the Last Supper which was also the first communion. On the night before the cross, Jesus gathered his family of disciples in an Upper Room to celebrate. He washed their feet, and they remembered the freedom and deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. They drank wine in memory of the freedom, blessing, redemption, and kingdom made possible because of the exodus. They saved a cup for Jesus’ return but were unwilling to accept that Jesus was going to die. Here they were reminded of the Passover lamb that was slain and whose blood was applied to the doorposts of the homes. They may have even remembered John the Baptist calling Jesus the Lamb of God. But they did not get it then. They still wanted to control the plan. But God was in control. So, they fell back on traditions and sang a Psalm, probably from Psalm 115-118 about the glory of God and His great love and faithfulness as they went to Gethsemane. Yet this night was different from all other nights…from all the other Passovers save the first for death was in the air. The meal was the same for it had the bread and wine, bitter herbs, and tears but it also was for Jesus, a condemned man, willing to take on the sins of the world, something much more dramatic. In today’s scripture, we have this fusion of events that takes us out of time. We look at Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and a look around at Christ in our community of faith and a look ahead to the Lord’s coming again. Here we are to seek the experience of eternity in the practice of remembering that we do not worship an exclusively external God but one that is now residing also in us as spiritually real as the blood of the covenant and the body of the Spirit of God in us. Friends, we are to realize that this life is larger than our individual experiences. We live in a community that demands both the need to serve and be served. Here music and the Eucharist and scripture and service combine as a wonderful gift of transcendence….one designed to be shared, for here we remember beyond the sacrifice of the lamb that is at the heart of Passover and beyond the sacrifice of Jesus that is at the heart of the resurrection. Here on this Maundy Thursday, filled with church traditions we are to experience God filled with the understanding that it is Christ’s love that brings us together.
And So, we are to serve and be served, love and be loved in a community that maintains dignity for its members. Christ is a perfect example in this regard for he has laid down for us the standard that no matter one’s status in life we are to serve others. Here in service, we live a legacy in the minds and hearts of the people we serve. Here we enjoy the fruit of service that extends the redemption of God’s love in us. Here we celebrated as a human family a focus on the cup of the Kingdom of love beyond dogma…here we share the experience of acts of compassion…of living in the now but not yet. Here we are about the hard work of finding meaning in our life while facing the reality of our own death and our need to be served as well. Here we see and marvel at the skill of the Master in how He responded with creativity to the secularism of his day and how the creative work of music can touch our hearts with a love that moves us to action. Here our fears are set aside, and repressions rolled away in the hope of our purpose. Here we too are raised from the dead in the silence and awareness of the reality of life. Here we live to God’s glory.
Pray our hearts are opened up with sensitivity to the leanings of the Holy Spirit, so we might discern when to serve and when to be served. Pray we declare our fellowship with Christ. Pray we remember His sacrifice and anticipate His return. Pray that the Lord our God, the King of the Universe brings forth bread from the earth and fruit of the vine to feed the whole world with goodness, grace, kindness, and mercy. Pray we make each day count as if it is our last. Pray Jesus helps us to sing a new song in our hearts. Pray the Spirit of God creates in us a heart ready to serve and be served to God’s glory. Pray that when we engage in the act of communion that we realize that Jesus is not just the giver of the feast but that he is the feast. Pray we appreciate the fellowship of believers that are indeed brought together by the love of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 