Maundy Thursday: We Love Because He First Loved Us

The first gift given on Maundy Thursday is the gift of Christ’s body and blood. The second gift is the washing of feet. John 13 tells us, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” The first thing to notice here is that Jesus is absolutely secure in who He is in God. He knows He is the Son of God…He knows God the Father has everything under control…He knows that though He will endure great suffering in the days to come, everything has been foreordained the victory will be His in the end.

Because Jesus is so secure in this knowledge, He is able to demonstrate to His disciples the essence of servanthood. In the times of the Bible, when sandals were pretty much the only shoes, walking through the streets of the city would be a messy affair. With no sanitation or street cleaners, think of the gunk that would gather on a person’s feet as they walked. And so when you arrived at someone’s house, they would provide their servant to wash your feet and make you presentable for the gathering. A master would never do this job as it was a menial, disgusting task. Only a servant would do it. But Jesus—Son of God, Master and Lord, Rabbi and Teacher—bends down and does this for the disciples. Jesus is showing that He has come—wonder of wonders—to serve us. That is what Jesus’s whole life on earth was about—serving us. It is what the cross and resurrection was about—serving us. And it is still what He is about—serving us and caring for us at all times. That is the amazing thing. Jesus gives to us before we give Him anything.

And only after all of this: giving us His body and blood, and washing our feet, does Jesus give us a commandment. Only after all of this does Jesus say to us: “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” (John 13:34-35).

Christ woos us to Himself, through the giving of Himself, and out of that depth of love, He begins to transform us. He calls us to distinguish ourselves by our love for each other. I think if we look at the history of the Church, we will find all too often that this has not been the case. We have gotten into arguments over silly things, we have been petty and prideful, we have not cared for those in need, we have failed to love people enough to confront sin amongst us, we have failed to recognize in humility our own depth of sin.

The solution though is not to just try harder to be a better person. The solution is to let ourselves see how Christ loves us…to receive His freely given gifts…to marvel at the wonder of how He loves us. And as we experience this amazing, robust, strong love of Christ, we grow in love toward each other. We sometimes take baby steps and fall down on our face, but His forgiveness picks us up again and sends us forward again. As we learn humility, a watching world sees that we have something that the rest of the world does not. We don’t have to claim our rights. We are loved, and therefore we can love.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gifts! Amen.

photo credit: Supper via photopin (license)

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