Posted on 03/28/2024 5:48:17 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson
“Love to Receive, Love to Give” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35)
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Yes, Jesus did that. And he also tells his disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” And so our message tonight is all about love: The love with which Jesus loved us, and then the love he would have us give to one another. “Love to Receive, Love to Give.”
First of all, love to receive. This is the love his disciples received in the foot-washing. Let’s set the scene. It’s the evening of the Passover. Time for the Passover meal. This is the meal that all Jews ate every year to commemorate the time when the Lord brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt. It was a special occasion, this Passover meal, solemn and sacred. Jesus desired to eat this Passover with his disciples. They would have the meal in Jerusalem, and they would need to find a place where they could have it. Earlier that day, Jesus dispatched Peter and John to go to a certain house and get a large upper room furnished and ready. And they made preparations for the meal.
So when they get to the upper room, the reclining couches for dinner are there, the meal is prepared, and somewhere in the room there was a jug of water, a wash basin, and a towel. This was nothing out of the ordinary. These items were for the purpose of washing feet. You see, in that culture it was customary that when you walked some distance to get to where you were going, and you entered a house, you would take off your sandals and have your dirty, dusty feet washed. Either the host would provide the water and towel and you would wash your feet yourself or, if the host was well-to-do enough to have a servant, the servant would do it.
But in this case, there was no servant on hand to do the task. The water and basin and towel were there, but who would wash everyone’s feet? It may have been an awkward situation when they got there. “Is Jesus going to tell one of us to do the foot-washing, maybe the youngest of us?” No one seems to be sure what to do. No one volunteers.
No one volunteers. This is the bunch, remember, that was concerned about status and pecking order and who’s the greatest. These guys are worried about who gets the best seat, the most prestige. They’re not thinking of how they can serve, especially when it comes to a lowly, menial task like washing people’s feet. No one volunteers. How slow of heart they are to “get it,” even after all this time with Jesus. Hey, you know, maybe they’re a little bit like us.
So they just sit down to dinner without anyone washing any feet. But now Jesus does the unthinkable. He gets up, takes off his outer garments, rolls up his sleeves, wraps the towel around him, and grabs the water and the wash basin. Wait, what is he doing? He can’t be serious. This is crazy, shocking! Jesus, the dinner’s host, the head guy, humbling himself like that? Taking the place of a servant? Jesus, the master, the teacher, is actually going to wash his disciples’ feet? This can’t be! This is just not done! It’s beneath him!
So Peter objects: “Lord, do you wash my feet?” This is like when Jesus had told Peter that the Son of Man was going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die, and Peter said, “Never, Lord! Not you!” Now it’s “You shall never wash my feet!” Peter still doesn’t get it. He still has in mind the things of men, not the things of God. And the things of God are that this Messiah will humble himself and serve. That’s why Jesus came in the first place. Such is the love he now puts into action.
Christ’s love demonstrated in the foot-washing points to the love that will take him to the cross. That’s where his love will take him in just a few hours. The foot-washing points to the cross. Even the wording of our text points that way. Notice how John describes Jesus’ actions. It says, “He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.” Then afterward: “When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments. . . .” Notice that. John says that Jesus “laid aside” his garments and then “put them on” again. But he doesn’t use the common Greek words for taking off and putting on clothing. Instead, it says that Jesus “laid aside” or “laid down” his clothes and then “took them up” again. And these same words occurred a couple of chapters earlier, where Jesus talked about “laying down” his life and “taking it up” again. They’re the same words.
In the foot-washing, Jesus lays down his garments and takes them up again. In the crucifixion, Jesus lays down his life, and then in the resurrection, he will take it up again. The foot-washing points to the cross. And in both the foot-washing and the cross, Jesus’ garments are taken off of him, showing how he humbled himself to serve, even to the point of death on a cross. Think of that tonight when we close the service with the stripping of the altar. In a vivid way it will portray the shame, the humiliation, the actual stripping bare, that our Lord endured for us.
The foot-washing and the cross are of a piece. They both flow from Christ’s great love for us sinners--his love for us slow-of-heart, self-serving disciples. But because of Christ’s humble, self-giving love--love that serves and suffers, love that washes feet and washes sinners--by that same cleansing love of his we now have a share with him. We share in his righteousness and his life. We are washed clean by the blood and the water that flow from his pierced side. You and I have been bathed in the waters of Holy Baptism, and we are completely clean. Now our feet do get dirty and dusty from walking in this sinful world. But Christ washes our feet time and time again in Holy Absolution. When Christ washes you, you are clean indeed.
Jesus shows his love for his disciples by washing their feet, and that same love takes him to the cross. There is the love to receive. But that means that now his disciples will have love to give. Jesus tells them and us: “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. . . . A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
“A new commandment”: OK, so what’s new about it? What makes it new is that it is love connected to Jesus. It is love that flows from faith in him and the new life we have in him.
When Christ institutes the Lord’s Supper, he says, “This is the new covenant in my blood.” And the new covenant is that God not only forgives our iniquity and remembers our sin no more, but also that he writes his law on our heart. New covenant, new people, and thus the new commandment. Jesus makes all things new, including our love for one another. It’s love for one another, Jesus says, “as I have loved you.” There is no love to speak of, unless it’s love that comes from Jesus. We know his love, we receive it, and that’s what makes us able to love others with that same kind of love. Servant love. Humble love. Self-giving, foot-washing love. “A new commandment I give to you.” But Jesus is more than just some big boss man, barking out orders, telling us what to do. No, our Lord gives us the very love we need to do what he commands.
Are there feet for you to wash? Are there people for you to love and serve? Well, just look around at your fellow church members. The opportunities are there. The room is already furnished and ready. You have been furnished and made ready, furnished with the love of Christ, made ready to serve. You are disciples of Jesus, and Jesus gives you the love you need to put into practice. So is there a towel around here somewhere? What are some ways you can put love into action, in concrete ways? First of all, do we even know the needs of our fellow members? That takes spending time with them, getting to know them. Are there fellow members to whom you can show love? What would it take to be proactive, to take the initiative in that? To take the initiative in finding ways to serve? The Jesus kind of love takes the initiative to serve.
But in order for you to love and serve, you yourself first need to receive Christ’s love on an ongoing basis. Now the Lord’s Supper, the sacrament he instituted on this very night--this Supper will strengthen you for your life of love and humble service. Jesus knew who he was and where he was going, and that made him secure enough to get up and serve. So also with you. You know who you are in Christ and where you are going. You are secure in God’s love. This will strengthen you for service. When you know that your sins are forgiven--and this Supper assures you of that, for Christ gives you his body and blood for that forgiveness. . . . When you know who you are and whose you are and where you are going, then you will be free and secure enough to humble yourself and serve. When we receive the blessed Sacrament, God strengthens us through this salutary gift “in faith toward him and in fervent love toward one another.” Here at this altar is love for you to receive, and then you will be able to pass that love on to others.
Dear friends, if you ever wonder if God really loves you, think back to the upper room. Think of the towel and the wash basin and the water and Jesus on his knees. Think of this Supper, the feast of love in which Christ blesses us even now. Think of the agony in the garden, the unjust trial, the beating, and the stripping bare. Think of the crown of thorns, the nails, and the spear in the side. There you will see love. There you will find love. Love to receive. Love to give.
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not 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, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” . . .
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Ping.
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