A pastor named Kwanza Yu tells a beautiful story of the death of his father in Seoul, Korea. All six of Pastor Yu’s brothers and sisters were present for his father’s last hours. He says that all of them could feel the pain of his struggle as he tried to communicate with them. But their father had lost the ability to speak. Finally, says this pastor, their father motioned toward their oldest brother as if to say, “Get me a glass of water.”
So the oldest son went over to the sink and filled a glass with water and brought it to their father. Interestingly, he wouldn’t drink it. Instead, he motioned as if to say to his son, “You drink it.” So his eldest took a sip. Then his father signaled as if to say, “Give it to your sister.” And that is what the eldest son did. And then their father motioned for the glass of water to be passed to all the other siblings. And suddenly one of the brothers said, “Oh, my God. He’s serving communion.”
Pastor Yu ends his story by saying, “And then we knew that neither death, nor life, nor powers, nor principalities, nor anything else in all creation could separate any of us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.” (1)
That’s what the communion table of Christ is all about. Theologian N. T. Wright reminds us that, when Jesus wanted us to understand the cross he didn’t give us a theory or a theology, he gave us a meal. As Bishop Wright says: “We break bread and drink wine together, telling the story of Jesus and his death, because Jesus knew that this set of actions would explain the meaning of his death in a way that nothing else—no theories, no clever ideas—could ever do.” (2) What a meaningful statement that is. Jesus “didn’t give us a theory or a theology; he gave us a meal.” That’s why we’re gathered here this evening. I hope you realize what a special event this is.
I read about an event that took place on Sunday, July 18, 2010 in Ruhr, Germany. On that date one of the busiest highways in Europe became what some called “the longest table in the world.” Officials closed a 37-mile section of the A40 Autobahn in the Ruhr region of Germany so people could walk and bicycle down that roadway or sit at one of 20,000 banquet tables set up on it. An estimated 2 million people came to enjoy an event the director hoped would connect people from many cultures, generations, and nations. (3)
That’s a grand undertaking by the inhabitants of that region, but there is a spiritual sense in which you and I are truly sitting at the longest table in the world this Maundy Thursday evening. People all the way around this globe are gathering in groups like ours to celebrate that event more that 2000 years ago, just before the Passover Festival, when Jesus and his disciples gathered for their Last Supper together.
The evening meal was in progress, says John in his gospel, and the devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus. Then John tells about a portion of that evening’s festivities that the other gospels omit and it makes this event even grander. At one point in the meal Jesus 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 his waist.
Can you imagine the shock and the confusion that went through the disciples’ minds as they slowly realized what was happening? Rabbis don’t wash their student’s feet. If anything it is the other way around. Washing feet was the job of the lowliest servant in the house. And here was their Master with a towel around his waist carrying a basin to wash their feet. This was an event bordering on the scandalous. You can tell it by Simon Peter’s response. When the Master came to Simon Peter, Simon asked, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” This is so like Simon Peter. His heart is in the right place even when his foot is headed directly at his mouth.
Jesus answered him like this, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” I’m sure Jesus loved Simon Peter for moments just such as these. In a few moments Jesus will tell Simon that he will deny him three times. After all, all of us are flawed. But still he knew Simon loved him.
Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
When Jesus had finished washing his disciples’ feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”
Did he mean this literally? Should we have ritual foot washing in the church every time we share the Lord’s Supper? Some Christians believe we should. But I believe rather that the Master was giving them a simple object lesson in what it means to follow him. Listen to his words in verses 34 and 35 which serve as the climax of this passage: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Do you see that rather than simply giving us another ritual to add to our seasonal celebrations, Christ is showing us how we are to love one another in the church? Sometimes we forget what Christ’s love is all about. The washing of the disciples’ feet reminds us of exactly what Christ’s love is all about.
For one thing, we are to love one another in such a way that even the least gifted among us is exalted in our fellowship. A story appeared in Pulpit Resource magazine several years ago about a family in which one of the children suffered from cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy refers to a group of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement and muscle coordination. It is the most common motor disability in childhood.
From time to time the pastor would visit this family. It was a disturbing experience. He said that the whole family treated this child with cerebral palsy as if he was invisible. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge his existence.
But one day the mother in that family called the pastor and asked him to come to the house. Something had happened the day before that she wanted to tell him about.
It happened in the afternoon, she said. “She was busy with her work, ignoring her unfortunate son just as she always did. He was down the hallway watching her from the shadows. Then she said that she felt something strange. She said she looked down the hallway and she saw Jesus with his arm around her son. She looked away for a moment and when she turned back all she saw was the boy alone.”
It was a strange experience, but the most amazing thing is what happened in that household because of that mother’s experience. Her relationship with her son was transformed. But more than that, said her pastor. That mother turned that personal experience into “something ethical, almost cosmic . . . If you would go into the town in which she lives today, you would find programs in place for . . . disabled kids which she founded because of that experience. She turned that [vision of Jesus] into a changed world.” (4)
I would love to see everyone in this church family have the same kind of vision this mother had—to see the arms of Jesus around everyone in this fellowship so that we would recognize that everyone in this church family is of equal importance to Christ. We have gifts and we have resources that differ. But all of us matter to the Master. That is the first thing we need to see from this story of the washing of the feet by Jesus. We are to love one another in such a way that even the least gifted among us is exalted in our fellowship.
Here’s the second thing we need to see: None of us is spiritually superior to the others. We are all sinners saved by grace. Actor Bruce Marchiano played Jesus in the biblical movie Matthew. Marchiano was so affected by that experience that he wrote a book about it. He says that some things in the movie were spontaneous--unrehearsed. For example, it is the Upper Room and Jesus is washing the disciples feet—one being Judas.
Marchiano writes about this scene: “It would be easy to write (Judas) off as an avaricious creep, but I have a feeling it wasn’t that way at all . . . I can’t help but think that he was confused, impatient, fearful, proud and ambitious—in other words, your everyday kind of guy.”
As the Last Supper scene progresses, Marchiano says he will never forget it. Judas reached in front of Jesus to dip his bread into the water bowl and Jesus rushed his hand into the same bowl to meet it. “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me,” said Jesus.
Judas froze: “Surely not I, Rabbi?”
Marchiano writes, “That tore my heart to shreds. Here was this guy walking straight into his own destruction. He’d had every chance a man could have, and here he was, signing not just Jesus’ death warrant, but HIS own. Emotionally, I just lost it. I grabbed his face, burying my head into his shoulder, grieving, “Yes, it is you.”
“Judas’ eyes filled with tears in that moment. Then he pried my hand off his face and pushed me away. But, yes, folks,” Marchiano concludes, “Jesus was passionate for even this guy . . .” (5)
It’s easy to demonize Judas, but friends, the heart that beat in Judas is the same heart that beats in us. None of us is spiritually superior to any other. We are all sinners saved by grace. We are to love one another in such a way that even the least gifted among us is exalted in our fellowship. We are to accept one another regardless of our background or achievements or failures. Why? Because Jesus gave himself for us all.
In his book, Ragman and Other Cries of Faith, Walt Wangerin Jr. tells a rather unpleasant but also inspiring story about a particular species of spider. While most spiders leave their eggs in a sac and wander off, one species does not leave her young’s fate to chance. She stays to protect them and find food for them.
Like all spiders, when this one eats, she injects her poison and digestive juices into her prey. In a sense the victim becomes her stomach as she sucks out the life and the food from the victim’s empty shell. It is not a very pleasant thought, but it is part of the circle of life.
However, sometimes there is no victim to be had. In this case, when there is no food for the little spiders, the mother of this species will inject her poison into her own body and give her young one last meal, herself. She dies and gives them life. (6)
It is a somewhat grotesque analogy of what Jesus did in our behalf. He gave his life that we may live. Now think about that concluding verse to the story of the washing of the disciples’ feet: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” We are to love one another as Jesus loved us—he who washed his disciples’ feet.
1. Kwanza Yu, http://www.ulch.org/vsermon.asp?id=202.
2. Simply Christian, (HarperOne, 2010), pg. 151.
3. “World’s Longest Table” by David J. McCasland in Our Daily Bread, https://odb.org/2012/04/05/worlds-longest-table/.
4. Author unknown. Contributed. Cited at http://www.sdumc.org/sermons.html.
5. Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley. Source: Bruce Marchiano, In The Footsteps Of Jesus, (Harvest House Publishers), pp. 101-102.
6. (Harper and Row, Publishers, San Francisco), pp. 26-27.