DAILY GRACE
April 9, 2020, Maundy Thursday
Hello Everyone,
I wish we could all be celebrating Maundy Thursday together this evening, but the following devotion may help us to remember when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and broke bread with them around a Passover table that for us, is now, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. I wish you grace and peace as we move ever more deeply into the Lord’s passion.
Pastor Dave
Scripture: John 13:1-5
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.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
“[Jesus] began to wash the disciples’ feet.”
For three years these twelve followers of Jesus had listened to him preach, watched him heal and raise the dead, felt his power as he forgave sins. But now Jesus was doing something unexpected. Evening meals had been times of camaraderie and conversation, discussion and sharing. Tonight, however, Jesus was coming uncomfortably close. The conversation died down as Jesus knelt and tenderly washed and dried their feet. In this act, at this moment, Jesus seemed to say, “Everything that has gone before has been a preparation for this. Knowledge, information, and moral conversion are not enough.” He broke through all their inner barriers with this act of gently washing their feet. And he got their attention!
Imagine washing the feet of family members, friends, employees, employers, or enemies. It is an uncomfortable thought because it is so physical and so intimate. We often treat each other like shoe salesclerks. We’ll help others fit their shoes, but we’ll rub our noses as we do so, sit as far away as we can, and stay with them only as long as necessary. (And please, please keep your socks on!) Jesus is calling us to relate to one another as hospice nurses washing a terminally ill patient. What tenderness, gentleness, and acceptance there is on the part of nurse and patient in this act of vulnerability!
As Jesus knelt before his chosen apostles, he said with this act of physical contact: “I know you. I know all about you, and I love you. I will keep on loving you.” It is difficult to believe that Jesus can know us and love us. It is even more difficult for us to know another and love that person.
Perhaps that is why Jesus continues to sustain this prolonged personal contact in the Lord’s Supper. As the Last Supper, the celebration of Holy Communion is about familial, human, essential things, where we too are touched, held, and washed by Jesus in very intimate ways.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, wash me from the leprosy of self-hate. Wash me again and again until I can love myself because you have loved me, loved me enough to give your life for mine. When I receive you in the sacrament, it is easy to be distracted or bored. Lord! Impress on me how close you are at this precious moment. Break through my inner barriers with your intimate personal presence. Amen.
Contemplation
You know me and you love me.