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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this evening’s sermon comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated.
It was kind of an awkward moment that night. All of the apostles gathered around, but the most important social grace that was a part of that culture had yet to be done. Who will do it? Would Peter take the lead? No. No, he ends up arguing with our Lord. James and John, the two brothers. No, they don’t either. All of them looked at one another to see who really would humble themselves to be the menial servant to wash each other’s feet. That important social grace in that culture. None of them would humble themselves. For they all thought that was someone else’s job. Sound familiar? Someone else’s job and not ours? Yes. The job to love by serving. None of them would do it. It was someone else’s job. It was the Lord’s job.
Scripture says, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, knowing that he must be the servant of all. He used his power not to control but to love and to serve. He used water to cleanse the apostles’ dirty feet that had walked the streets and the byways of that region. And he will use his blood poured out to wash their dirty souls and yours, serving you.
Now as he is washing their feet, it’s kind of an awkward moment that continues. Because as he’s washing their feet, no one stops and gets up to help him. Now I’ve seen you all in the fellowship hall when we’re moving chairs and tables, and you’re sitting there watching, then you go over and help. But the very men upon whom the church is built did nothing. They sat there and watched. Awkward indeed.
It was Peter who finally did speak up, but even when he spoke up, he didn’t take up the basin or the towel to take it from his Lord. He let his Lord continue on serving. He argued with him because he kept saying, “Well, not me, not me,” because he kept thinking service had to come in a different package, a different manner, not the way that God intended it to be seen through Jesus. You see, God can only look down. There’s nothing greater than God. He only looks down.
You and I are tempted to look up, not so much at God, but at positions, at prestige, at honor, at respect that we feel and demand that’s due us. But rarely do we look down. When the apostles had their feet cleansed, they had to look down. And when they looked down, who did they see but God at their feet? Cleansing their feet. Washing them. Jesus was teaching them. In fact, he asked this question. After washing their feet, he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you?” Now that’s a very good question for us to ponder this evening. Do we really understand what our Lord has done to us and continually does to us?
He’s the one who receives you back time and time again, calling you by your name, the name he gave you at your baptism. But you’ve got to look down for that, don’t you, when he served you. Your Lord has fed your soul with his holy absolution of forgiveness given to you to bind up the wounds that either you have done to yourself or you have done in scuffling with another individual. But you had to look down to see him bind up your wounds, didn’t you?
Your Lord has placed his very body on your lips and has quenched your thirst with his precious blood, sustaining and healing your soul. But again, when it’s laid upon your lips, you have to look down to see it and receive it by faith. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” Jesus asked. He doesn’t want you to admire the washing of his disciples’ feet. He doesn’t want you to admire the forgiveness that he feeds you in this supper. He desires you to follow his love as a mark of being his child and not the world’s child.
The world is always looking up how it can become higher than another. And God is always focusing us to look down in lowliness and humility. The same direction he himself chose to look and to serve. “A new commandment I give 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.”
Because you have been served, and because you have been loved, and because you have been forgiven by your Lord, you are to serve, love, and forgive one another. Seems easy, right? But it’s not, is it? You see, it’s not just a matter of avoiding saying something. It’s not just a matter of avoiding interaction so that we don’t get our tail feathers ruffled or our hackles up. It’s also about speaking out in encouragement of other people, giving thanks outwardly for people’s work and kindness. Yes.
If we’re all about what to avoid and not to do, Jesus is all about also what we should do, but choose not to for whatever reason. Just like the disciples did not choose to wash each other’s feet, but Jesus chose to wash their feet. “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” because of who you are—his disciples, he says—and because of whose you are—his beloved children.
Serve one another with love and forgiveness. Be his mouth of love and forgiveness with words to one another. Be his hands and his feet with love and forgiveness in service to one another. That’s what marks us as different than the rest of the world. The world is all about what you do, I will do back to you just so I can call it even. Or I will do this to you so that you will return the favor to me. That’s how the world functions and lives, and it will also be how the world dies. But not you. You have been set apart. You have been chosen. You will have been regularly served and fed God’s holy supper to strengthen you and to grow you into his children.
Jesus answered Peter when Peter asked his question, and he said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Every time you come here to this place, every time we gather at that altar to look down, it is Jesus who serves us. And we do understand because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good toward us, kind toward us, loving and forgiving toward us.
Blessed are you if you do this. This is the Lord’s feast of love with which he serves you and binds you to one another. In his love, practice such love.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen. You may be seated.
