On the night he was betrayed....

“REMEMBER”
John 13:1-17, 34-35
Faith United - Holy Thursday
March 20, 2008


They had absolutely no idea what was about to happen
How could they?
Do you ever look back
after something terrible has happened
and think, ‘if I’d only known’?
If I’d only known…what?
I would have paid more attention?
I would have said “I love you”
I would have appreciated them more …?
The truth is,
even if we had known
it never would have been enough
there would always be more that we could have done
The friends of Jesus
didn’t know the significance of this night,
Jesus bore that burden alone
He alone felt the weight of the coming storm
he watched his friends at the table
laughing, eating,
kidding each other
energized by the celebration of Passover
a traditional meal, shared by intimate friends
He watched them laugh
he loved them, just looking at them
they had no idea that their world was about to fall apart
and it pained him to realize that
He prayed that later they would remember this night
that they would remember what he did and said
that after the shock and grief had lessened
the images of this night would comfort them
strengthen them
give them resolve
but most of all, remind them
of how much he really did love them
Jesus must have felt the weight bearing down on him
a couple of times, perhaps, he got tears in his eyes
Finally, taking one long look around the table
He pushed himself up from the floor
Without a word,
he took off his outer robe
and put on one of the servant’s aprons
Some of the men around the table glanced at him
with a questioning look
Still, he said nothing
He went over to the basin
and poured water into it from the large pitcher nearby
He quietly, wordlessly began to wash the feet
of his stunned friends
as they froze, staring at him
with a mixture of horror and embarrassment
When he got to Peter,
of course, Peter couldn’t just be quiet
“Master, YOU are washing MY feet??”
Talk about stating the obvious
Jesus smiled at his horrified friend,
noticing the blush coming up from the collar of his robe
and reddening his face
“Peter,” he said,
“You don’t understand now what I’m doing,
but it will be clear enough to you later…”
Jesus felt the catch in his throat
and swallowed
Peter pulled his feet out of Jesus’ hands, indignantly,
“You will NOT wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said calmly,
“If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
Peter shoved his feet back into the water,
“not just my feet, then, but wash my hands!! My head!
` Whatever you want!”
Jesus smiled and continued washing his feet
he went about it slowly, deliberately, lovingly
sensing the tension in the room
caressing the feet of the ones he loved
and caring for each as if they were the only one
in the room
They thought it was just another Passover meal
they had no idea of the significance of the night
Only later, when they looked back
would it all be frozen in their memories--
That night it all started
the Thing they couldn’t stop
the Thing that just got out of control
out of their hands
and no matter what they did
they couldn’t fix it
they couldn’t save him
they couldn’t stop the madness, the horror
but for now, they were delightfully oblivious,
reclining comfortably, with freshly washed feet

It was crazy,
they’d think back later,
wasn’t Judas there?
Yes, of course he was there,
they were all there
Did Jesus wash Judas’ feet?
He MUST have, they couldn’t remember
but he must have,
because Judas was reclining to the right of Jesus
the place of honor
reserved for the best friend, the honored guest
Judas would have been either the first or last
to be washed
but they couldn’t remember
If only they’d known THEN
what they know now…
WHAT? What could they have done?
And if Jesus knew, as he must have
yes, now they remember, of course he knew
he told them one of them would betray him
the one who received the bread from his hand
He KNEW
If he knew, why did he wash Judas feet?
Why did he do such a loving, tender thing
to the one who would hand over his life
to the enemies?
Oh God
They didn’t know
They couldn’t have known
what that night would bring
how their lives were about to change
their hearts about to be crushed
But they did remember what he said--
the whole point of his acting like a slave in their presence
kneeling at their feet
as if he were a mere woman, a mere slave

“Love one another,” he said,
his eyes glistening with tears
and yet he smiled
He took the hands of those on each side of him—
Judas had left by then—
“Do it for me….
if for no other reason, do it for me
Love one another.
In the same way I have loved you,
love each other, that way people will know who you are
who you belong to,
who guides your life and your heart…”

The disciples squirmed a bit
They may have looked at each other,
love him??
I mean, yeah, I love him, but I mean…
you want me to do what you just did, Jesus?
Get down on my knees
lay my heart wide open
to my friends, to others
just so they crush it?
So I can look like a fool?
Act like a slave to my friend? My colleague?
Please don’t ask that of me….

Love one another, Jesus said, emphatically,
the night before he would die--
these were some of his last words
and so they would be burned on the hearts
of those he left behind
Love one another

But here we are,
what does it mean?
I mean, shoot, you’re not going to catch US
washing each other’s feet!
Certainly he didn’t mean that LITERALLY
it was a metaphor, right?
What does this have to do with us?
The ritual of footwashing
is so foreign to us,
kind of weird, even, if you think about it
So how do we receive this command?
To love one another
for Jesus’ sake?
We really have a screwed up image of love in our society;
the word, the idea itself
is so abused, so misunderstood
so shallow
In our world, we confuse love with sex
It’s crazy-- on the one hand,
nothing is personal anymore
everything is fair game to the media
people’s most intimate secrets
spread across the internet
nothing is personal and private
and yet at the same time,
we seem so terrified of intimacy
Again, we confuse intimacy with sex
and if your only education is TV, the internet and the media
than you can live believing that love is shallow
love is empty, and love doesn’t last
We are really confused about love

What Jesus did that night for his friends
was to offer them a very physical, intimate expression of love
He didn’t just tell them he loved them,
he acted it out
Probably made them really nervous
Jesus, don’t do that!
Don’t wash my feet, I mean c’mon, get up off the floor
you’re embarrassing me,
what are the other guys gonna think?
You will NOT wash my feet! Peter said
pretty emphatically
The feet are a pretty vulnerable part of our body
they’re not the most attractive
they’re awkward, sometimes bony
our toes look kind of funny
we might have callouses or corns,
all in all, feet can be pretty ugly
We don’t want to bare our feet to just anybody
much less let them take them in their hands
I mean, talk about personal!
You will not wash me, Jesus,
and Peter pulled his big ugly feet out of Jesus hands
YOU WILL NOT LOVE ME….

We’re funny about physical touch in our society
and sometimes it's for horribly good reasons --
people have betrayed other people;
the innocent, the trusting--
and yet we’re left awkwardly not knowing
how to love one another
Yet I believe, at the same time,
we’re all starving to be loved
to be cherished, to be held
All in a world that is so terrified of the personal
and the vulnerable
Bernie Siegl, a doctor who works for a cancer institute in New York,
once wrote that psychologists have shown that the effects
of love on the body can be measured:
an unloved infant will have retarded bone growth,
and may even die;
while an infant that is stroked and caressed
will actually grow faster

A lot of things in this world
can kill the body
but nothing kills our spirit worse than a lack of love

Jesus took a deep breath,
“love one another.
I’ve laid down a pattern for you
What I’ve done, you do.
I’m only pointing out the obvious
A servant is not ranked above his master,
an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer
If you understand what I’m telling you,
ACT LIKE IT—
and live a blessed life.”

They must have smiled awkwardly
their feet still tingling from his touch
The lesson wouldn’t sink in, however,
until much later
when they looked back
and saw it all through the lens of what happened next
He broke the news to them,
“I am with you only for a short time longer,” he said
as if to emphasize the importance
but their minds were reeling,
where’s he going?
why can’t we come?
what do you mean you’re leaving?
how can you leave us?
Only later would they realize the power of the moment
Judas had just left--
they would later discover
that he’d gone to the authorities
and ratted Jesus out
basically handed him over to die
and Jesus knew it
Also within 24 hours, Peter himself
would violently deny that he ever knew Jesus
that he had anything at all to do with him
And Jesus knew it
Yet even knowing that,
he looked at all of them and said,
“Love one another”
And only later would they realize
that he knew completely the cost of what he was asking of them
He knew
That to love is to open yourself up to pain
that to love puts you at risk for being made a fool
that to love lays you wide open
and risks having your heart broken, even crushed
as they would discover in mere hours
But, he’d told them
God is glorified when you love one another
when you lay yourself open to another
when you act as a servant to another
when you offer acts of mercy, compassion
When you embrace those
who don’t know what it’s like to be embraced without being exploited
when you care for those who don’t know
what it’s like to be loved for who they are
when you gently touch someone
who has only known painful, even violent touch
God is glorified in that moment
when true love is shared
when your heart is laid bare
even when your heart is broken by love

Later when he broke the bread
and passed it around,
he would tell them to remember
Remember HIM, remember what he said
remember this night
remember who he was while he was among them
remember how he loved them
and to do the same for each other
Remember me, he said
Remember me by loving each other
When you love, you will glorify me
and make me present and alive among you once again
if you hurt each other, if you hate each other
if you abuse or abandon each other
if you shrink from love
because it costs too much
you are forgetting me,
forgetting my life, forgetting who I am and why I came
Forgetting me, Jesus may have said, is a betrayal of me
perhaps the worst kind
If you understand what I am telling you, Jesus said,
ACT LIKE IT… and live a blessed life

It would be hard
when everything fell apart later that night
when it seemed like God was silent
and abandoned them all, even Jesus
it would be hard to remember
but they would anyway
not right away
they had a long road ahead of them
their hearts would be crushed
they would wonder why they ever believed
why they ever opened themselves up to such pain
but one day it would all make sense
they would remember
and from then on, they would live the rest of their lives
remembering
“Love one another,” Jesus said
“If you love me, then do what I tell you.
that’s the greatest gift you can give me
the best way to honor my life
and to share it….
Love one another, the same way I have loved you
This is how everyone will recognize who you are
and what I am in your life:
if you love one another.”
They couldn’t have known what they were about to face
If they did, they would have sworn they would never recover
but they did
and they started a revolution that changed the world --
all because of Jesus
all because of Love.