“Our Lord’s Example”

John 13:1-17

A Maundy Thursday Homily

There is something missing from tonight’s service. We have hymns. We have prayers. We have an anthem from the choir. We have Scripture. We have preaching. We even have Communion. But something is missing; what might it be? We’ll come back to that question at the end of the homily.

In his book The Upside Down Kingdom Donald Kraybill wrote: “The values and norms of our society become so deeply ingrained in our minds that we find it difficult to imagine alternatives. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus presents the [Kingdom of God] as a new order breaking in upon, and overturning, old ways, old values, old assumptions. [The Kingdom of God] shatters the assumptions that govern our lives.”

Jesus didn’t just talk about such things; he faithfully lived them out. And he lived them out until the very end of his earthly ministry. Take, for instance, tonight’s text from John. In that text Jesus turns conventional wisdom on its head. What did he do? “… [he] 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.”

Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. He got down on his knees and performed the task relegated to the lowliest of the low. He performed the job of a slave. He, the Word made flesh, put his hands in filth. He, the disciples’ master, reversed roles and served them.

It should have been the other way around. They should have been washing his feet. They should have been serving him. They should have been down on their knees with their hands in filth. But that’s not what happened. The master took upon himself the role of a servant.

In verses 12-15 Jesus explains his, culturally speaking, bizarre behavior. “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done.”

“I have set you an example.” He had been setting such examples throughout his ministry. And all these examples were part and parcel of the example he set by way of the incarnation, by way of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Hear how Paul describes that in Philippians 2: “… though he was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…” Slaves wash dirty feet.

The next day he took this example as far as it could be taken. Again from Paul: “… and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” He humbled himself and then some. He made himself vulnerable to humiliation. For he was the Suffering Servant Messiah who washed feet as a prelude to this: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”

This was our Lord’s ultimate example of what it meant to follow him. Disciples of Christ are by definition servants. Disciples of Christ are willing to carry crosses, and even die on them when necessary. You won’t find that example in any self-help book. Nor will you find any advice to wash someone else’s feet. The modern gurus of conventional wisdom consider such actions to be absurd and scandalous, a violation of worldly standards.

The mottos of our modern culture can be found on bumper stickers and coffee cups, such as: “The one with most toys wins. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for I am the meanest son of a gun in the valley.” Our culture values the accumulation of things: toys, houses, cars, and so forth. Our culture values power in various forms: political, economic, military, and whatnot.

And thus it has always been, and until our Lord comes again, will always be. In an article titled “The Time is Now, the Place is Here,” Tripp Fuller addressed this reality and the church’s response to it in the First Century A. D. “Rome’s kingdom came from the deployment of legions and the building of crosses. God’s came from the divine initiative of grace and the bearing of crosses… God’s coming is not a path filled with victims of sacred sword or piles of nameless collateral damage.” Roman legions didn’t wash feet or die on crosses. They built crosses upon which others died for defying their empire. They were without a doubt the meanest s.o.b.’s in the valley.

But Jesus taught the ways of a very different kind of kingdom, the Kingdom of God. “Love your enemies… Forgive those who have sinned against you, if necessary seventy times seven times… Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”

And on the night before he did Jesus got down on his knees and washed the filthy feet of his disciples, showing and then telling them that this was how he expected them to treat one another: not by lording it over each other but by serving one another. That was our Lord’s example then. That is our Lord’s example now.

At this point you’ve probably guessed what’s missing in this service: foot washing. Getting down on our knees and washing each others’ feet. Following the example of Jesus. Some of us wonder why foot washing is not the Third Sacrament of Presbyterianism. It does teach a powerful lesson about servanthood and humility. It really is a means of grace in which we remember the gracious gift to us of the Suffering Servant; that reminds us that he, too, washed feet.

Still we need to remember this lesson that our Lord so vividly taught: discipleship is not about the accumulation of things and grasping after power. Discipleship is about humility and servanthood. Discipleship is about following our Lord Jesus out into the world to serve others as he has served us. Amen.