Maundy Thursday – 2 April 2015 - Year B

Maundy Thursday – 2 April 2015 - Year B

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is based on our Gospel Text for tonight: John 13: 1- 17 & 31 – 35

Let us pray: Father, guide the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts that your Word of truth may instil in us the humility of beggars as we come before you to receive your gracious gifts of forgiveness, peace and life, in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Maundy Thursday, a vital time in this Holy Week, a building crescendo of pain, suffering and incomprehensible grace, the significance of which we lowly sinners can never comprehend – we come in reverence; unworthy; lost for words – what can we say?  This is not a time to speak but to listen; to listen to our Triune God speaking to us through the Holy Scriptures: Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45 “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Philippians 2:7-8; “Therefore He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Jesus came to serve and to cleanse, to give Himself over to the wrath of His Father in our place and pour out on us and into us His Blood; As written in John 1:29 the blood of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

What Jesus was about to do is clearly seen in the events of this holy night. He, who would give up His Body and Blood upon a cross in less than twenty-four hours, would, in the upper room, give His Body and Blood to His disciples and His Church. He, who would give up His life for the life of the world, would, in the Upper Room, foreshadow that great act of love by taking on the role of a slave and washing the feet of those who would be washed in His Blood.

The Passover Feast was at hand and Jesus was preparing to leave this world; as He said in John 13:1 He “knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father.”  He knew the hour had come and He knew what that hour entailed.

He knew, so He prepared to be our Passover Lamb through whose Blood we would escape eternal death.

Jesus knew that He would be struck down and His little band of disciples, scattered. He knew they would fail Him in His hour of greatest need. They would flee from Him and even deny they knew Him. Forsaken by man and God, He knew that He would go to the Place of the Skull and there face death alone. He knew that for Him there would be no mercy and no love. Jesus knew that He would be betrayed and He

knew who would betray Him.

Even to this day Jesus is betrayed and like the disciples that night in the upper room we all ask the question echoed out in  Matthew 26:22 “Lord, is it I?”  We ask such a question because we try to convince ourselves that Jesus’ answer will be, “Nah! Not to worry. It isn’t you.”

O how we need to repent! It is you! It is you. It is I. It is all of us! We have betrayed Jesus in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not done as He has taught us. We have not loved the Lord our God with all our soul, and with all our mind…we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves. (Matthew 22:37-39)

Instead, we lie and cheat when we don’t think we will be caught. We look the other way while our friends or our children turn their backs on the Word of God and what

it commands. We keep our mouths shut and don’t speak the truth because we don’t want to rock the boat. We don’t want to make waves. We don’t want to lose our friends or

risk driving our children away. We betray Jesus for the sake of being honoured by mankind.

We betray Jesus when we pinch our pennies, like Judas who stole money from the disciple’s purse, instead of giving our offerings freely to the Lord with a grateful heart.

We betray Jesus when we decide that we have no time for worship, but we always make time for fishing, sports, and other forms of entertainment. We betray Jesus when opportunities for Bible Study are offered, but we would rather be elsewhere doing our own thing.

O how we need to repent! We have all betrayed our Lord with a kiss while we chase after the myriad of coveted pleasures with which the world tempts us. We are faithless friends, cowards in the battle when it counts, disgruntled children with the murder of Jesus as our legacy.

But there, in the Upper Room, in spite of knowing all that was in store for Him, in spite of knowing all the ways with which He would be betrayed, Jesus girds Himself as a

slave and washes the filth from the feet of His betrayers. Jesus knows all that will shortly take place and still His compassion is for His disciples…and for us. John 13:1 “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”  He gives not a care for Himself but His heart is set on His disciples, and us. He knows that He will accept the scorn of the world that we would have the Father’s love. He will die alone that we would have the company of heaven. You see, this is the will of the Father, for He does not desire the death of a sinner, but would have all mankind be saved. He has loved us to the end.

Because Jesus has loved us and will love us to the very end, He has made us His own. He has made us His own and with the bloody waters of Baptism He claims us. He gives the water that flows from His pierced side. A living water that He gives so that a mankind might never thirst again: a living water with which He bestows His presence and His Name. With this water Jesus washes the filth of self-indulgence, self-pity, self-importance, and self-righteousness from our life. He forgives us our betrayals and our little faith.

Thus also, Jesus gives us His Body and His Blood. He feeds us with the Bread that came down from heaven to satisfy our hunger for righteousness. He offers us the Blood that He sweated in the garden and the Flesh that was nailed to the Cross as the perfect love that never ends. He gives us the same Body that left behind the shroud and napkin in the empty tomb and ascended to God’s right hand. Jesus gives Himself, His life, and His love, for and to us. Jesus takes away all our foul sins and in their place gives to us His righteousness, His forgiveness, and His peace.

Jesus fulfils the promise of the first Passover with His death. By His Blood, death can no longer harm us. Death passes over. With His Blood Jesus has made us His own, as we are told in 1 Peter 2:9, we are a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.”–

 Now:

Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain, sinners ruined by the fall;

Here a pure and healing fountain flows to you, to me, to all,

In a full perpetual tide; Opened when our Saviour died.

He that drinks shall live forever, ‘Tis a soul renewing flood.

God is faithful; God will never Break His covenant of blood,

Signed when our Redeemer died; Sealed when He was glorified.

Come. Ask Jesus, “Lord, is it I?” and hear His reply, “No my beloved, it cannot be you because I forgive you all your sins.” Amen.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the peace and love of God that is beyond all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen