Maundy Thursday
This is Maundy Thursday, we encounter Jesus Christ, the servant Messiah, anointed by God, blessed by wise ones from the east, checked out by excited shepherds, watched over by weary parents, claimed by seers in the temple, ancient ones who saw God’s work alive and eternal in the life of a small babe and the joy of his mother and father. Strong words spoken, prophesy and wisdom wrapped up in blessings and in the breath of life and death. But now, as we come to the final meal together, we see Jesus has spent a lifetime casting off, shedding old traditions, customs and practices, challenging them, and then a few short years in which to pack in all the teaching, grief, joy, peace, hope and love, forgiveness and mercy, he wanted to share and show: far too much for our short lives.
By the time we hear about the last supper, Jesus has cast off, let go, given away almost everything except his life, in the service of love. He has let go his anger at Judas and his poor choice, Judas’ reasons for his anger and frustration at Jesus’ unwillingness to do what he wants. Jesus has accepted the religious authorities are going to kill him. He watches and listens to Pilate who just wants to get rid of him. Jesus gives God his grief at his friends’ abandonment of him and Peter’s three denials.
He has let go, cast off the hypocrisy of those who wish him harm as they finally get their wish to see him dead. The desire of those around him, the voices beating the drums of war, wanting to kill and take revenge on the enemy, to get rid of the hated Romans who are destroying their holy places, to be able to do so at any cost; noticing with grief their desire to be the winner, the conqueror, the hero, to be powerful and selfish; but these hopes and wishes have not managed to take hold of Jesus in spite of the devil’s best endeavours or those around him who still do not understand his message. Jesus has been filled up with God’s love, emptied of everything else as it has been let go, cast off. It has taken a lifetime and those around him still do not understand.
Its Maundy Thursday, and we are still grappling with the idea of Jesus as the servant. In his tradition, custom and practice, to be washing the feet of his companions was the work of slaves or women. The practical task and the obvious message would have been uncomfortable, clear and unwelcome to those whose feet were being washed. Then, there are those who came with him into Jerusalem as he rode on the back of a donkey, who are now disappointed, uncertain, and perhaps a little fearful of the Romans’ reactions. The revolution for freedom was not happening in the way they were expecting. People would die. As always, Jesus was not behaving in a predictable way. We are reminded: God’s love is awkward, unfailing, unexpected, without strings attached, and so its complicated as it calls us to be different.
The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth recently prayed to a God of War, that there be ‘overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy’, as he ratcheted up his rhetoric for Christian nationalism and white supremacy in the US and overseas.
In wars without legal basis, with agreed rules broken and children, and civilians deliberately targeted for death, unnumbered lives are aggressively discounted as collateral damage by those delighting in a war for oil, profits, greed, and power. In all of this noise of war, it may be easy to lose sight of God’s love and God’s alternative message.
God’s prophets talked about the suffering Messiah throughout the scriptures as we learned about him from long ago, as God has always known love is the way forward for us all.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn … for I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. (Isaiah 61:1-2,8)
Jesus began his ministry by walking into the wilderness because he trusted God; and in the wilderness, he cast off the temptations of the world as he knew love was the Way.
The final gathering together of Jesus and his friends brings us up to a shuddering halt. The weary laughter of men and women gathered for a meal and companionship, just before the festival of the Passover, was stopped in its tracks as Jesus waits until they’ve had something to eat and drink. And then, he stops the world to wash them, touch them, love them, hold them, teach them, forgive them, and to trust them to keep going afterwards, in spite of the grief to come.
Rather than pre-emptive war, Jesus focussed always and still does, on pre-emptive, unconditional love, given before its asked for or understood, given generously and abundantly without counting the cost, given joyfully, cleanly and without strings attached. No coercion, manipulation, blaming or demanding. The facts are stated, the truth is known; after all, it is what brought him to the cross. Truth telling is dangerous, and when we are tempted to become Caesar’s chaplains to the declarations of war and the deliberate killing of children, and adults, then we are seriously in peril.
Jesus says to us: by copying him, in loving one another, others will know we are his disciples. The God we believe in, in our daily lives and prayers, is revealed in our actions both large and small, and this God is made real in the way we love one another. This means, the God of war is not our God.
The God of peace and love is the God we come before on our knees on our knees this evening, to love and be loved, to serve and be served, to share the fruits of God’s table and to give rest to the weary, to bind up and comfort the broken-hearted, and offer God’s freedom to the oppressed. This is the God who loves justice, hates corruption and theft and who wants the little children to be joyful and safe. This is the God of Maundy Thursday. The Lord be with you.