"Serving the Lord Who Serves You" Maundy Thursday April 17, 2014 John 13:1–15
Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” I think Peter finally got it. It took a while, but our Lord is patient that way. He said that Peter, though he didn’t understand what was going on at the time, would come to know. He would finally see what it was his Lord was doing to him and for him. And Peter came to understand this to the point where he then also served others in the same way. This is what Jesus was doing. He was serving. He was serving so that those being served could then serve others. Peter did not want his Lord to serve him. He wanted to serve his Lord. But Peter had it all wrong. You serve your Lord only when you have been served by Him. And you serve Him by serving others. Jesus washed his feet, he would in turn wash others’ feet. His Lord would give of Himself to Peter and Peter would in turn give the Lord to others through preaching and Baptizing and the Lord’s Supper. This is how we serve in the Church. We give to others the Lord who has given Himself to us. You want to know what you can do for God? Listen to Him. Hear Him. Receive from Him His gifts. Let Him serve you. Let Him come to you with towel in hand and wash your feet. Let Him serve you by Him giving Himself to you with all of His forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is only then you will understand. Only then will you see that you have nothing to give to others of any eternal value. You have nothing to give them to love them for eternity but the Christ who has come to be their Savior. You cannot give to others until your Lord has given to you. You cannot forgive them, and love them, and serve them until you have been forgiven and loved by your Lord and your Lord has served you. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper this evening it is no mere commemoration. It is not simply a looking back to that night on which our Lord was betrayed and ate a Last Meal with His disciples. This is our Lord coming to us, girded with a towel and washing our feet. It is our Lord serving us. John says that Jesus knew He was coming to the end. He would not be with His disciples much longer. He would be betrayed. He would be handed over. He would be crucified. And, certainly, He would rise after that. But even then He wouldn’t stay around much longer. He would ascend into heaven. He wouldn’t be with them much longer, but John says, “He loved them to the end.” He wouldn’t be with them much longer and yet He would be with them forever. He wouldn’t be around to keep washing their dirty feet. But He would continue to come to them in the Hoy Supper He had just instituted. He would serve them not with a towel wrapped around His waist but wrapped in the garment of bread and wine, giving His body and blood in and with those elements. He has continued to do this down through the years and into the centuries. Only when we understand that our Lord is one who serves do we understand who our Lord is. Only when we understand that we cannot love and serve others if we attempt to do it apart from Him serving us do we understand that this is how we serve Him. Thus we pray after having received the Sacrament, imploring our Lord to strengthen us through this salutary gift in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward one another. The Church has come to understand what Jesus was teaching Peter. The liturgy shows us in this prayer that the Lord’s Supper is vital to our life in faith toward Him and to our life of service toward others. When Jesus was washing Peter’s feet he just didn’t understand. When the disciples watched powerlessly their Lord come to the end of His life on the cross they thought it was all over. But look at the book of Acts. That’s where you see that what Jesus had said would happen did in fact come about. He said that afterward they would understand. That’s why, as it says in Acts, they devoted themselves to the Word of God and to the Lord’s Supper. They needed to continue to be served by their Lord who was no longer with them but who continued to come to them in His Gospel and His Sacraments. They now understood. They now knew how they could wash others’ feet. They would serve their Lord by serving other others, by giving to others the very Lord who had given Himself to them. You and I are understanding more and more. We continue to be served by our Lord. We continue to receive Him so that we may give Him to others. We want to serve our Lord as Peter did. And so we do as Peter did and let our Lord wash our feet. We rejoice in what He delights in in coming to us in Baptism and the preaching of the Gospel and the Holy Supper of our Lord. Through His serving us in these ways He increases our faith toward Him and strengthens our fervent love toward one another. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
