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Maundy Thursday, Year
B Exodus 12:1-14a
“Don’t Forget Me.” A few weeks after my husband died, I was cleaning out his office and giving away most of his theological library to his nephew who was headed for seminary. After I went to seminary I regretted having given up certain key volumes which I had to go out and re-purchase for my own library. But – so goes life. In the process of cleaning out the shelves, I found some books I wanted to give to Don’s widowed mother. I also wanted to give each of Don’s three siblings a Bible from his collection of Bibles. I loaded all this into my car and drove the five hours across Kentucky from Owensboro to Ashland. I visited Don’s mother and deposited my gifts. As I was leaving, she made what I thought was a strange request. By this time she had known me for more than thirty years, but she said, “Don’t forget me.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which he was betrayed, made a similar strange request of his disciples who had been with him for more than three years. He said, “Do this for the remembrance of me” – in other words, “Don’t forget me. Don’t forget the real me. Make my life the center of your life. Don’t forget me.” How could they forget the One for whom they had left their seat at the tax collection booth – the One for whom they had left their fishing nets, their boats, their father Zebedee – the One for whom they had left all to follow along the dusty roads of Galilee? How could they forget that he had fed the five thousand, turned water into wine at the wedding feast, calmed the stormy Sea, raised Lazarus from the dead? Jesus knew they could forget as soon as they got into an argument about who among them was greatest. Jesus knew them well. “Don’t forget me?” What could he possibly mean by that? Jesus spent that evening giving his disciples instructions that would keep him from being turned to stone in their minds. Jesus gave his disciples practical ways to keep Jesus’ love and teachings alive and passed from hand to hand – handed over from Christian to Christian – from generation to generation. Jesus gave thanks for the simple elements of bread and wine and distributed them to his disciples, saying, “this is my body . . . this is my blood of the new covenant.” Don’t forget me. On this night Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover, in which they would have been recalling the saving acts of God throughout history. Jesus calls on us to keep on doing that, since God’s saving acts of history culminated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was handed over to suffering and death, but Jesus handed over to us the way to life. Jesus celebrated this last supper with his disciples, who in turn celebrated the same among themselves, and shared it with the next generation of Christians. Out of this the church was born. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper have always been the two defining marks of the Church. Our celebration of Holy Eucharist – the Lord’s Last Supper – is more than mere remembrance – it’s a reenactment of the last supper of the Lord, in which the priest stands in for Jesus at the altar. In the prayers of the Eucharist the priest at the altar recounts the saving acts of God. In praying these prayers we are called to “re-member” – to reconnect – with what we know of God’s saving love. Our prayers gather the past and future into a timeless moment in which Jesus is present with us in the breaking of the bread. We recall God’s saving events in history as though they were happening to us right now. Each time we celebrate Holy Eucharist we get “re-membered” with God. We reconnect with God in some deep and mysterious and essential way. As we recall Jesus’ death and resurrection, we call on God to be present among us in the simple elements of bread and wine. If you read a little beyond tonight’s lesson in John’s Gospel, you will discover another very important event of this Maundy Thursday evening. Jesus gave the disciples a new commandment that goes beyond loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) From the Latin word for commandment we get the term “Maundy.” This is the evening on which the mandatum novum – the “new commandment” was given. Always and ever the teacher, Jesus gave an example of his love for his disciples. The washing of feet was a menial task reserved for household slaves, but Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. In their culture, visitors in someone’s house did not feel welcome until the host had offered water for the washing of their feet. Remember the Gospel story about the host who did not offer water to wash Jesus’ feet, but the repentant woman washed Jesus feet with her tears and dried them with her hair? Remember the Gospel story of Jesus coming to John the Baptizer to be baptized? John said he was not worthy to stoop down and untie Jesus’ sandals. That would have been to wash Jesus’ feet. St. Paul, in his instructions to Timothy, said a widow could only be put on “the list” if she had washed the saints’ feet. (1 Tm 5:9-10) We as a church offer this service of foot-washing only once a year, but it is to remind us to always esteem others better than ourselves, and to treat others as though they were Jesus himself. There is historical evidence beyond the New Testament that the Early Church followed Jesus’ example of the symbolic washing of feet on Maundy Thursday. They also commemorated the institution of the Holy Eucharist on that day. They remembered. Remembering is sometimes hard work. It is not always easy to love one another as Jesus loves us. We have to be conscious of Jesus’ demands on us. To sustain us in this effort, we have Holy Eucharist which feeds our souls and bodies. Whenever we eat this bread and drink this wine, we partake of the living bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. When we remember Jesus in this way, everything else has a way of falling into place.
On the grounds of Honey Creek
The Rev. Linda McCloud, Pastor |
