We'll be worshipping jointly at First Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth at 7pm. There will not be a YouTube link to the service, but I've posted my scripture reading and sermon below.
May you be blessed this Holy Thursday as we remember the evening Jesus sat at table for the last time with his disciples.
John 13:1-17, 31-35
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the tower that was tied around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." 9Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" 10Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ""Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord - and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
31When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
What’s the Point of Love?
The opening of chapter 13 tells us that Jesus
knew his time on earth was now coming to an end. Jesus knew that the hour had come. Jesus knew that his purpose and mission on
earth was over. What more could he
do? What more could he say? What more could he give these followers of
his?
I love the ending of verse 1. “Having loved his own who were in the world,
he loved them to the end.” I think a lot
of us probably read that and think; yes, Jesus loved them – his disciples until
his end, after all we are in the midst of such a week, when Jesus dies on a
cross. Or we could think of it in the
more universal sense that Jesus loved them (or us) until our end – perhaps even
stretching that into an understanding of eternity, the end of time.
However, the Greek word here is telos. Our New Revised Standard Version in English
translates that as “the end”. He loved
them to the telos. But the Greek
word telos doesn’t mean then end.
Well, not in the way we use it, but rather the end of a cycle that
continues on. As you know, both Jesus
and the authors of the gospels used words common to the people of the day. This word telos or end was used in
agriculture depicting the end of the harvest or the end of a cycle that would
repeat again. The people of Christ’s day
would understand this meaning, that it was the end of a significant event, but
that event continues with a time of quiet/rest and renewal during the dormancy
period, then would pick up again with the tilling of the ground, the planting
of seed and the growth of the plant until the next harvest or the telos -
end. That cyclical process would go on
and on, over and over again. So, the
full meaning of this passage is so much deeper when we realize - that Christ’s
love for us is part of a cycle that continues on and on, over and over
again. There are moments in our lives
when we are discovering new things, there is new growth, we’ve entered into new
challenges perhaps, learning something new and Christ is there loving us
through them. If we want to use the
analogy of the harvest – this might be the springtime when the new seeds are
planted and begin to grow, or new growth on a vine or tree begins to bud.
And then there are times when we are just
coasting along fully engrossed in our lives, paying only scant attention to the
weeds or small troubles that might have come up because the plant is strong and
thriving. Christ is there loving us even during this time whether we
acknowledge him or not. Because hey why
should we bother much with that, since our lives are rich and full and we seem
to be doing just fine on our own. But
he’s still there, loving us and standing beside us through those times as well
– this might be the summertime of growth.
For a plant the most difficult time is the
harvest. It has poured out all of its
energy and all of its resources in growing the most beautiful fruit, the most
nutrient dense part of the plant, full of lifegiving energy. But having done that, the plant itself is used
up and dies. For us it could be the
moment when tragedy comes, illness hits home, when death of a loved one occurs,
when our carefully planned out lives come crashing down. The end of life as we know it stares us in
the face. And we find that we need
something or someone to believe in again, something or someone to cling to,
something or someone to give us hope.
And Christ is there loving us through those moments. Loving us to the telos and yet that is
not the end… Because after the harvest, after illness, after tragedy, after
death, there is a season of mourning what was lost, a time of tearful
quietness, or even of shouting into the void of nothingness, but it is still a
time of anxious rest and part of the cycle when the land lays dormant before
new seedlings spring forth and they always do.
New growth always comes a new season always begins, the cycle always
repeats itself. And Christ is there
loving us through each and every cycle, on and on, over and over again. God repeatedly tells us in Scripture that God
never leaves us, even when the silence seems unbearable, or the way seems dark
and dreary. Christ loves us to the telos.
As rich and beautiful as this verse is, that’s
not the ultimate thing that Jesus wanted his disciples to know – that He loved
them. No, there was something more. If there is anything we need more of in our
world, it’s not just the knowledge that God in Christ loves us to the telos,
but rather it’s a world full of love that reflects Christ’s love. And that is part of the lesson here. We are to love as Christ loved us.
In
the story that we have from John Chapter 13, Jesus knows that the end is near;
his final hour has come. He knows that
Judas will betray him. Again, I love the
way the author of the gospel of John puts this in verse 3, “knowing that the
Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and
was going to God…” He had the final
opportunity to do anything he wanted – everything was in his hands to do with
as he wished. To be granted one last
request. To ask for one more favor. To teach his disciples something of utmost
importance. And what does he do?
He
gets up from the table, takes off his outer robe, ties a towel around himself
and begins to wash the disciples’ feet.
This is his last act? That’s kind of strange, curious. And Peter didn’t like it. He thought Jesus was trying to do something
else – maybe, wash him clean of his sins.
And he felt that he was full of sin and therefore unworthy, so he asked
Jesus to wash his whole body. But, that
wasn’t the lesson here.
Jesus said to his disciples, “You don’t
understand what I’m doing now, but later on, you’ll get it.”
And
what were they supposed to get?
At
the end of the evening, after Jesus had told them numerous times that he was
about to die and be crucified, I think they were all afraid. But to get through fear, the only way to get
through our fear Jesus tries to tell us is to love. To love one another, to love those who will
help us on the journey.
How many of you have had a plan for your life
and everything worked out just as you had planned without any worries, whatsoever?
And we often worry about things or are afraid
of things that never happen, don’t we?
Things that we least expected are the things that happen. When the disciples began to follow Jesus,
when he walked along the seashore and told James, Peter, and Andrew to follow
him, do you think they were afraid that Jesus would die on a cross? As the short years drew closer to Christ’s
destiny in Jerusalem, do you think they were actually afraid of him being
crucified, even if he told them this?
No, I think they were afraid that the great revolution they wanted to
see happen, didn’t. I think they were
afraid of being arrested, killed perhaps in a fight.
But rather than worrying about what might
happen, we need to learn how to be resilient to handle whatever does come. And the only way to do that is to love the
way Christ loved us, but more than that we are to also love one another.
And the point of loving one another is not just
to have a happy, good feeling inside, but the point of love is to be in service
to one another as Jesus demonstrated.
That was what they didn’t understand but would come to understand
later. Especially Peter. If you remember, Jesus pulled him aside after
his resurrection and asked him, “Do you love me?” Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you.” And Jesus said to him, “Then feed
my sheep.”
To get over our worry and fear, we need resilience,
to have resilience, we need to love one another as Christ loved us. And the point of that love, is to reach out
with acts of kindness and to serve one another.
That’s the last important message that Jesus left his disciples with
when he took off his robe, tied a towel around his waist, knelt and washed the
disciples’ feet.
May you love one another and be in service to
one another. Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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