Dutiful servants of all
Commentary
Do we ever really get together anymore? Think about it. Funeral homes are experimenting with drive-through visitation. In order to make an uncomfortable situation less awkward, one can now avoid looking into the eyes of a child whose parents just got a divorce -- instead, send them a greeting card designed for just such an occasion. TV trays can be set up more easily than setting the kitchen table, and this way everyone can take care of themselves when it is convenient. Tele-conferences give a whole new meaning to "calling a meeting."
Even though services are provided over the phone or on the Internet or through the mail to people by people who never meet in person, one still wonders about what is missing when we can live so much of our lives without rubbing shoulders with others. As we enter the Triduum of Holy Week, we cannot escape noticing how "hands on" everything becomes for God when dealing with humanity. The incarnation bears its ripest fruit in these final hours of Jesus' lifelong passion.
The Gospel writer John does not let us escape noticing that the message Jesus leaves with his disciples is one that can only be expressed when they are gathered together. No memos, Instant Messaging, or call forwarding are used to convey what is on the heart of God. It is communicated only when the disciples are within reach of Jesus, and then within reach of one another. One may be able to play solitaire with cards, but not with Christianity.
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
When the Lord promised to redeem the 'Apiru slaves in Egypt "with an out-stretched arm and with great acts of judgment" (Exodus 6:6), no one thought of counting just how many acts it would take; nor that when the count reached nine, it would only take one more devastating blow to the pride of Pharaoh to make him relent and let God's people go. As with most of the plagues, this tenth one would not touch the Israelites, providing they took drastic action -- an action, the likes of which they did not have to take to be spared the previous plagues.
A sacrifice needed to be made. A spotless lamb was to be selected for each house. After the lamb was slain, its blood was to be sprinkled over the doorposts and lintel of the house. When the assigned angel of death crossed over the land to execute God's judgment, the angel would pass over the homes of the Israelites on which the blood had been sprinkled. Some important and enduring concepts undergird this requirement and the eat and run Passover meal that resulted.
First, a sacrifice was understood as necessary in order to protect God's people from his wrath. Life needed to be shed in order to preserve life. Since "the life is in the blood," it made sense to sprinkle the blood upon the doorposts and lintel as the sign that the appropriate sacrifice had been made. This gesture was sacrificial in that it was substitutionary for the firstborn male, who would be the object of God's wrath due to Pharaoh's hardness of heart.
Second, God himself provided the means of escape from the wrath to come. God would acknowledge and accept the blood of the lamb (or goat) and pass over the home which by faith had obeyed the command. God is not capricious or careless when it comes to the implementation of his response to human rebellion or need. The love and care of God for his people is expressed in this arrangement.
Third, the Passover is to be observed as an ordinance forever. The meal not only solemnizes the event at the time; but, for all time, it becomes the means by which future generations are connected to what happened in Egypt at this particular time. In this sense, the meal is a remembrance, not just recollecting what occurred as an intellectual exercise, but participating in its meaning and experiencing the power of God's deliverance in the here and now.
Fourth, time itself is reordered based upon this event. "This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you" (12:1). Historically, this is the constituting event of the people of God, who from this point in time could reflect back upon the call of Abraham and even creation itself to find the beginnings of all these things that are taking place. See Deuteronomy 6:21-23 and 26:5-9 as examples of creedal/confessional statements of self-understanding. Although a half-century old and firmly couched in the historical-critical method, B. Davie Napier's Song of the Vineyard offers a refreshing and insightful explication of this and other First Covenant events with their meanings.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Paul's discussion of the Lord's Supper is found in the section of his first letter to the Corinthian congregation in which he deals with matters of public worship. There is an issue pertaining to the veiling of women that needs to be addressed. Paul asserts the tradition of women needing to veil their heads when it comes to prayer and prophecy. In a more lengthy treatment, Paul turns his attention to spiritual gifts, which was another source of contention in the congregation. He identifies the source of these gifts in God, their variety for the common good of edification, and the highest gift of all -- love. In the midst of these matters, Paul instructs the Corinthians regarding proper behavior at the Lord's Supper.
As with so many other things they did in their Christian life, the Corinthian Christians messed up when it came to their experience with the Lord's Supper. They did not sit at table together, but some ate early. That meant that others, who came in later, went hungry. The ones who started without the others imbibed too much and profaned the meal. The congregation suffered from gluttony and lack of a "potluck" mentality (where there is always enough for everyone because all share what they have!).
It is within this context that the words that come after our assigned text are to be understood. "Discerning the body" (11:29) refers to a healthy appreciation of every member of the congregation and being sensitive to how each is to be included in the meal. The reference to "the body and blood of the Lord" (11:27) refers directly to the elements. Later, Paul mentions frailties of the body (physical; "weak and ill," 11:30), from which some have died. Here are three different senses of the word "body" reflected in these few verses.
These things having been said, we can now look at the core of this section on public worship that deals with the Lord's Supper. Paul reminds the Corinthians what is at the heart of the Lord's Supper. This is not shared as the "correct theology" of the elements, as if what was at stake here was a kind of gnwsiv or the proper mantra, without which one would participate "in an unworthy manner" (11:27). The matter of unworthiness has already been discussed in terms of their behavior at the meal. What Paul does here in these few verses is ground the meal in Jesus and lift up its intention.
First, Paul makes the claim that what he expresses here now is "received from the Lord" (11:23). Although Paul was not present with the other disciples at the original Maundy Thursday event, he asserts apostolic authority in what he outlines as the main course of the meal. Jesus is at the center of the meal, for it is his body and his blood that are shared. In this sense, he is the author of the meal and focus is to be on him. This alone should curb inappropriate behaviors!
Second, the congregation is reminded through the words of Jesus that the meal is indeed "for you" (11:24). Martin Luther personalized this in Latin when he referred so thankfully to the pro me nature of the sacrament. What Jesus is doing in the Passover meal is redefining it around the deliverance that he offers God's people (the new Israel represented in the twelve apostles) through his body sacrificed and his blood shed to avert the wrath of God upon the ungodly. To borrow John's words, we discover in Jesus "the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). The writer of the letter to the Hebrews draws the connection between Jesus and the entire sacrificial system with these words: "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:13-14).
Third, the meaning of the meal is to "proclaim the Lord's death until he come" (11:26). It is not about "getting your fill" or "tying one on at the end of a hard day." The meal is a living, dramatic sermon to the world that "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!" The meal proclaims what God has already done in Jesus Christ (that is why Matthew includes the words "for the forgiveness of sins" in his account; Matthew 26:28!) and what Jesus has yet to do, namely return. In the meantime, the church watches and waits while it works for the kingdom's goals. One might say that this makes the Lord's Supper a wait and work meal, rather than the eat and run meal of the Passover.
The Words of Institution which are used in the liturgies of the meal are essentially a compilation of this text in 1 Corinthians 11 and the account in Matthew 26. The Passover meal is transformed into a sacrament for the church with the reinterpretation of its meaning. The deliverance from bondage to Pharaoh presages deliverance from bondage to sin. Blood is present at both events: the first from a spotless lamb and the second from the spotless Lamb of God. "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22).
John 13:1-7, 31b-35
The account of Jesus washing the disciples' feet is one of the distinctive features that sets John's Gospel apart from the synoptic Gospels. Rather than recording the meal in detail, with emphasis on the transformation of the Passover meal to the Lord's Supper, John simply mentions that they ate. In fact, the supper itself is overshadowed by what Jesus does. He disrobes and assumes the role of the servant, washing the disciples' feet.
Surrounding this episode are comments by Jesus on himself as light (12:44-50, before) and "the way, the truth and the life" (14:1-7, after). By washing the disciples' feet, Jesus sought to illuminate their understanding about true love and leadership. It is a matter of humble service (13:16-17). The doulov (slave, servant) is under the kuriov (master, lord). Therefore, if the master himself, Jesus, whom the disciples call Kuriov, washes feet, then, the disciples (as doulov) should also do so. Jesus exemplifies how he wants his followers to exercise their love and leadership in the world -- through humble service. "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (13:15). This is "the way, and the truth, and the life" for anyone who would find themselves in Jesus.
When Jesus defines his commandment given to his disciples in terms of love, the best word to translate that reality is ûgapj (13:34-35). Four times this word is used in these two verses. Paul may go on about the qualities of love, as he does in 1 Corinthians 13. John simply portrays it through this simple, yet profound act lived out by Jesus under the shadow of his cross. The foot washing foreshadows the cross because both have to do with cleansing -- the one from the dirt of the road and the other from the sin of the journey.
Martin Luther, in his little tract Christian Liberty, writes, "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all." As we are free from sin, so we are free for service. Because we are the lords of life (both with and without the apostrophe), we are called upon to serve the needs of the world wherever we may find them. It is never too humbling a task to "devote all our works to the welfare of others, since each has such abundant riches in his faith that all his other works and his whole life are a surplus with which he can by voluntary benevolence serve and do good to his neighbor," as Luther would write. When one pictures Jesus stooping to wash the disciples' feet in devotion to the mission on which his heavenly Father sent him, these words of Luther apply not only to him, but also to any who would follow him likewise: "By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor." This is the witness of love and this is how the Father is glorified.
Application
It is interesting to see that Habits of the Heart, published in the mid-'80s, has been reprinted with an extended introduction, claiming that the American ethos of individualism is very much functioning as a defining character of our identity. Once studied, it does not go away. Our sense of "rugged individualism" is ingrained into our character, despite so much of our altruism and education that seeks to balance it. In this context, the Passover meal and Holy Communion provide a story that sets before us a different model with which to understand ourselves. The Passover was a household meal; Holy Communion, where two or three are gathered. The essential social characters of both Judaism and Christianity invite us to be engaged in relationships that are necessary for nurture. The relationships are both to the story itself as participants in faith, as well as to other people who hold the value of the story in expressing the meaning of their lives.
The "for you" aspect of the sacrament emphasizes that something has been done on our behalf. This is something we could not do on our own, namely forgive our sins and overcome death. The crucified and risen Lord Jesus strides to meet us at the communion rail with the assurance that he has done just that "for you." As unilateral as that action of grace is, so too are we invited to receive it in faith. We do this by participating in the meal -- from gathering with others, to voicing the liturgical words that articulate the meaning of the meal, to receiving the food itself, to going out into the world together as witnesses of what we have just received from the hand of God.
In the busy routines of daily life where families find precious little time to get together, especially for meals, the church can ring the dinner bell. As the people of God assemble, there is time to hear the story that constitutes faith and life; there is time to build relationships upon the solid foundation, not so much on what we can do for each other, but on what God has done for us all through our Lord Jesus Christ. For, while the meal is for us, it is about Jesus Christ. As we feast on him and the gospel meat he gives us to savor, we receive each other as fellow servants who have learned from the same Master. Ecumenism, as well as neighborliness, could make great strides forward if we all understood better what it means to wash feet rather than wring necks.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
On this Holy Thursday of Passion Week, it is the custom of the Christian Church throughout the world to remember and to celebrate Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. We are told in all four Gospels in the New Testament that the supper was a Passover meal, which every pious Jew celebrated once a year with his family in Jerusalem. Jesus therefore has come to the Holy City, according to the law, to celebrate the feast with his disciples, whom he regards as his family members (Mark 3:31-35).
In our appointed Old Testament text for this day we are therefore given the origin of the Passover feast, as it has been preserved for us from the priestly writers of the sixth century B.C. There are many speculations among scholars that Passover was originally a spring festival among nomads, but throughout the Bible and still today it is connected with the exodus story of the plagues on Egypt. It serves as the memorial of the thirteenth century B.C. event when the "destroyer" (12:23 cf. Hebrews 11:28) from the Lord "passed over" the houses of the Israelite slaves, but slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, in order to persuade Pharaoh Rameses II to release the Israelites from their bondage. Thus, Passover is a celebration of a new life of freedom from tyranny granted to his people by the Lord.
In our exodus text, Passover is connected in the following verses 15-20 with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but Leviticus 23:5-6 shows that the two were originally separate celebrations.
Throughout our text, instructions for observing the Passover are spoken by God to Moses and Aaron. The actions the Israelites are to take before the Lord brings the tenth plague on the Egyptians are clearly outlined. Each household is to secure a male lamb of a goat or sheep, that has no blemish (cf. John 1:29; 19:23), or if that is too much food for one household, they are to join with a neighbor. The whole lamb, including the head and inner parts, is to be roasted on an open fire, without the use of boiling water or oven, and all of the meat is to be eaten on the night of Passover, with the remainder burned in the fire. At the same time, the Israelites are to take some of the blood of the lamb and smear it on their doorposts and lintels, as a sign to the "destroyer" of the Lord to "pass over" them. The lamb is to be eaten in haste, and the Israelites are to be dressed for travel, with any long cloaks or garments gathered up under the girdle around their hips (= their "loins girded"), their sandals on their feet, and their meager household goods ("kneading bowls") tied on their backs. All is preparation for their deliverance from "the house of bondage." Year after year, such a feast is to be eaten in Jerusalem as the remembrance of Israel's "redemption," when God bought back his people out of slavery.
Significantly, our text begins with the words, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months" (v. 2). In other words, with the inauguration of the Passover, a new calendar, a new time, a new way of reckoning daily life is introduced. The New Year is now to begin in the month of Abib (March-April). During the Israelite monarchy, the new year was always said to begin in autumn, but in our priestly version of the text, assembled during the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C., the Babylonian calendar is adopted, and the new year now starts in the spring, the Babylonian name of Nisan being substituted for Abib. It is a profound theological change on the part of the priestly writers who are some of the greatest theologians represented in the Bible (cf. Genesis 1), for they are saying that with the Passover, a new life begins, and indeed for the Israelites, it did. They are delivered into the freedom of the wilderness, adopted by the Lord as their beloved child (cf. Hosea 11:1), made into a community by their common redemption, and started on the march toward the promised land.
Significant also is the fact that none of the foods eaten at the Passover table are the products of the surrounding culture or life left behind in Egypt. The bread is to be baked without leaven, the lamb roasted without cooking pot or water, the bitter herbs (v. 8) probably some kind of uncultivated vegetable. Israel is beginning a new life with her exodus from Egypt. Calendar, food, daily existence are now different. The old life is left behind. And Israel is told by God in the law that follows, "You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 18:3-4).
I wonder if that is not the meaning of this Supper which we are celebrating here tonight on this Holy Thursday -- that it is the beginning of a new life for all of us also. Certainly it is a memorial feast, as Passover was a memorial. "Do this, as often as you drink (this cup), in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (again)" (1 Corinthians 11:25-26). Embedded in this feast is the memory of our Lord's death on the cross.
But this Supper is much more than a memorial, isn't it, as it was much more than a memorial for our ancient Hebrew forbears in the faith? This Supper is also the beginning of a new life for us. At the center of this Supper is the Lord's body broken for us and his blood shed for us on a Roman cross, and that shed blood and that broken body give us all a new beginning. By the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you and I are forgiven -- forgiven all of those sins and weaknesses, all those misguided choices, all those terribly human errors that have burdened us down with guilt from the past. The past is gone, friends. It is done away. Behold! The new has come. "If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he or she is a new creation."
Or put it in exodus terms, good Christians. By the work of our Lord Jesus, you and I have been delivered from slavery -- our slavery to the sin of the past and present and future, and our slavery to the destroyer, death. God has passed over it all. God has redeemed us and set us into a new life in a foretaste of the glorious liberty of the children of God, journeying toward his promised land called the Kingdom of God. Everything is different now, and you and I have a new beginning.
But like the Israel of old, we no longer are to live the life of the culture around us. Now, because we have a fresh start, free of the evil of the past, we are no longer to follow the ways and customs of the sin-filled society around us. All of our society's chasing after a buck, all of its concentration on individual self-rule, with no thought of our neighbors, all of the immorality that destroys our marriages and corrupts our children, all of our frantic grasps after power and prestige -- all of that is to be left behind now, and we are to exercise the freedom for service that has been granted to us by Jesus Christ (cf. Galatians 5:1). Our Gospel Lesson gives us a vivid picture of it, with our Lord down there on one knee, a towel around his waist, washing the feet of Peter and James and, yes, even of Judas. There in that picture of humble service and love and forgiveness is the commandment of God for our new life in Christ -- the portrayal of the way we are to walk in our daily rounds. And by the power granted us in this Supper, we can be the new persons who follow that loving example given us by our Lord.
Even though services are provided over the phone or on the Internet or through the mail to people by people who never meet in person, one still wonders about what is missing when we can live so much of our lives without rubbing shoulders with others. As we enter the Triduum of Holy Week, we cannot escape noticing how "hands on" everything becomes for God when dealing with humanity. The incarnation bears its ripest fruit in these final hours of Jesus' lifelong passion.
The Gospel writer John does not let us escape noticing that the message Jesus leaves with his disciples is one that can only be expressed when they are gathered together. No memos, Instant Messaging, or call forwarding are used to convey what is on the heart of God. It is communicated only when the disciples are within reach of Jesus, and then within reach of one another. One may be able to play solitaire with cards, but not with Christianity.
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
When the Lord promised to redeem the 'Apiru slaves in Egypt "with an out-stretched arm and with great acts of judgment" (Exodus 6:6), no one thought of counting just how many acts it would take; nor that when the count reached nine, it would only take one more devastating blow to the pride of Pharaoh to make him relent and let God's people go. As with most of the plagues, this tenth one would not touch the Israelites, providing they took drastic action -- an action, the likes of which they did not have to take to be spared the previous plagues.
A sacrifice needed to be made. A spotless lamb was to be selected for each house. After the lamb was slain, its blood was to be sprinkled over the doorposts and lintel of the house. When the assigned angel of death crossed over the land to execute God's judgment, the angel would pass over the homes of the Israelites on which the blood had been sprinkled. Some important and enduring concepts undergird this requirement and the eat and run Passover meal that resulted.
First, a sacrifice was understood as necessary in order to protect God's people from his wrath. Life needed to be shed in order to preserve life. Since "the life is in the blood," it made sense to sprinkle the blood upon the doorposts and lintel as the sign that the appropriate sacrifice had been made. This gesture was sacrificial in that it was substitutionary for the firstborn male, who would be the object of God's wrath due to Pharaoh's hardness of heart.
Second, God himself provided the means of escape from the wrath to come. God would acknowledge and accept the blood of the lamb (or goat) and pass over the home which by faith had obeyed the command. God is not capricious or careless when it comes to the implementation of his response to human rebellion or need. The love and care of God for his people is expressed in this arrangement.
Third, the Passover is to be observed as an ordinance forever. The meal not only solemnizes the event at the time; but, for all time, it becomes the means by which future generations are connected to what happened in Egypt at this particular time. In this sense, the meal is a remembrance, not just recollecting what occurred as an intellectual exercise, but participating in its meaning and experiencing the power of God's deliverance in the here and now.
Fourth, time itself is reordered based upon this event. "This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you" (12:1). Historically, this is the constituting event of the people of God, who from this point in time could reflect back upon the call of Abraham and even creation itself to find the beginnings of all these things that are taking place. See Deuteronomy 6:21-23 and 26:5-9 as examples of creedal/confessional statements of self-understanding. Although a half-century old and firmly couched in the historical-critical method, B. Davie Napier's Song of the Vineyard offers a refreshing and insightful explication of this and other First Covenant events with their meanings.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Paul's discussion of the Lord's Supper is found in the section of his first letter to the Corinthian congregation in which he deals with matters of public worship. There is an issue pertaining to the veiling of women that needs to be addressed. Paul asserts the tradition of women needing to veil their heads when it comes to prayer and prophecy. In a more lengthy treatment, Paul turns his attention to spiritual gifts, which was another source of contention in the congregation. He identifies the source of these gifts in God, their variety for the common good of edification, and the highest gift of all -- love. In the midst of these matters, Paul instructs the Corinthians regarding proper behavior at the Lord's Supper.
As with so many other things they did in their Christian life, the Corinthian Christians messed up when it came to their experience with the Lord's Supper. They did not sit at table together, but some ate early. That meant that others, who came in later, went hungry. The ones who started without the others imbibed too much and profaned the meal. The congregation suffered from gluttony and lack of a "potluck" mentality (where there is always enough for everyone because all share what they have!).
It is within this context that the words that come after our assigned text are to be understood. "Discerning the body" (11:29) refers to a healthy appreciation of every member of the congregation and being sensitive to how each is to be included in the meal. The reference to "the body and blood of the Lord" (11:27) refers directly to the elements. Later, Paul mentions frailties of the body (physical; "weak and ill," 11:30), from which some have died. Here are three different senses of the word "body" reflected in these few verses.
These things having been said, we can now look at the core of this section on public worship that deals with the Lord's Supper. Paul reminds the Corinthians what is at the heart of the Lord's Supper. This is not shared as the "correct theology" of the elements, as if what was at stake here was a kind of gnwsiv or the proper mantra, without which one would participate "in an unworthy manner" (11:27). The matter of unworthiness has already been discussed in terms of their behavior at the meal. What Paul does here in these few verses is ground the meal in Jesus and lift up its intention.
First, Paul makes the claim that what he expresses here now is "received from the Lord" (11:23). Although Paul was not present with the other disciples at the original Maundy Thursday event, he asserts apostolic authority in what he outlines as the main course of the meal. Jesus is at the center of the meal, for it is his body and his blood that are shared. In this sense, he is the author of the meal and focus is to be on him. This alone should curb inappropriate behaviors!
Second, the congregation is reminded through the words of Jesus that the meal is indeed "for you" (11:24). Martin Luther personalized this in Latin when he referred so thankfully to the pro me nature of the sacrament. What Jesus is doing in the Passover meal is redefining it around the deliverance that he offers God's people (the new Israel represented in the twelve apostles) through his body sacrificed and his blood shed to avert the wrath of God upon the ungodly. To borrow John's words, we discover in Jesus "the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). The writer of the letter to the Hebrews draws the connection between Jesus and the entire sacrificial system with these words: "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:13-14).
Third, the meaning of the meal is to "proclaim the Lord's death until he come" (11:26). It is not about "getting your fill" or "tying one on at the end of a hard day." The meal is a living, dramatic sermon to the world that "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!" The meal proclaims what God has already done in Jesus Christ (that is why Matthew includes the words "for the forgiveness of sins" in his account; Matthew 26:28!) and what Jesus has yet to do, namely return. In the meantime, the church watches and waits while it works for the kingdom's goals. One might say that this makes the Lord's Supper a wait and work meal, rather than the eat and run meal of the Passover.
The Words of Institution which are used in the liturgies of the meal are essentially a compilation of this text in 1 Corinthians 11 and the account in Matthew 26. The Passover meal is transformed into a sacrament for the church with the reinterpretation of its meaning. The deliverance from bondage to Pharaoh presages deliverance from bondage to sin. Blood is present at both events: the first from a spotless lamb and the second from the spotless Lamb of God. "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22).
John 13:1-7, 31b-35
The account of Jesus washing the disciples' feet is one of the distinctive features that sets John's Gospel apart from the synoptic Gospels. Rather than recording the meal in detail, with emphasis on the transformation of the Passover meal to the Lord's Supper, John simply mentions that they ate. In fact, the supper itself is overshadowed by what Jesus does. He disrobes and assumes the role of the servant, washing the disciples' feet.
Surrounding this episode are comments by Jesus on himself as light (12:44-50, before) and "the way, the truth and the life" (14:1-7, after). By washing the disciples' feet, Jesus sought to illuminate their understanding about true love and leadership. It is a matter of humble service (13:16-17). The doulov (slave, servant) is under the kuriov (master, lord). Therefore, if the master himself, Jesus, whom the disciples call Kuriov, washes feet, then, the disciples (as doulov) should also do so. Jesus exemplifies how he wants his followers to exercise their love and leadership in the world -- through humble service. "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (13:15). This is "the way, and the truth, and the life" for anyone who would find themselves in Jesus.
When Jesus defines his commandment given to his disciples in terms of love, the best word to translate that reality is ûgapj (13:34-35). Four times this word is used in these two verses. Paul may go on about the qualities of love, as he does in 1 Corinthians 13. John simply portrays it through this simple, yet profound act lived out by Jesus under the shadow of his cross. The foot washing foreshadows the cross because both have to do with cleansing -- the one from the dirt of the road and the other from the sin of the journey.
Martin Luther, in his little tract Christian Liberty, writes, "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all." As we are free from sin, so we are free for service. Because we are the lords of life (both with and without the apostrophe), we are called upon to serve the needs of the world wherever we may find them. It is never too humbling a task to "devote all our works to the welfare of others, since each has such abundant riches in his faith that all his other works and his whole life are a surplus with which he can by voluntary benevolence serve and do good to his neighbor," as Luther would write. When one pictures Jesus stooping to wash the disciples' feet in devotion to the mission on which his heavenly Father sent him, these words of Luther apply not only to him, but also to any who would follow him likewise: "By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor." This is the witness of love and this is how the Father is glorified.
Application
It is interesting to see that Habits of the Heart, published in the mid-'80s, has been reprinted with an extended introduction, claiming that the American ethos of individualism is very much functioning as a defining character of our identity. Once studied, it does not go away. Our sense of "rugged individualism" is ingrained into our character, despite so much of our altruism and education that seeks to balance it. In this context, the Passover meal and Holy Communion provide a story that sets before us a different model with which to understand ourselves. The Passover was a household meal; Holy Communion, where two or three are gathered. The essential social characters of both Judaism and Christianity invite us to be engaged in relationships that are necessary for nurture. The relationships are both to the story itself as participants in faith, as well as to other people who hold the value of the story in expressing the meaning of their lives.
The "for you" aspect of the sacrament emphasizes that something has been done on our behalf. This is something we could not do on our own, namely forgive our sins and overcome death. The crucified and risen Lord Jesus strides to meet us at the communion rail with the assurance that he has done just that "for you." As unilateral as that action of grace is, so too are we invited to receive it in faith. We do this by participating in the meal -- from gathering with others, to voicing the liturgical words that articulate the meaning of the meal, to receiving the food itself, to going out into the world together as witnesses of what we have just received from the hand of God.
In the busy routines of daily life where families find precious little time to get together, especially for meals, the church can ring the dinner bell. As the people of God assemble, there is time to hear the story that constitutes faith and life; there is time to build relationships upon the solid foundation, not so much on what we can do for each other, but on what God has done for us all through our Lord Jesus Christ. For, while the meal is for us, it is about Jesus Christ. As we feast on him and the gospel meat he gives us to savor, we receive each other as fellow servants who have learned from the same Master. Ecumenism, as well as neighborliness, could make great strides forward if we all understood better what it means to wash feet rather than wring necks.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
On this Holy Thursday of Passion Week, it is the custom of the Christian Church throughout the world to remember and to celebrate Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. We are told in all four Gospels in the New Testament that the supper was a Passover meal, which every pious Jew celebrated once a year with his family in Jerusalem. Jesus therefore has come to the Holy City, according to the law, to celebrate the feast with his disciples, whom he regards as his family members (Mark 3:31-35).
In our appointed Old Testament text for this day we are therefore given the origin of the Passover feast, as it has been preserved for us from the priestly writers of the sixth century B.C. There are many speculations among scholars that Passover was originally a spring festival among nomads, but throughout the Bible and still today it is connected with the exodus story of the plagues on Egypt. It serves as the memorial of the thirteenth century B.C. event when the "destroyer" (12:23 cf. Hebrews 11:28) from the Lord "passed over" the houses of the Israelite slaves, but slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, in order to persuade Pharaoh Rameses II to release the Israelites from their bondage. Thus, Passover is a celebration of a new life of freedom from tyranny granted to his people by the Lord.
In our exodus text, Passover is connected in the following verses 15-20 with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but Leviticus 23:5-6 shows that the two were originally separate celebrations.
Throughout our text, instructions for observing the Passover are spoken by God to Moses and Aaron. The actions the Israelites are to take before the Lord brings the tenth plague on the Egyptians are clearly outlined. Each household is to secure a male lamb of a goat or sheep, that has no blemish (cf. John 1:29; 19:23), or if that is too much food for one household, they are to join with a neighbor. The whole lamb, including the head and inner parts, is to be roasted on an open fire, without the use of boiling water or oven, and all of the meat is to be eaten on the night of Passover, with the remainder burned in the fire. At the same time, the Israelites are to take some of the blood of the lamb and smear it on their doorposts and lintels, as a sign to the "destroyer" of the Lord to "pass over" them. The lamb is to be eaten in haste, and the Israelites are to be dressed for travel, with any long cloaks or garments gathered up under the girdle around their hips (= their "loins girded"), their sandals on their feet, and their meager household goods ("kneading bowls") tied on their backs. All is preparation for their deliverance from "the house of bondage." Year after year, such a feast is to be eaten in Jerusalem as the remembrance of Israel's "redemption," when God bought back his people out of slavery.
Significantly, our text begins with the words, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months" (v. 2). In other words, with the inauguration of the Passover, a new calendar, a new time, a new way of reckoning daily life is introduced. The New Year is now to begin in the month of Abib (March-April). During the Israelite monarchy, the new year was always said to begin in autumn, but in our priestly version of the text, assembled during the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C., the Babylonian calendar is adopted, and the new year now starts in the spring, the Babylonian name of Nisan being substituted for Abib. It is a profound theological change on the part of the priestly writers who are some of the greatest theologians represented in the Bible (cf. Genesis 1), for they are saying that with the Passover, a new life begins, and indeed for the Israelites, it did. They are delivered into the freedom of the wilderness, adopted by the Lord as their beloved child (cf. Hosea 11:1), made into a community by their common redemption, and started on the march toward the promised land.
Significant also is the fact that none of the foods eaten at the Passover table are the products of the surrounding culture or life left behind in Egypt. The bread is to be baked without leaven, the lamb roasted without cooking pot or water, the bitter herbs (v. 8) probably some kind of uncultivated vegetable. Israel is beginning a new life with her exodus from Egypt. Calendar, food, daily existence are now different. The old life is left behind. And Israel is told by God in the law that follows, "You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 18:3-4).
I wonder if that is not the meaning of this Supper which we are celebrating here tonight on this Holy Thursday -- that it is the beginning of a new life for all of us also. Certainly it is a memorial feast, as Passover was a memorial. "Do this, as often as you drink (this cup), in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (again)" (1 Corinthians 11:25-26). Embedded in this feast is the memory of our Lord's death on the cross.
But this Supper is much more than a memorial, isn't it, as it was much more than a memorial for our ancient Hebrew forbears in the faith? This Supper is also the beginning of a new life for us. At the center of this Supper is the Lord's body broken for us and his blood shed for us on a Roman cross, and that shed blood and that broken body give us all a new beginning. By the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you and I are forgiven -- forgiven all of those sins and weaknesses, all those misguided choices, all those terribly human errors that have burdened us down with guilt from the past. The past is gone, friends. It is done away. Behold! The new has come. "If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he or she is a new creation."
Or put it in exodus terms, good Christians. By the work of our Lord Jesus, you and I have been delivered from slavery -- our slavery to the sin of the past and present and future, and our slavery to the destroyer, death. God has passed over it all. God has redeemed us and set us into a new life in a foretaste of the glorious liberty of the children of God, journeying toward his promised land called the Kingdom of God. Everything is different now, and you and I have a new beginning.
But like the Israel of old, we no longer are to live the life of the culture around us. Now, because we have a fresh start, free of the evil of the past, we are no longer to follow the ways and customs of the sin-filled society around us. All of our society's chasing after a buck, all of its concentration on individual self-rule, with no thought of our neighbors, all of the immorality that destroys our marriages and corrupts our children, all of our frantic grasps after power and prestige -- all of that is to be left behind now, and we are to exercise the freedom for service that has been granted to us by Jesus Christ (cf. Galatians 5:1). Our Gospel Lesson gives us a vivid picture of it, with our Lord down there on one knee, a towel around his waist, washing the feet of Peter and James and, yes, even of Judas. There in that picture of humble service and love and forgiveness is the commandment of God for our new life in Christ -- the portrayal of the way we are to walk in our daily rounds. And by the power granted us in this Supper, we can be the new persons who follow that loving example given us by our Lord.
