Sermon: As Christ loved us

Here's the message Michael and I put together for Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" comes from "mandatum" (commandment), as in when Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you: love one another."

JN 13:1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. How does Jesus love us?

He shares a meal with his closest friends. He gets down on his knees and washes their dirty feet as only servant would.

But there is something else at work in the Upper Room, something larger. For the Bible says that Jesus showed them the full extent of his love. What was it that made this night the height of love?

Love is patient. Love does not remember wrongs. Love never fails.

If you want an example of all the elements of love described in Scripture, look at Jesus -- His patience, his forgiveness, and his unfailing love for his disciples.

Are the disciples worthy of that kind of love? Not one of them.

None of the disciples is perfect. They have done and said things that hurt Jesus. Go back and read the gospels and count up the times they get it wrong. And when Jesus is arrested, they all scatter. (Well, Peter stuck around, just long enough to deny that even knew Jesus.)

Think about what’s happening in the Upper Room. Everyone is still together. It is a holy time, a time for deep feelings and a shared spiritual intimacy. Jesus shares the bread and the cup around the table, inviting everyone to be part of him, regardless of what they’ve done in the past.

What amazes me is that he knows that this intimacy is about to be shattered. Jesus knows that everyone will desert him. He knows what is ahead. He has even said that
his sheep will be scattered.

I can’t imagine the pain Jesus would be feeling, knowing that he is going to die, knowing that the people he’s been teaching and preparing will fail him.

But in his darkest hour, he doesn’t scold them. Even telling Peter “You will deny me three times” is not scolding – it’s just a sad statement of fact.

He calls them his friends. Knowing he is headed for certain execution, knowing that not one will stand up for him, he calls them friends. He affirms them in love.


What if the disciples had been better people?

My daughter has a “Heroes of the Bible” coloring book which has lots of great pictures of Bible characters doing really great things. What if all the disciples had been like that, bold, strong and faithful?
(“I sing a song of the saints of God, faithful and true…”)

If they were heroes, they would be completely inaccessible. We wouldn’t be able to relate to them at all. And Jesus calling them “friend” wouldn’t strike us as good news – at least I wouldn’t be sure that the good news would apply to someone like me.

But the fact is that the story of the Bible is not about how great these men and women are. It’s about how men and women are sinful, selfish, flawed, and throroughly messed up. It’s about how we fail over and over, and how it is only by the grace of God that we are saved and receive life.

So if these disciples are weak, disloyal and faithless -- if they can be the friends of Jesus, maybe we can, too.

God’s love is pouring out from the cross, no matter what we have done today and no matter what we will do tomorrow.

God knows our sins, knows the shameful things we’ve done – and God knows how we will fail him in the future. Yet God still loves us, still reaches out to us, still saves us, still helps us.

Mother Theresa knew something about this. Toward the end of her life she was celebrated worldwide, which makes her seem very nice and even privileged, but her lifelong ministry was in the midst of terrible conditions.

In a collection of her writings called A Simple Path, she wrote this:


People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
LOVE THEM ANYWAY.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
DO GOOD ANYWAY.
If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies;
SUCCEED ANYWAY.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow;
DO GOOD ANYWAY.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight;
BUILD ANYWAY.
People really need help but attack you if you help them;
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth;
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU HAVE ANYWAY.

Mother Theresa, A Simple Path



Who are the people who love you anyway? Who does good to you anyway? Who helps you anyway?

Who are the people who call you “friend” when you mess up again and again,
when you step on their toes and let them down, even when you want to do the right thing? Who can you count on? Who loves you no matter what?

The Last Supper is the model of God forgiving us, loving us, calling us friends, in spite of it all. In that upper room, Jesus poured out his love, even knowing what his friends were about to do.

Tonight we share a meal as Jesus did. Why? Because sharing a meal is what friends and family do. And following the example of Jesus, let us love one another.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.