For Love of Judas

Propers: Maundy Thursday, A.D. 2017 A

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is a night for making old things new, and fulfilling ancient promises in unexpected ways.

We find great comfort in tradition, in holiday rituals that bind us together as a family and community. These are the things we pass down from generation to generation that help us find our bearings in a chaotic world, and which tell us who we are. And few traditions are more ancient or more beloved than the Passover meal which Jesus and His disciples have gathered to celebrate in Jerusalem.

The story of the Passover has been told for more than three thousand years. We still tell it in our homes today, with such films as The Ten Commandments or The Prince of Egypt. It was ancient even in the time of Jesus some two thousand years ago. Passover is the story of God keeping His promises, of being faithful to His people even when we are not faithful to Him. Long ago, God promised to our ancestor Abraham that He would make of Abraham a great nation, and that through this nation He would bless all the families of the earth.

When Abraham’s family fell into bondage in Egypt, God sent Moses the Lawgiver with great miracles and wonders to set His people free. And in every generation, the Passover meal tells the story of that liberation, of God keeping His promises to His people. Each part has significance. The lamb served reminds us of the blood of the lamb painted upon the doorways, marking lowly slaves as the people of God. The flatbread recalls the speed of liberation, so quick that the dough had not time to rise. The cups of wine represent the sweet joys of freedom, and so on, and so forth.

It is a beautiful tradition, a beautiful story. In sharing the Passover meal, we become part of the story, hearing the promises of God given not to our ancestors way back in ancient history but to us, anew, today. And Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover every spring in Jerusalem, as observant Jews continue to do to this day.

But as you probably know, this particular Passover is markedly different from all the others. This meal, this supper, will be Jesus’ last before His death. He knows that the Temple authorities are out to kill Him, for fear that His followers will bring down the wrath of Rome upon the city. He knows that one of His own—an Apostle, one of the beloved Twelve—has agreed to betray Him into the hands of His enemies. And so knowing that His time is short Jesus does strange things, scandalous things.

First He washes His disciples’ feet, which is gross. Let’s be honest. What kind of a God washes filthy feet? Back then, most folks walked everywhere in sandals through the dirt and sand. Servants, should you be fortunate enough to afford them, would wash your feet upon your coming home. At this Last Supper, Jesus washes the feet of His disciples. It’s dirty work, servant work. Peter, who appears to be seated at the very end of the table, expects to wash His Master’s feet, not vice versa. Yet Jesus does this to teach us a lesson and set us an example for humble service to our neighbor.

To this day it is uncomfortable to wash one another’s feet, is it not? Yet that’s rather the point. Love makes demands of us.

He changes the script for Passover, too. Jesus doesn’t tell the old, old story, but tells instead a new story. He says that from now on, the flatbread is His Body, the wine is His Blood, and He Himself serves as our Passover Lamb. This is no longer the story of the Old Covenant, He says, the covenant God made with our ancestors, but this is now the New Covenant, the one promised by the prophets from of old, the covenant that God makes with all people of every time and place. This is how God fulfills His promises to Abraham to save the world!

And you are to do all this, Jesus says, no longer in memory of the Exodus—no longer returning to the story of one people’s liberation from slavery—but now in memory of Me, of Jesus, who has come to free all people from bondage to sin. And this Passover meal—this Last Supper, this Eucharist—does not conclude at the table. Oh, no. It concludes tomorrow afternoon from the Cross, when Jesus tastes the final cup of bitter wine and proclaims to the world, “It is finished.” He is the Passover Lamb and the Passover Lamb is sacrificed—not by humans appeasing a violent God, but by God submitting to violent men, so as to pour out His own life for the world.

Here the old things are made new, and the ancient promises fulfilled in unexpected ways.

We call this night Maundy Thursday, brothers and sisters, from the word mandate or command. For on this night, at the Passover meal, our Lord said, “I give to you a New Commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.” Now at first blush there might not seem to be much new about this particular commandment. The Old Testament was quite clear that we are to love God with all our heart and soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. On these two hang the whole of the Law and the Prophets.

But what’s new here is that we are to love as Jesus first loved us. And that is a tall order indeed. For behold how He humbles Himself to wash our dirty feet. Behold how He offers Himself up to the lash, the thorns, the Cross, the spear, dying at our hands and for our sake. Crucifixion was a human invention, after all; death was never God’s idea.

And what’s truly amazing is that Jesus doesn’t just do this for Peter and John and James. He doesn’t just do this for the faithful and the loyal—not that any of them stick around for long once things start to get ugly. But Jesus does all this, mind you, for Judas. Jesus washes Judas’ feet. Jesus proclaims to him the New Covenant in His Blood for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus dips His bread in the same bowl with the man who has already agreed to betray Him.

Jesus dies for Judas. Judas the apostate. Judas the traitor. Judas whom Jesus loves.

And so, dear Christians, we who are so bold as to bear the Name of Christ, we who have been filled with His Spirit and fed with His Body and forgiven by His Blood, we are now to love as Jesus has first loved us. We are to wash the feet of our killers. We are to share our bread with betrayers. We are to love a world that nails us to the Cross.

This is the love that conquers the grave. This is the love that brings life to the dead.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.