Maundy Thursday April 1, 2010
John 13:6-7 A Servant’s Portrait
Dear fellow redeemed,
“I can just picture it!” Sometimes, if you get enough information, you don’t have to see it with your eyes to truly envision it.
* That’s how it works with knowledge.
Knowledge often provides us with the most important images.
1 From Scripture you receive a fantastic picture of heaven.
2 From the internet, and some brochures you ordered, you get a picture of your next vacation spot.
3 By thinking back on fifty years of marriage, you still have a vivid imagine of your husband even though he’s now been gone for over twenty years.
From today’s Gospel reading, our gathering of knowledge also provides us with an important image. I speak of A Servant’s Portrait, how we see the Lord Jesus.
* Although he’s the Lord of the universe, he willingly lowered himself to the status of a servant, in order to supply us with God’s greatest gifts on earth.
* However, the question is whether we’re getting the full picture of this servant. Whether by choice or otherwise, it just might take some time to make out what this servant does.
* So it was for the Lord Jesus himself. When he was first conceived and born into this world, he did not have a much of a picture of what his service would consist of.
* As the time came closer, though, his knowledge would increase until he was made fully aware by the Holy Spirit what A Servant’s Portrait was all about.
* And there’s evidence of this from today’s reading.
1 In the first verse we’re told: “Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” The implication is, prior to now he did not know the exact day.
2 A couple verses later we read that “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.”
He certainly did not know this as a child.
3 And later we’re informed that Jesus “knew who was going to betray him.”
He didn’t know that from the beginning either.
* In the beginning of course it was Jesus’ choice to remain in the dark about the nature of his service. As the Son of God this is what he agreed to before coming to this earth.
He would humble himself, putting his divine powers on hold.
He would be like other children and gain knowledge over the course of time.
* But eventually he did come to know everything he needed to about A Servant’s Portrait.
Well, the disciples, it’s very evident, were much slower in coming to know what they should.
* The truth is, they did not wish to obtain a complete picture of Jesus’ service.
You may remember Jesus’ exchange with Peter sometime earlier.
Jesus explains to his disciples regarding his service to the world. He must suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and also be killed.
* But Peter won’t hear of it. He tells Jesus (and we can be sure he was speaking for the other disciples) “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
* But Jesus answers back: “Get behind me, Satan! . . . You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
* Well, we get to today’s text and things don’t change much when.
Jesus intends to teach his disciples about his role as a servant.
So he begins washing their feet. But when he comes to Peter, the disciple says to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
* This made no sense. Usually a slave was appointed to do this when the guest entered their house from the dusty road. Why would Jesus even consider such a thing?
* Peter clearly was is lacking in knowledge concerning A Servant’s Portrait.
So Jesus tells him: “You do not understand now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” But again Peter objects: “No, you shall never wash my feet.”
* Peter and the other disciples loved and trusted their Lord.
But they also had a distorted picture of Jesus as a servant.
So by cleaning their dirty feet, Jesus gives an image of his larger role as their servant.
His whole purpose was to clean their sin-soiled hearts.
But if we’re surprised by their behavior, we don’t have to look any further than our own actions.
For we too will try to distort A Servant’s Portrait.
* Jesus informs us of those who believe in him: “I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master.” That is to say, to know Jesus is to know persecution.
“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” he says.
* But we try to deflect this truth and prevent it from causing us any anguish.
We give “turning the cheek” a new meaning. It means “playing dumb”. Don’t tell people what you believe if they corner you, humiliate you, and downgrade your Savior.
It’s really interesting that we should deprive ourselves of a clear view of our servant, when you consider the fact that we appear in the same image with our Lord.
* True, A Servant’s Portrait generates fear and sorrow and distress.
Who in their right mind, we may ask, would look for a cross to bear?
* But if that’s what we’re thinking, we haven’t seen the whole picture.
“Unless I wash you” Jesus declares, “you have no part with me.”
* Here Jesus is telling Peter and the others, you can have no fellowship with me unless you know and believe in me as your Servant who washes your sins away.
* Of course there’s a flip side to this statement. When we do know and believe in Christ as the Servant who washes us clean of sin, then we do have fellowship with him.
* Through his preaching of the Gospel and his giving of the Sacrament, he makes us one with him. “This is my body, which is given for you” Jesus says, “. . . This cup that is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood.”
* The point is Christ is still our servant. He’s still acting as that slave who will make us clean when we’re dirtied by life’s long and grueling journey.
* That’s not how we always see Jesus. Last Wednesday we heard his words from the cross: “It is finished!” which is to say Christ is done - with his suffering and atoning.
* That is very true. But he’s not done giving. He’s not done serving us.
In as much as we remain sinners here on earth, but we also trust in Christ for his forgiveness, that’s just what he gives us every time we see his portrait as our servant.
* He gives us his forgiveness in the message “Jesus Christ and him crucified”.
He gives us his forgiveness together with his body and blood in his Supper.
Are you getting the picture? To know Jesus is to know him as one who’s still serving us.
* Now and then it can take a while to see the picture, as when your hunting for the right photo outdoors. When I go hiking with my camera it often takes some time before an image catches my eye. Of course when something does catch my attention, that’s just the beginning. Then I have to capture with the camera what I saw with my eye.
* As it is, I may not be successful catching the image unless I remain standing in the same position for a while moving the camera around as I try to frame it in various ways and from various angles. It drives my family nuts if they’re with me at the time.
* But sooner or later what I saw takes shape and I can think to myself: “I’ve got it!”
That’s what happens when we focus long enough on Christ to know about his service to us.
* We see that A Servant’s Portrait is not just about Jesus on the cross earning our forgiveness.
It’s about him serving us today, giving us his forgiveness in Word and Sacrament.
* And there’s even more to knowing Jesus as our servant. We focus a little longer and we can see the portrait of our Savior is actually a group picture consisting of believers living in Christ’s forgiveness.
* “Now
that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet” Jesus states, “you
also should wash one another’s feet.” Then he explains the final result
of all our knowledge.
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
* The problem is: knowledge can be a scarey thing. Ever since Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit with hopes of knowing both good and evil, sinners have had a real hard time telling the difference between the two.
* But allowing our knowledge to give us the fuller picture is actually quite simple.
In our service to others, we simply keep Christ front and center.
We ask ourselves: what will permit this other person - whether it’s my child, my spouse, my friend or someone I barely know - to see Jesus?
* Oh, I know! When I am willing to humble myself, when I’m willing to serve them for their sake and not my own!
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” Jesus says.
* The blessings of Word and Sacrament, he’s saying, extend beyond our faith and affect our entire life as a Christian. The final result is that everyone around us can see Jesus.
“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
* You know, that passage used to really bother me, since it occurred to me that anyone is capable of loving someone who believes as they do, whether Muslim, Hindu or Atheist. Why would someone notice anything different about my loving a fellow believer?
* The words also reminded me of this obnoxious song I was forced to sing in my Lutheran highschool back in the early 70s: “They Will Know We are Christians By Our Love.”
* But I later realized that a Christian’s love for another Christian is different.
Our love is not based on a desire to be seen by others. It isn’t even our chief desire that this other Christian is seen as a result of our loving service.
* No. We get to love one another in such a way that Christ is seen.
Our love and service to one another helps other people put those final pieces together, and see A Servant’s Portrait.
Can you picture it? Can you picture him?
* We’re talking about who you get to see, having obtained the greatest knowledge on earth: God’s Son who became a servant to whole world.
* Now, that’s a kind of knowledge we need never fear. “If you abide in my Word...you will know the truth” Jesus informs us, “and the truth will set you free.” Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.