Whatever It Takes

Maundy Thursday Service 2013

John 13:1-17; 31-35

There is a great scene in the movie, “The Legend of Bagger Vance” with Mr. Rannulph Junuh and Hardy Graves in the locker room during the Crew Island Invitational golf tournament between Mr. Junuh, Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones.  Set during the Great Depression, Hardy is whining and complaining about how embarrassing it is to see his father sweeping streets in the middle of Savannah where everybody can see him.  After having lost his store because of the depression, it was the only work Hardy’s father could find.  Lots of men in Savannah were trying to find work.  Some lost everything and ended up on the street.  Others filed for bankruptcy.  Hardy shares with Mr. Junuh that Wilbur Charles’ dad couldn’t find, but he would rather do nothing at all than something beneath his dignity. 

Mr. Junuh is visibly angered by what Hardy said and he tells Hardy why his dad is sweeping streets. 

“Your dad is out sweeping streets because he took every last dime he had and used it to pay back every man and woman he owed and every business that worked for him instead of declaring bankruptcy like everyone else in town, including your best friend Wilbur Charles’ dad, which is why he is able to sit around all day long on his dignity.  Your daddy stared adversity in the eye, Hardy, and he beat it back with a broom.” 

In mind, body and spirit, Hardy’s dad believed that you take responsibility for your life, you keep your promises and commitments, and do whatever it takes to support yourself and your family during difficult times.

Our reading tonight from the Gospel of John is unique.  Jesus washing the disciples feet is found in no other Gospel and for John it takes place during the institution of the Lord’s Supper.  Some may argue about which moment in Jesus’ life was the most important.  For John, this most important moment came when Jesus “got up from the table…tied a towel around himself and poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple’s feet.”  He went from serving as their master and teacher and instead took on the role of a lowly household servant.  But why does he do this?

In those days it was ordinary hospitality to offer guests water to wash their feet after a journey in sandals on dusty, sometimes muddy roads.  The host was not expected to wash his guests’ feet for them, but a slave or servant might be assigned this task, or disciples might wash their teacher’s feet.  So for Jesus to take off his outer robe, tie a towel to his waist and wash the disciples’ feet was the last thing they expected.  And they are confused about what was happening.  All the disciples, except one, accepted his gift.  Peter is Peter.  He doesn’t get it.  He doesn’t understand what’s happening, what this all means.  He thinks it’s a bout foot washing, but It’s actually about a lot more than that. 

When Peter resists, Jesus warns him, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”  The only way to belong to Jesus is to receive his cleansing service, to let him do what he came to do.  The humiliating death of Jesus is sufficient to provide thorough cleansing.

The washing of our feet by Jesus is an interpretation of his serving, saving death.  Jesus is giving us a radical example of what it means to serve and to love one another.  It’s a teaching tool to enable us to understand how everyone will know that we are his disciples.  It’s radical because foot washing is very personal, private and intimate.  It is more than simply kind deeds to our neighbor, more than an apple pie in a time of crisis, more than money donated to a worthy cause.  This action of Jesus subverts the regular hierarchical structure.  The accepted patterns of authority are undermined.  Authority is redefined in new, vivid images – a towel and a basin.  Jesus is willing to do whatever it takes to show and live God’s love in the world.  If we want to follow him, we must do the same.

When we commit to following Jesus’ radical example of service to one another, we create a community of equals where the status of superior/inferior is reversed in the act of service.  We live in a tough world that requires a pecking order in which everyone knows their place and power is kept secure.  In school, your class rank is very important.  Where you stand on that list will determine whether or not you will go to college and what kind.  In corporations, the CEO and the executives are considered to be at the top of the hierarchy.  Underneath them you have a range of different employees with middle managers next in line from the top all the way down to the secretaries and the maintenance staff.  The further up you are, the more prestige, notoriety and salary you have.  Jesus rejects structures such as these.  We are called to be a community where such reversal of roles is the norm.  The church is blessed when if follows Jesus’ example.

Jesus twice mentions that one of them will betray him, but never gives a name.  We, the church, are essentially a mixed body.  There are faithful members and unfaithful members.  There are washers of feet and betrayers.  I believe the life of faith is very much a journey; a moving from place to place.  It’s physical and spiritual.  We are all at different points on that journey.  We come here tonight with certain expectations, wants and needs, based on where we are on our faith journeys.  Each of us has unique experiences, gifts, challenges and shortcomings.  Not one of us is any more loved than anyone else.  To serve the faithful and ignore the rest is not what Jesus commands us to do.  We are to do whatever it takes to serve God and love one another no matter what.

What distinguishes us as Christ’s disciples from everybody else?  How will people know we are Christ’s disciples?  How can we show others that we mean business?  We say what we mean and mean what we say.  We’re not a club you join like Meadowbrook Country Club or Park Fitness, but rather we are an intimate body of believers committed to one another through the good, the bad and the ugly.  I firmly believe that true, authentic disciples will do whatever it takes to share God’s love with others.  True, authentic disciples will do whatever it takes to serve the needs of others, do whatever it takes to love our neighbors as ourselves, do whatever it takes to live selflessly, sacrificially, understandingly and forgivingly so they made know we are disciples of Jesus Christ.  Amen.