Maundy Thursday 2010                                                            Christ Church , York

In the Hebrew tradition they are called the High Holy Days, those festivals including Passover which began on Tuesday of this week, which are celebrated by the Jewish people as they remember the things which God has done for them down through the centuries. Today we in the Christian faith begin our own High Holy Days, the three most holy days of our year, the days in which we will move from the Upper Room, to the Garden, through the courts of Pilate and Herod into that place where punishment will be administered, then onto that long weary road leading to Calvary, ending finally in the Garden where lay a tomb. It will be a long journey, a painful journey at times and it will be filled with a variety of emotions - confusion, anxiety, pain and sorrow, suffering and death but all ending in great joy.

And at this the beginning of our High Holy Days we gather to celebrate one of the greatest gifts God has given us, that gift which, as Paul reminds us, has been passed down to us as it had been passed down to him, that on the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, broke it and gave it to His disciples, thereby offering His very own body and blood given and shed for us. Through this gift Jesus makes it abundantly clear that those things which are about to happen – suffering, passion, death – these are not for Him alone but rather, as Blessed Martin Luther reminds us, they are done for you and for me, for us and our salvation. Whenever we gather as the people of God, whenever we share the bread and the cup which become for us the true body and blood of Jesus Christ Our Lord, then these words, “given and shed…for you” will be said again and again so that we may never forget that He did this for you and for me and for our salvation.

But before we get there, before the journey actually begins, Jesus does something unexpected, unusual, even radical - He washes the feet of His disciples. The washing of feet was not itself new; indeed it was the practice and the custom of the time when dusty roads and sandals made for dirty feet. But slaves did the washing, servants did such menial tasks. That Jesus, the Lord and Master of this group, would do such washing was utterly amazing! But in this simple act, Jesus shows the true meaning of all that He had come to do, all that He had been about these last few years, all that these upcoming actions of the week would mean. For on this night Jesus demonstrates most clearly that He had come to be the servant of all for the sake of all and that in love and humility He would choose to die for all. This simple yet profound act was filled with such meaning that it became the focal point for many so that on this night whole communities of faith will wash each other’s feet in a simple act of servanthood. But this washing did not stand alone for now a new commandment would be given, that we are to love one another as He has loved us – to love in a fierce, radical and uncompromising way, to love without boundaries, to love without expectation that we will be loved equally in return. This is the mandatum, this is the new mandate, this is the new commandment which gives this day its name –Maundy - a commandment to love as we have been loved.

But this washing stands in stark contrast to another washing that will take place during this Holy Week, a washing which will prove to be the exact opposite of the washing that took place in that Upper Room. This second washing concerns Pontius Pilate who will judge Jesus in due time. Pilate, as we read in Matthew’s Gospel, having declared Jesus innocent on two distinct occasions, still faces a frenzied mob who are more interested in blood than justice. Not knowing what to do, Pilate sides with the mob and turns Jesus over to be crucified. But having caved into the mob pressure, Pilate orders a basin of water and makes the public gesture of his avoidance of responsibility by washing his hands in the presence of the multitude, stating that they and not he would have to bear the guilt for what was to follow.

Most of us likely have difficulty identifying with those who took a crown of thorns and pressed it into the head of Jesus; and most of us cannot relate to those who stretched the arms of Jesus out over a wooden beam and then pounded nails into hands and feet, for such a level of brutality is so overwhelming, so ugly and so repulsive that we cannot see ourselves doing something like that. But this gesture of hand-washing is something with which can more easily relate. We may not have stood in judgment on another or condemned them to death, but there are times when we have washed our hands in other ways - by sidestepping our responsibilities to one person or dismissing another person who needed our help in a time of need. We may not have arranged the grand gesture of water, basin and towel to declare our innocence before the world, but then our ways are often more discrete. We simply say to the other person, “Look I don’t really have the time to help you right now.” Or “Why are you coming to me? That’s your problem.” And, “You got yourself into this mess, so get yourself out of it.” There are times in all our lives when we stand convicted by the hand-washing symbol of Pilate, because we have all missed our responsibility at times, failed another on occasion or walked out on a duty we were called to perform when another needed it.

Pilate’s hand washing gesture haunts all of us because it recurs throughout our world today. It can be found whenever good people are hurt in our society and nobody does anything to intervene. It takes place whenever one partner in a marriage comes to the conclusion that they have outgrown that relationship and simply shrugs off their commitment. It happens whenever a nation closes it borders to those seeking refuge from violence or unjust treatment. It happens in countless ways in the daily living of our lives. The spirit of avoidance, of responsibility, of failure to care, of refusal to risk that which sustains justice and furthers love is troubling precisely because it is the reality of our lives today. In these and so many other ways, we wash our hands.

But in contrast, look again at this first washing. Here Jesus takes a towel and a basin and washes the feet of those who have followed Him and who called Him Master. This One who had come from God and was going to God, now undertakes the most humble of duties that any household servant could undertake, that of washing the feet of those who sat at table. In contrast to the washing of Pilate, there is no nothing here of avoidance, of dismissal, of shameful escape and abandonment. Here is only the acceptance of service, the outreach of love, the bearing of the most humble of tasks in order to accomplish the greatest of purposes om an act which is nothing less than the Gospel itself. Christ humbled Himself for us, as Paul says so well, and was obedient to death, even death on the cross and because of that our sins are forgiven, no longer held against us, forgotten by God. Now all those times when we have played the part of Pilate are behind us, never again to claim us or defeat us. Now we have been washed clean, for we have been served by the Son of God who loved us with a love so great and deep and pure that we can only respond with the deepest of thanks in our hearts. But this act of washing was not the end for now we hear Jesus say, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” Being washed, we now have washing to do. Being served, we are now called to service. Being loved, we now called to love. And in such loving and such serving even the least among us, we serve Christ Himself.

There are two washings to recall this Maundy Thursday, one by Pilate and the other by Christ. Two washings which represent two completely different worlds, one of sin and the other of grace; one of death and the other of life; one of abandonment and the other of fulfillment; one of curse and the other of blessing. Can there be any doubt in our minds which one we are called into? Can there be any confusion about our direction or the way we should go? For those who have been washed by our servant Lord are now called to serve and to love and to open themselves to the way of true discipleship. May God give us all the grace and strength to do so in these High Holy Days and beyond. Amen.