Maundy Thursday—38th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. Today, on Maundy Thursday, our Lord’s Church remembers Jesus’ giving His precious gift to us of the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood and establishing it in His Church. In that night in which Jesus was betrayed and entered into His greatest His final, greatest suffering, He had the deep, heartfelt desire to give us a share in the fruits of His suffering and for that—that we may enjoy and receive the gifts of forgiveness of sin, peace with God and eternal life—He gave us the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. It is right that the Church set aside a day—if indeed just one day is enough—reserved for remembering this wonderful gift! Although our Epistle is the account of Jesus’ institution of this Sacrament, our Gospel tells of an event that happened that same Maundy Thursday evening, but before Jesus gave His Church this Sacrament—Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. As we consider our text this evening we will see that Jesus washing His disciples feet is a beautiful picture of what Jesus would do later that day and what He continues to do to us today—cleanse us from the filth of our sin.
1. We read in our text: Jesus…rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. What is it that Jesus is doing? He is doing the work of a servant, of the lowest of servants—washing the feet of the guests at a meal—the guests that arrived but whose sandal clad feet were dirty from the dust and dirt of the road. None of the disciples had stepped up to do this most menial of tasks—but Jesus did!
It shouldn’t be surprising that Jesus did this—because Jesus came precisely to be a servant and to serve us sinners. Earlier, Jesus had told the disciples that He [Matthew 20.28] did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. In other words, by Jesus washing His disciples feet He is picturing before them, in the most brilliant colors, what His work was all about and what He would be doing for them and for all people in just a few hours by His suffering and death on the cross: His was a work of a servant, to save us sinners from our sins. Everything He did was as a servant—first, to His heavenly Father in carrying out His will to save lost, sinful mankind; and second, to us sinners to save us from sin, death, devil and hell. By becoming a servant that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus showed the whole purpose of His coming and work: to serve sinners.
That Jesus came to serve—and drove home that point by this beautiful object lesson of humble service—shouldn’t surprise us. That’s because in the OT the long promised Messiah is described as a Servant. The OT prophet Isaiah 42.1 records the Father’s word about the Son, about the Savior, the Messiah: Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him. And in the great chapter describing the suffering and exaltation of the Messiah, Isaiah 52.13 again records the words of the Father: Behold, My Servant shall act wisely, He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted…His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. St. Paul picks up on this as he writes Philippians 2.6: Christ Jesus…made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. The point? It’s simply this—by Jesus washing the disciples’ feet He is showing that He is the Servant, the one spoken about by the prophets. That simple servant act—washing the disciples’ feet—points forward to His greater/ greatest act of service—His suffering and death on the cross. That’s what He tells the disciples in our text: "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after these things." When all is said and done, after Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, ascension—then they will “get it.” Then by the Holy Spirit’s work, they will see Him as a Servant, indeed the Suffering Servant, the Savior.
2. That there is something deeper than just cleaning dirt off of feet, becomes clear when we see in our text the exchange between Jesus and Peter: Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. Jesus’ words, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me, point to the actual/ true/ deeper meaning of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Being washed by Christ! What is that but the cleansing power of Jesus’ work—His death and resurrection—like the Apostle writes [1 John 1.7]: the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. That’s the whole purpose of God the Son taking on human flesh and blood and becoming a servant, of serving us—that He might wash us clean from sin; that He might get rid of sin and its effects in us/ on us.
Precisely as Jesus came as a Servant, He humbled Himself and placed Himself under the holy Law of God to keep it for us in our place, to render that perfect obedience we can’t but which God demands of us in His holy Law. That’s what he did for us from the moment of His conception until His death.
As a Servant He, the holy and sinless One, then also took our sins upon Himself to the cross where in our place He suffered God’s wrath and punishment over our sins. By this He assuaged God’s wrath and reconciled us sinners to the holy God. That’s how He served us; that’s how He’s our servant; that’s how He washed us. That’s the cleansing power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Servant, Christ Jesus, washed us from the filth, stain, guilt of sin and gives us His perfect holiness and righteousness. That’s His perfect once for all cleaning.
Notice, as well, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet—that is, all of the disciples, even Judas, the one He knew was betraying Him. In the same way, Jesus served all people by suffering and dying for their sin—even people that He knew would reject Him and His saving word; even those who do not want His cleansing. Jesus by His suffering and death washed away the sin of the world. That’s what Easter Sunday proclaims—the forgiveness of the world of its sin.
But also remember what it says of Judas in our text: For [Jesus] knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, "You are not all clean”. Although Jesus served all by His life, suffering and death, not all receive the blessing and benefit of it, "You are not all clean”, because the cleansing from sin that Jesus brought about is received by faith. Where there is no faith in Jesus and His work as Savior, a person cannot receive the gifts and blessings of it; where there is no faith in Him, Jesus and His cleansing from sin is rejected and the person remains in sin. What a call for us to examine our hearts and lives in these waning days of Lent, lest Jesus say of us "You are not all clean”.
How can we miss the imagery of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet? After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Here is the image of baptism! Jesus comes and with water washes/ cleanses the disciples’ feet; in the waters of holy baptism, the washing of regeneration and renewing [Titus 3.5], He comes to us, works faith in our hearts and washes us from sin and brings us into His holy family—bathed and cleansed from our sin. Here is baptism’s perfect tie in with Holy Week: baptism, the washing of regeneration and renewing, also connects us with Jesus’ death and resurrection [Romans 6.2 ff.]! In baptism, we die with Christ—as baptism connects us with Jesus’ death; in baptism—because it connects us also with Jesus’ resurrection—we rise with Christ—cleansed from sin, our sin lying dead and buried in Christ’s tomb. In baptism we enter into Christ’s death and resurrection and are made completely clean by the power of His death and resurrection.
Jesus’ once for all work on the cross of cleansing us from sin and our baptism into His death and resurrection are one time acts. Just as little as Jesus’ work on the cross can be or has to be repeated, so too our baptism is a special, one time act for us cleansing us from sin, which cannot be repeated. Once we are connected to Christ’s death and resurrection we cannot be “more connected” by additional baptism; that’s why there is, as we confess in the Creed, one baptism for the remission of sins. By that one baptism we entered into Christ’s death and resurrection and have been cleansed from our sin.
That’s why, pointing to the true meaning of the footwashing as something more, as an “object lesson” directing us to Jesus cleansing us from sin, Jesus says to Peter: "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean”. Notice is bathed is passive—it is done to us; baptism is Christ’s work on/ for us—it’s not something we do for God. It’s as if Jesus is saying here: By the power of My merit you are by baptism washed from your sins and are purified— but is completely clean –you have been cleansed in baptism and have received pardon for sin and therefore you have no need to be cleansed again. But yet you daily sin; there are daily defilements. There must be a daily cleansing from sin— He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. That’s the footwashing! St. Peter and all Christians have already been bathed in the waters of holy baptism. We are cleansed from our sin; we already received forgiveness and Christ’s perfect righteousness; we have been declared righteous before God. But we defile ourselves by daily sin and so we daily need the daily forgiveness for our sins—we don’t need the whole conversion/ baptism all over again—a complete bath—but we need “merely” our “feet washed.”
That’s the life of our daily confession—sorrow over sin and turning again to Christ and in faith receiving His forgiveness and righteousness. What’s comforting is the little word from our text “began”: After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet. It is, if you will, Jesus’ continual work to come to us and cleanse us, forgive us our daily sins. He began; He never stops—because we always need it. Our Christian life is not one of absolute holiness/ perfection/ purity. It is one of constant cleansing. That’s what Christ does. He leads us by His Holy Spirit in the word, in particular, His word of Law to recognize our sin and that by our sin, we earn nothing but God’s wrath and damnation; then in sorrow over sin Christ has His absolution/ forgiveness pronounced upon us. This Gospel word strengthens faith to receive once again Christ’s forgiveness, His “washing”; and by the Holy Spirit, strengthened in that faith and love of the Lord, we then exercise that faith, fight against sin and strive to live a life more and more free of sin.
All this is Christ’s work in us and on us! He truly serves us! Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Jesus served all of humanity by coming to be our Savior. The foot washing was a glorious object lesson of that. It foreshadowed His Suffering Servant work on the cross; and it foreshadowed what Christ would do shortly for the disciples—come and serve them, giving them His very Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament. Christ also now serves us in the Sacrament—giving us in it His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins—again cleansing, purifying us once again from our daily sin and defilements. How blessed we are as Jesus continually comes to serve us! INJ Amen.