April 17, 2025 Maundy Thursday "Learn it and live it"

Maundy Thursday

Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

John 13:1-17, 31-35

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you

from the Word who became flesh and lived among us. Amen

Tonight is a very physical night,

 a night when Jesus tries to make the intangible tangible,

where he connects his teachings to real physical actions.

So often when we think of faith or spirituality,

we think of it as something ephemeral,

 something that is impossible to physically see or touch,

and this can be frustrating

because though we often try to ignore the fact,

we are physical beings,

 our bodies are part of ourselves,

as embodied people

we make meaning through physical experiences

even to the extent that if something isn’t physical

it doesn’t seem quite real.

Which is why it is so important that Jesus is God incarnate,

God in the flesh,

Who came was embodied and lived among us,

As one of us

As human.

we often talk about how people don’t truly understand something

 until they’ve lived through it,

God know this about us (God created us after all)

And because God wanted to connect with us

To reassure us that God does understand

God became human and lived through life.

 Our God knows what it means to live

 because God has lived as human in Jesus.

 And part of being human is having physical needs,

 food, water, shelter, health, community

 (yes I’m counting that as a physical need)

Jesus has lived this need

 and understands just how important these things are

so when he sets out on his mission to share the good news of the kingdom of God,

 where does Jesus start?

 By encountering people through their physical needs

 he heals the sick, he feeds the hungry, he forms a community,

 and then after the initial physical encounter

where people have experienced the lived grace of God

 in a tangible life changing way

 then Jesus teaches them about God

 and how they might continue to take part in the goodness of God

for themselves and for others

teaching them to do what he has done

first by encountering people through their physical needs

then sharing about the grace they have just experienced.

A lesson repeated over and over

And now on their last night together before everything changes

Jesus repeats the lesson once more

Encounters them in a physical way

Then teaches them about what he’s done

And commands them to remember his lessons

And not just remember but put them into action.

God has known about the connection

 between physical actions and memory for a long time

 (God did create the universe after all…)

 it is why when God wanted the people to remember

God’s saving acts of the Exodus

God combined the remembering with specific actions and a meal.

Gather, take, eat, remember the Passover of God.

These are actions the disciples have repeated every year of their lives,

They are familiar and comforting,

so on the eve of the new and uncomfortable

Jesus uses this meal as a starting place

and builds meaning onto it.

This bread that you eat every year,

 the bread that you eat every day,

 I am as close to you as the bread you eat to nourish your body,

this bread is my body,

 and this wine,

the wine that you drink at festive celebrations that gladdens your heart,

 I promise that I will gladden your heart as well,

this wine is my promise to you,

 this wine is my blood given and shed for you.

Do this and remember me.

 Eat, drink, remember the presence and salvation of God

That is within you even now

The gospel writer John tells a slightly different story of that last night.

It also takes place at a farewell dinner

and contains physical actions and commands.

 The disciples gather

and when they are seated at the table

 Jesus gets up and takes the place of a servant

 and kneels and washes his disciples’ feet.

This is how I love you he tells the disciples,

 love that is lived out in service,

if you are my disciples

you too must love one another as I have loved you,

though physical acts of love

 that care for the whole of the people you serve

 including their bodies.

This is the new commandment:

Love one another as I have loved you.

 Don’t just learn it, live it.

This is Jesus’ command for us as well

Humble, serve, love one another

Don’t just learn it, live it

But first

Jesus gathers us together

Washes us

feeds us with his very self

Loves us.

Then comes the commands:

Eat, drink, remember, humble, serve, love.

Do this and the Word becomes flesh among you once again.

Amen