“HOLY THURSDAY”
Saint John 13: 1-15
Maundy Thursday: 6 April Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Where’s the Law?
Well, in this Maundy Thursday text we are given by Jesus, Saint John’s focus on Christ’s foot-washing. This is not another version. There is only version of what happened. Matthew and John were both there as eye and ear-witnesses. Matthew, along with Saints Mark, Luke, and Paul, give you the verba of God—The Lord’s Words of Institution and the mandate (“do this”) of eating and drinking Christ’s real and true Body and Blood. This is to be done every Lord’s Day (and other Feast Days) till the end of time—“as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup; ye do show The Lord’s death till He come.” But I submit that since Christ talks frequently about wedding feasts, and eating and drinking in His Kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that we will continue even after the final Advent to feast in perfected faith with Our God in the new heavens and earth!
One small part of the Law is again found in Saint Peter’s sinful misunderstanding of what was happening and what Jesus had already told him (and the others) on three separate occasions.
If you were successful and wealthy; if you had a lot of pride in your vocation and accomplishments and reputation, you might, sinfully, be embarrassed if your elderly Father or Mother worked cleaning toilets at Wal-Mart. It might cause you to object to your son or daughter working as a garbage man. There is some of that. But Peter is being Peter. He is being you. Remember when He objected to Jesus’ words about the upcoming arrest, scouring, spitting, and crucifixion? Peter wanted glory. Peter wanted a Kingdom without the price; victory without the sacrifice, and redemption without the slain lamb. On that occasion Jesus told him: “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” This time The Lord is gentle in His truth.
The synoptics give us the Passover Meal of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, as it is transfigured and Evangelized into the New Covenant, The New Testament of Christ’s Body and Blood. No more dead lambs—only the dead Savior; the suffering, dying, and dead God. Saint John heard and experience (at ate and drank) all of that too.
But as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 1st Corinthians, were no doubt written before John’s Gospel, The Holy Spirit (and Jesus) see fitting that John should mention the other Sacraments. John is pointing them, the Church of all ages, and you, to both The Sacrament of Holy + Baptism, and more specifically, to the Sacrament of Forgiveness, i.e., Confession and Absolution.
Jesus tells Peter correctly that unless one is washed one has no part of God’s Kingdom. Despising, mocking, refusing, or, taking so light of Holy Baptism that one just never gets around to it, banishes one from Christ’s Kingdom of Glory and out into the outer darkness.
Peter thus wants to be totally washed; not just feet but also hands and head. He means well. Jesus now explains that one is only Baptized once. Or, as you just confessed in Christ’s Nicene Creed: “I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.” Sanctified wisdom tells us all that Peter, and the other 11 had already been Baptized—probably all of them by John the Baptist.
No, the washing of the feet, which IS culturally contextual because in this day and age you don’t wear open-toed sandals on dusty and muddy streets year-round. The picture though is perfect. As the water from Jesus’ bason literally washes off the sweat, grime, and slime from Peter’s feet, so too does Jesus richly and daily forgive, literally forgive all the foul, black, stench-filled, and damning sin from your feet (i.e., your souls) in His Word of losing Peace! And Christ does what the Lutheran Confessors do (in the Book of Concord); He ties confession and absolution right back to Baptism. Every Holy + Absolution, which follows your heart-felt, Holy Ghost constrained confession of sin(s), is simply the Daily Application of your Baptisms. This is also why Luther says you are to “daily drown the ‘old Adam’.” Daily repent. Daily be forgiven.
Yes, this is a mandate, a command, a “do this” to all of you as well. You are to forgive those who trespass against you as you have been forgiven. You pray that daily in The “Our Father.” But it is also a pre-cursor to when Jesus will breathe His Spirit upon the Apostles Easter evening. He is ordaining them in a future sense to what they will be called upon to do in their Office of The Holy Ministry—to wash, to forgive, the sins of the penitent, the Baptized.
Why does this take place during The Last Supper—the First, Blessed, and most Holy Mass?
Because Christ cannot be parsed, separated, or divided. All of Scripture points to Him, talks about Him, and is Him! While the Sacraments are not identical, they are nonetheless Christ Himself. Baptism leads one into the Church; into Jesus. The Word preached leads one into deeper Jesus. The Sacrament of Absolution gives Jesus’ very Peace. But that Peace, that Church, that Jesus, reaches its apotheosis, pinnacle, climax, and fullness in The Sacrament of The Altar. You are what you eat (and drink). When John (and Paul) talk about being “in Christ” and having Christ in you, it is more than metaphor. It is a mystery—a mystic union. The Church and Her Groom become one flesh. The very flesh of Him Who “laid aside His garments” to stoop low for work, for service, is He that clothed you with those same Robes of Righteousness at the font, at the Pulpit, at the Altar and Communion Rail.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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