Maundy Thursday - The Last Supper

Listen now to this special devotional-style episode! We sing, pray and reflect on the readings of Holy Week in the gospel of John. Today we join Jesus and the disciples at the last supper. During Jesus' last supper with his friends, he did something that took everyone off guard. He washed their feet... even Judas' feet. After this remarkable moment, Jesus spends several chapters offering a final teaching to the disciples, a final word of love and grace that would carry them through the crucifixion to the resurrection and ultimately to Jesus' ascension. 

Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Music:
Jesus, Remember Me
Text: Luke 23:42 Taize Community
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994)
Text and music copyright 1981 Les Presses de Taize. Admin GIA Publications, Inc  (Used under One License # A-724822)

We Remember
Text and Music: Marty Haugen (b. 1950) copyright 1980 GIA Publications, Inc (Used under One License # A-724822)

Learn more about St. John Lutheran Church at stjohnchurchmars.org or follow us on Facebook.

Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to Maundy Thursday. We continue our journey through this holy, blessed week before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus on this Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday gets its name from Mandate, and we hear a commandment from Jesus to love one another as he has loved us. This commandment falls in the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, a story that we heard a little bit from yesterday as we focused on the betrayal of Judas. So to remember where this entire story falls, we have to go back a couple of days in our journey through Holy Week when we heard the story of Jesus giving his final public speech. And now Jesus has retired away to have a quiet moment with his friends. This is the beginning of what is often called the final discourse when Jesus is at his most pastoral. Jesus is fully embracing his identity as pastor, friend, mentor, and teacher to those who are gathered in the space with him. We begin with the washing of the feet, and then he goes on for several more chapters, continuing to teach them, continuing to inspire them, continuing to love them as he prepares them not only for his death and resurrection, but ultimately for his ascension as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

A reading from John chapter thirteen, beginning at the first verse. Before the festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and to go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully. Jesus and his disciples were sharing the evening meal. The devil had already provoked Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a wash basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you gonna wash my feet? Jesus replied, You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand later. No, Peter said, You will never wash my feet. Jesus replied, Unless I wash you, you will not have a place with me. Simon Peter said, Well, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus responded, Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you. He knew who would betray him. That's why he said, Not every one of you is clean. After he washed the disciples' feet, he put on his robes and returned to his place at the table. He said to them, Do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher and lord, and you speak correctly, because I am. If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other's feet. I have given you an example. Just as I have done, you also must do. I assure you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them. Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them. When Judas had gone, Jesus said, Now the human one has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the human one in himself, and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I am with you only for a little while longer. You will look for me, but just as I have told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now, where I am going you cannot come. I give you a new commandment love each other, just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other. Here ends the reading. When we talk about this reading, we often jump into the washing of the feet. But before we get there, I want to go back to the very first few verses of this reading. It says, before the festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come. The time to which is being referred here is the time of Jesus coming into his identity, coming into his glory, coming into everything that it means to be the word incarnate at the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. We first heard about Jesus' time at the beginning of his ministries in chapter two, at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus' mother is and Jesus are at a wedding, and they run out of wine, and his mother tells him to help them, and he says, Woman, my time is not yet come. Well, now, now it is time, as Jesus sits for one last evening meal with his friends, as we prepare for his final goodbyes to his friends, as he prepares them for his departure, for his death, for his resurrection, and ultimately for his ascension. And he does this first by washing their feet. The only other time that we hear about any washing happening in the Gospel of John is in that story of the man born blind, when Jesus tells him to go and wash in the pool. When he washes, he then recognizes Jesus, and he is invited into the flock, into the fold of Jesus, and he claims his identity as a disciple of Jesus. And so here at the washing of the disciples' feet, the disciples are also washed and welcomed into the fold, into the flock, into relationship and community with Jesus. And it is at this time that Judas is exposed. Jesus, knowing full well of Judas' cunning betrayal, washes Judas's feet. And in this act of vulnerability and intimacy, Judas is exposed. And we know that Judas is the one who will betray Jesus, who will choose to leave that flock, leave that community, and leave his relationship with Jesus. And then we get to the part where Jesus gives the new commandment to love one another just as he has loved us and loved them. For John, love is a mark of discipleship. And it is also necessary and crucial to love one another, because in loving one another we are sustained in our believing, in our relationship with Jesus. So as you come to worship on Monda Thursday, come and hear these words as they were intended to be heard, as words of love, as words of life, and as words of promise, as we too prepare for the rest of the story as we move to Jesus' crucifixion, as we prepare for his resurrection, as we anticipate his ascension, and as we look in hope for his coming again. Let us pray. Eternal God, in the sharing of a meal, your Son established a new covenant for all people, and in the washing of feet, he showed us the dignity of service. Grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit, these signs of our life in faith may speak again to our hearts, feed our spirits, and refresh our bodies through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.