Theological Truth: On Maundy Thursday, Jesus makes clear a different kind of Lordship.
Come, Holy Spirit, and kindle in us the fire of your Love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
I dread making choices. Tonight, for example, the liturgical color can be either white or red. There are very good reasons for using both: white for the celebration of the gift of the Eucharist; red to symbolize the passion and death of Jesus. I get stuck in an endless indecisive loop of , “Yeah…but on the other hand…” I imagine it drives our Altar Guild crazy!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the blessing that having choices represents. At mealtimes for example, options indicate that the pantry and refrigerator are stocked. It’s also a privilege to be able to choose. The freedom to vote for our elected officials, for instance, is a sacred right. And then there are times where choosing becomes a matter of life or death.
The events in the life of Jesus and the early church that we ritually enact tonight remind us of such a consequential choice. The fact that all these things—the foot-washing, the Last Supper, the betrayal, the denial, Jesus’ arrest—all take place during the observance of the Passover, and that our Exodus reading tonight is the first Passover, highlight this essential and unavoidable decision: who will be Lord of our lives?
Rolf Jacobson, Old Testament Professor at Luther Seminary, explains why the Passover is all about choice much better than I can. He calls the Exodus narrative “a death struggle regarding who will be Israel’s Lord.” He goes on to observe, “The Passion is [also] a death struggle over who will be Lord of all life.” In Exodus, it’s a choice between “Pharaoh, the god of death, who wants to enslave the people and keep them in bondage in one place, OR the Lord of life who wants to free them and set them to go elsewhere.” In the passion narrative, he adds, the disciples are faced with the decision of “Who will be their Lord … the one who puts others to death? Or the one who is willing to die for others?” (Sermon Brainwave podcast, Maundy Thursday, 2025, emphasis mine.)
On this night, Jesus makes it abundantly clear what type of Lord he is. In both the foot-washing and the gift of the sacrament of his body and blood, Jesus dramatizes the difference between his kingdom and the kingdoms of the world. He pours out abundant Divine love and mercy for all the world to see in these shocking, scandalous, personal but also universal actions of humble service and loving sacrifice.
Take the foot washing for example. No one, not even servants, would be asked to wash someone’s feet. Yet Jesus, son of the Living God, does it willingly and lovingly. So humble, so caring, so up-close and personal. This is not a Deity far removed and unapproachable. This is God in our midst. Emmanuel, God with us, God for us, God serving all of us. Notice, Jesus also washes Judas’ feet, despite knowing that he will choose to walk away from relationship with Jesus. He washes Peter’s feet, even though he anticipates Peter’s denial. The love of this Lord is humble, abundant and profligate.
There’s also a dramatically different kind of lordship on display in the gift of Christ’s own body and blood. When Jesus holds up the bread, he says, “This is my body, given for you.” When he holds the cup of wine, “This is my blood, shed for you.” This isn’t a manipulation to induce guilt, it’s a statement of solidarity and sacrificial love. Richard Rohr writes that in the Eucharist, “[Jesus] is giving us his full Jesus-Christ self—that wonderful symbiosis of divinity and humanity….Much of the ancient religion portrayed God eating or sacrificing … animals, which were offered on the altars, but Jesus turned religion and history on their heads, inviting us to imagine that God would give himself as food for us!” (Universal Christ, p 130-131).
The powers of the rulers of this world and the power of Jesus Christ are both real, but they’re very different. Earthly powers would have us believe that might makes right, only the strong survive, the ends justify the means, justice is for some, servanthood is for suckers, and some people are more valuable than others. The constant drumbeat of these claims and threats is hard to ignore. And yet…deep down…we know this isn’t true and we yearn for something different, more beautiful, true, and good. We hope for something or someone with the power to change the world into the dream God has always intended it to be for all of God’s people.
Into this world and this hope, Jesus appears… with a towel around his waist to serve us and his own body and blood to nourish us. His love is abundant, mutual, and reciprocal. His greatness comes from being last of all and servant of all. His authority comes through humble service. He’s wealthy because he’s willing to give everything away. He lives because he’s not afraid to die. He is no pharaoh. He’s unlike any emperor. But the Truth and supremacy of his power becomes clearer and clearer.
So, on this night of the Last Supper, with all the connotations of Passover hanging over us, who will we choose to be Lord over our lives? Do we prefer someone who puts others to death, or the One who is willing to die for others? Someone who demands food from us? Or someone who gives himself as food for us?
There are two opportunities in tonight’s liturgy to answer this critical question. The first is during the foot washing. As the choir sings the hymn, “Jesu, Jesu,” pay particular attention to the first verse:
Kneels at the feet of his friends,
Silently washes their feet,
Master who acts as a slave to them.
And the last verse:
Loving puts us on our knees,
Serving as though we were slaves,
This is the way we should live with you.
I pray you get a sense of the power of this kind of loving service and decide that it is indeed the type of kingdom you want ruling over your life and our world.
The second opportunity is at the Eucharist. Based on the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo and the practice at the monastery of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, we’ll use a responsorial invitation to Holy Communion tonight. Cara will lift the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood and say: “Behold what you are.” The response is a prayer AND a promise…and a life-changing choice: “May we become what we receive.”
I hope we will choose – over and over again – the One who shows us the life-giving power of Love rather than the death-dealing worldly love of power. I hope we will become what we have received: the body of Christ given for the life of the world.
