Maundy Thursday Reflection Faithful and Betrayer Alike~ The Ven. Rose Bogal-Allbritten

Text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Imagine that you have less than 24 hours to live—by this time tomorrow, your life on this

earth will have ended. How will you spend those last hours? What will you say to the

people who have been important in your life, to those whom you have loved? Will you

offer words of comfort to your spouse and children? Will you say a final farewell to your

friends? Or will you be silent? And, how about your family and friends, will they believe

that you are dying? Will they hear your last words or will they spend those last hours in

denial, pretending that life will go on as usual?

“Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from

this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved

them to the end.” Jesus knew that this was his last opportunity to speak to those who had

been with him from the beginning. But, would they hear what he was saying? After all,

the disciples don’t have the reputation of being the sharpest tacks in the box. Over and

over again, Jesus has tried to “explain” things to them, but they just don’t seem to get it.

And once again, his actions and words seem to mystify them.

First, he prepares to wash their feet—an unthinkable act for a friend, much less, one who

is called “Lord” by his disciples. For Peter, this action is unimaginable—he will have

none of it until Jesus says: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus

proceeds to wash their feet—all of their feet, even the feet of Judas, the one who he

knows will betray him. Jesus does not send Judas out of the room, nor are we told that

Jesus passes by Judas without washing his feet. I wonder if the disciples will think back

on this moment and recall that everyone, the faithful as well as the betrayer, was

included in Jesus’ act of love. They are not told to wash only the feet of those they think

are faithful and to ignore the rest. They are expected to serve the betrayer in their midst,

just as Jesus does. What would this inclusiveness mean for their own ministry? What

does it mean for us as church?

Then, he tells them once again, that he must leave them: “Little children, I am with you

only a little while longer.” We are not told how the disciples respond. Are they listening

to the one who loved them more than anyone else could love them or, are they in denial

that this is really happening? And then they are told what is expected of them: “I give you

a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also

should love one another.”

The command to “love one another” is not new. Repeatedly in the Old Testament we hear

the words: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What is new about Jesus’

commandment is the addition of: “just as I have loved you.” Jesus was the incarnation of

that ancient ideal—an example of how the disciples, and that includes us, were to love

one another. St. Augustine tells us that Jesus loved each one he had ever met as if there

were none other in all the world to love, and that he loved all as he loved each.

But there is nothing easy about the commandment to love one another, and the fact that

Jesus directed this commandment internally—to members of his own community—does

not make it any easier to keep. What does it mean to love one another when we are tired,

annoyed, angry? What does it mean to love one another when we do not feel loving or

lovable? What does it mean to love one another as Christ has loved us—to love with an

open hand without wanting anything in return?

Jesus’ commandment is placed in the context of his betrayal and death, and those whose

behavior is most disappointing are the very ones with whom Jesus has spent the last three

years. Some of our greatest disappointments are found not in the behavior of our enemies,

but in the hatred and lack of love that marks the ways in which Christians deal with one

another.

We cannot control what others do, but we can choose to decide if we are willing to try to

love as Jesus loved. We can embrace Jesus’ gift to us and embody that embrace through

our own acts of love, or we can turn our backs on Jesus’ gift of love. Tonight, Jesus

invites us to enter into community with him and with one another. Will we accept his

invitation? Amen