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[This sermon is also available in MS Word format]
Maundy Thursday (April 8, 2004)
Rollins Chapel
Richard R. Crocker, College Chaplain
John 13:1-15, 34-35
I was reading an article in the New York Times this week about a program that will be shown on TV tomorrow night. It’s a documentary by Peter Jennings about Jesus and Paul. Peter Jennings stands outside St Peter’s basilica in Rome and tries to find out what the people coming and going there actually know about basic Christian history – notably the apostle Paul. According to the paper, he encounters one young person and says, “You went to Dartmouth. What do you know something about the apostle Paul?” To which, according to the report, the Dartmouth student sheepishly replies – “Not much.”
I share this snippet with you as an apology for what I am about to say. My remarks today are so very elementary that I may run the risk of insulting you. But I also realize that you may not know much. So this is basic.
This is Holy Week. Holy Week is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. It’s the week when we remember the passion of Christ – his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his clash with the authorities, his last supper with his disciples on Thursday night, his arrest, trial, and crucifixion on Friday, and his resurrection on Easter Day. Because Jesus was a Jew, and because he went into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with his disciples, the last supper may have been a passover meal – or not. The Gospel accounts diverge. But even with the differences in the Jewish calendar and the Julian calendar, Holy Week and Easter often coincide, as they do this year.
Today is Maundy Thursday. It is the Thursday of Holy Week, the day on which Jesus celebrated the supper with his disciples that has become a central act in worship for many Christians. It is called the Lord’s Supper or Communion or the eucharist (Greek – thanksgiving). Maundy Thursday is a contraction of the Latin word mandaturm, which means commandment. In John’s gospel, Jesus used the occasion of the last supper to tell his disciples that he was giving them a new mandatum, a new commandment, that they love one another. Also in John’s gospel – and only in that gospel – Jesus used the occasion of the last supper to dramatize his love for his disciples by washing their feet. Some churches incorporate a ritual foot washing into their worship service, seeing it as something that Jesus literally, not figuratively, commanded his disciples to do.
I thought of incorporating foot washing into today’s chapel service, but I thought better of it because I suspected that some of you would feel very uncomfortable with it. If you weren’t prepared and expecting it, you might be upset that I asked to wash your feet. Growing up in the south in a culture dominated by Baptists, there were two main kinds – the regular baptists and the foot-washing baptists. The foot-washers made the regular ones squeamish.
Still, the image remains. The central fact of the Maundy Thursday, the new commandment, is that we love one another. That love is acted out today in two ways. The first is the physical care we show in humble service – in washing one another’s feet. The other way is in the supper where bread is broken and wine is poured out, reminding us of the body broken and the blood shed for us.
We are not having communion here today either. The reason is that, ironically, celebrating this supper is sometimes divisive. Christians have argued throughout the ages about who is entitled to partake in the supper. They started the first night – when Jesus said that someone eating with him would betray him, and they each tried to guess who it would be. Jesus said when he broke the bread, “This is my body.” And ever since we have been arguing about what the meaning of is is. In what sense is the bread the body of Christ? Figuratively? Symbolically? Really? Biochemically? Blood has been shed over this question. It’s a scandal. At least I think it is a scandal. This is how we show that we love each other? Please. Another footnote to contribute to your education. The Latin words for “This is my body” are “hoc est corpus.” These words of the Latin mass were contracted to “hocus pocus.” Just so you know.
There will be many celebrations of the Lord’s supper at special services tonight. You can go to Aquinas House or the Lutheran Church or the United Church of Christ – and I hope you do. I am sorry that if we celebrated communion here right now, some of you might feel excluded. Maybe your church would not permit you to participate. Or maybe you are not a Christian and would feel that you could not participate. Or maybe you are simply not sure of your beliefs. You are not excluded. You are included – all of you. When Jesus told his disciples to love each other, he did not mean that we should love only the people who agreed with us in every detail. He meant we should love each other. Period. And he washed all their feet, and he gave them all the bread and the wine. And so would I.
Tomorrow we remember Christ’s crucifixion. Mel Gibson’s film has brought new attention to the suffering involved in that day, though I did not need to be reminded. Perhaps some people did. But the film has also reignited the old scandal – that Christians have sometimes blamed Jews, as a group, for killing Christ. Such charges, whenever they arise, are simply false – not only theologically, but psychologically. Jesus gave his life. It was not taken from him. That is the theological truth. The psychological truth is that blame is usually a matter of projection and displacement. We blame others for what we can not acknowledge in ourselves. And the simple truth is that when Christians exclude one another from the Lord’s table, we ourselves crucify the Lord again and again.
Love one another. The special quality of college life in a place like this is the bonds of love that develop in surprising and wonderful ways. Don’t forget it. Be thankful. This is the new commandment - that we love one another. Remember it today on Maundy Thursday. Remember it always. Amen.
Sermon © 2004 Richard R. Crocker. All rights reserved.
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