A Night of Contradictions
Holy Week • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 17:44
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· 4 viewsFr. Michael’s sermon for Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Introduction
Introduction
The Gospel has many apparent contradictions, and this night is full of them.
Your insert contains two Gospel readings, and we will discuss both because they both have contradictions worth examining.
Look at Jesus
Look at Jesus
I asked you on Sunday to “Look at Jesus” this week. In Holy Week, we are not merely celebrating significant events in the life of Jesus. We are participating in something even more important than that. We walk with Jesus day by day through the principal events that reveal to us who Jesus is and who he expects us to be.
Sometimes, I wonder if I talk about the New Exodus too much. But then comes Maundy Thursday, reminding me that we cannot speak about the Exodus enough. Tonight is the night of the Passover. The first thing that Jesus says in our reading from the Gospel of Luke is:
And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
It is at this Passover Meal, which rehearses the redemption of the people of God from their slavery in Egypt, that Jesus…
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
This piece of unleavened bread that remembers your deliverance and salvation at the Exodus – this is my body.
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
The old covenant and the new, the Exodus and the New Exodus, come crashing together on this sacred night in this sacred meal, and in case we miss the point of what we are doing when we gather at the table, the celebrant says every Sunday:
“Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
It must have seemed like a contradiction to the disciples that night. Jesus’s” body was very much right in front of them, and his blood was very much still in his body. They had celebrated this meal since they were children, and not once had anyone ever said, “This is my body. This is the new covenant in my blood.”
I would like to imagine that the disciples, stunned by the theological significance of what Jesus had just said, sat there for hours pondering the possibilities. Instead, they were distracted by what Jesus said next.
But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.
For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”
And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.
This is another contradiction. Jesus is sitting at the table with his closest disciples, his chosen few, and yet the betrayer sat among those whom he had picked. Paul also calls this to our minds, and we echo this in our liturgy every Sunday. Before recalling the words of institution, he writes:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
This night, on which Jesus gave his closest friends the meal that they would need to make sense of his death and resurrection, is the night on which he was betrayed.
You might think that the disciples’ minds must now be consumed with the question of who among them could be the betrayer, but their minds quickly shift. They go from questioning one another about who could be the betrayer to arguing over which of them was the greatest.
I like to imagine that it was Peter’s fault. He’s sometimes known as the Apostle with a foot-shaped mouth, so I can easily picture him sitting at the table. Someone points their finger at Peter and accuses him of being the betrayer, and Peter responds, “The betrayer? I’m not Jesus’s betrayer? I’m his greatest disciple!” And then the conversation devolves from there.
Jesus has just told them that he wants to eat this Passover meal with them before he suffers. He has just interpreted the Passover meal in a way no one could ever have imagined. He has just told them that one of his closest friends, someone sitting at the table with him, will betray him. And they are concerned about which one of them is the greatest. This night is full of contradictions.
This is even more remarkable in the light of our reading from the Gospel of John, parts of which I will reenact in a few moments. Jesus is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is God incarnate, the Word made flesh, the creator of all that is, visible and invisible. John writes:
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
The God who made them, their Lord and master, humbled himself to the place of the lowest servant, and he washed the feet that he had made. Here is another contradiction.
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?
In other words, he is asking, “Have you been looking at me? Did you truly see?”
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
There’s that word again: example. Tonight is not merely about remembering some past event. Tonight is about setting our eyes on Jesus and seeing the example he left for us. Imagine that. The Lord of heaven and earth, in whose hands the Father had given all things, the one who had come from God and was going back to God, humbled himself and became a servant, and on the same night, his disciples argued over which of them was the greatest.
The Gospel says that the way up is the way down, and the path to glory is the way of the cross. The Gospel says that despite your inclination to rule, you were made to serve. The Gospels say that despite calling yourself Jesus’s friend and sharing a meal with him, you have betrayed him again and again.
We have sold what is eternal for thirty pieces of silver. We have seen him humble himself and become our servant, and then we asked, “But what about me? What about my position? My privilege? My prosperity? My power? What about me?”
I want to point something out here. You may not be aware of this, but John does not record the words of institution, which is puzzling to some. I have said on multiple occasions that when Jesus wanted to explain his death to his disciples, he didn’t give them a lecture; he gave them a meal, yet that meal is missing from John’s Gospel. I would have preferred that John included the words of institution. Still, I suspect he doesn’t because he believes this scene of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet as their servant likewise interprets his impending death.
That is to say that, for John, when we serve others, especially those we have any power, authority, or social standing over, we embody Jesus Christ’s death. Jesus said:
Mark 8:34 (ESV)
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Tonight, he says:
John 13:15 (ESV)
I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Our cross is not a Roman cross. He is not asking us to go outside the city and die in agony as he did. But he is asking us to follow his example. We take up our cross when we humble ourselves and set aside our privilege, power, prosperity, and positions of authority for other people’s good. That will feel like a contradiction. We will say that we are too tired, busy, or important to serve other people like our Lord served his disciples in the Upper Room, and then we will argue amongst ourselves over who is the greatest. When we do so, we are the contradiction.
The good news is that the Gospel is full of contradictions. Tomorrow, God dies. What more significant contradiction is there than that?
Amen.