Maundy Thursday 2021

 

April 1, 2021

 watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCSrqJrfnSE&t=19s

School was really cool on Tuesday, January 28, 1986, because in the last class before lunch, Health and PE, we were doing neither Health, nor PE.  We were watching television, at school.  It was ‘totally awesome’ as we liked to say in the ‘80’s.  We watched the triumph of American ingenuity.  The Space Shuttle Challenger took flight, and our hope in America went with it, and we watched as it exploded 73 seconds into the flight. 

A million moments pass through our lifetimes, but one or two sit fixed, because they are possessed by meaning-making power.  The Fall of the Berlin wall, November 9, 1989; terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001; these and other moments define how we see the world.  Perhaps January 6, 2021 will achieve such dubious immortality, the assault on the U.S. capitol.

In the Bible through sign-acts, prophets speaking and acting out God’s word instigated such moments.  On this day, Jesus, in one of the many roles he filled, the prophetic role, defined his church in two sign-acts performed at last supper.

            Examples of these sign-acts are found throughout the Bible.  To show that Judah would have a future, even after exile, Jeremiah bought a field, when Jerusalem was on the verges of collapse in the face of the Babylonian onslaught.  To demonstrate the way God loved a people who in turn were unfaithful to him, God compelled the prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman and then to give the children born to that union specific names that depicted the unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people.    These are but a few of the many sign-acts we encounter in the Bible.  Each memorable display called attention to the prophet’s message. 

The first of Jesus’ sign-acts is recorded in John 13:1-17. 

John 13:1-17, 34-35

13 Now 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. ² The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴ got up from the table,^[a] took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸ Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet,^[b] but is entirely clean. And you^[c] are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Very truly, I tell you, servants^[d] are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

³⁴ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

            John’s gospel explains that when Jesus got up from the table with a towel and a basin of water, he did so “Knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God.”   Departure was on his mind as he bent before each of the 12 disciples, face to feet level.  Their feet were as dirty as yours or mine would be if we walked everywhere only on dirt roads wearing only sandals.  Washing their feet, Jesus performed a needed service, usually performed by a household servant, not the revered rabbi.  Defying convention was intentional.

            Jesus meant to show what life in the kingdom of God is like.  Knowing he wouldn’t be with them bodily after the resurrection, he wanted them to remember.  In his kingdom, leaders serve.  Leaders meet the lowliest of people at their level and raise them up.  The disciples were to follow their teacher’s example and serve one another, and also the poor and lowly of the world, and everyone in the world. 

In Christianity Today magazine, Michael Horton writes, “Jesus enacts a performance parable about power.  … Taking off his outer garment, he wraps a towel around his waist and begins to wash his disciples’ feet.”[i]  Horton refers back to John 10 where Jesus asserted that there is no power that takes life from him.  Rather, he lays his life down (10:17-18). 

Horton then points out that the kingdom of God is founded in blood, but not the blood of the people, but rather the shed blood of the king who defined his reign with compassion and sacrifice.  Contrast this stance with that of American politicians who claim the name Jesus, but then grasp desperately for earthly power that is divisive, destructive, and temporary.  “When Christian leaders are drawn to breath-taking expression of ungodly power, it raises questions about which kingdom and which sort of king they find most appealing.”[ii]

Peter felt the weight of what Jesus was doing.  He wanted to exalt Jesus, so he at first refused to see his master kneel at his feet.  Peter was ashamed to be over Jesus.  Jesus corrected him.  Then Peter, who badly wanted everything Jesus had to give, went from rejecting Jesus’ overture to asking that Jesus wash his entire body (v.9).

Jesus told him he was clean.  Peter would go on to deny knowing Jesus, misspeak when he met the resurrected Jesus, and later have a falling-out with the Apostle Paul.  Why did Jesus tell him he was clean?  The forgiveness God gave and the atonement Jesus would achieve in his own death on the cross, were already effective for the disciples.

I had a discussion recently with someone unsure about baptism.  He said, “The reason I hesitate to be baptized is I know I will sin again.”  Jesus knew Peter would sin again.  He predicted Peter’s denials.  Yet, he declared Peter clean because forgiveness and atonement would be achieved.  The salvation Jesus won for Peter, and for you, and for me, could not be undone by any mistake Peter or you or I make.   

Washing the disciples’ feet was a sign-act that defined the kingdom of Jesus, the church.  In the church, we show our love for God and each other through humble service.  In verse 15, Jesus says is plainly.  “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

The foot-washing is only recorded in John, and Jesus’ sharing of the bread and the cup is only in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Taken together, as different accounts of the same meal, we see Jesus perform two sign-acts.  Foot-washing established that the church will be a community that loves through humble service, a community in which everyone is called to serve everyone else. 

The serving of the bread and cup, calling to mind Jesus’ broken body and shed blood, establishes the church of Jesus as a community of sacrifice.  Jesus took something familiar to the disciples, the elements of the Passover meal, as his canvas.  They knew of the blood of the Passover lamb that atoned for sins once.  The Passover meal and sacrifice would need to be repeated again each year. That ritual was now changed.  He told them, when you take the bread and drink the cup, remember that I was the Passover Lamb who died for the sins of all people. 

That eating the bread and drinking the wine is a normal, regular part of our worship is a reminder of what Jesus did for us.  It is also a defining act.  The Kingdom of Jesus, the church, which is a Kingdom in which love is expressed through service, is also a kingdom of sacrifice.  We are forgiven and made new because our Lord died in our place.

Every time we eat and drink, we remember.  We remember our sins are forgiven.  We remember we are children of God.  We remember that Jesus is Lord.  We cannot go back to being who we were before we began to follow Jesus.  There will be moments when we stumble in our following after him, and we don’t look very much like disciples at all.  In those moments of failure, we repent, again come to the table, and again eat and drink, and thus step back onto the path Jesus lays before us.  Eating and drinking, we remember who he is and we remember that because of God’s grace, we are his. 

Washing the disciples’ feet and instituting the bread and cup as His, the Lord’s, supper, Jesus established the values of his kingdom and the way we are to relate to each other if we want to be part of his kingdom. 

In ending Our Maundy Thursday worship by consuming the bread and cup, we receive the gift of forgiveness and the new life God gives.  And, we step into the world of meaning Jesus creates.  This world of meaning, where love is seen in service and sacrifice, is what makes sense of our lives. 

AMEN

 

---

[i] M. Horton (2016) - http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/march-web-only/theology-of-donald-trump.html?start=2

[ii] Ibid.

Maundy Thursday - 2020

watch - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrW6RgXdIYIHJNScW3oRGPw?view_as=subscriber

Together in Christ (1 Corinthians 11:23-34)

Rob Tennant, Hillside Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2020

*This message will be broadcast by Facebook and Instagram Live and posted to Youtube, but will not be preached to a live audience.  We – America, the world – are in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis which is causing people all over the world to avoid gathering in groups of larger than 10, and diligently maintain “social distance.”  It’s an effort to curb the rapid, worldwide spread of the Corona virus which can be deadly.

            What do you hear in 1 Corinthians 11?  “The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’”  What comes to mind?

            Do this.  Gather.  Jesus was with his disciples.  Paul wrote of that night in a letter that would be read to the gathered church.  Join together.  Come around the table where there is bread and drink.  Break the bread and share it among each other. 

            In remembrance of me.  In the ancient world, sharing a meal was no small thing.  The guests were linked to the host in fellowship.  With one’s guard down, one was vulnerable and intimate.  The guests trusted the host’s intentions.  The guests received the host’s gift of food, drink, conversation, and companionship.  The guests felt safe at the host’s table. 

            Jesus, the host, welcomes the guests, who, as a group, become one body linked in solidarity to him.  He, the sinless one, will, on the cross, take their sins on himself.  He who has no need to die, will die for all who are guilty – every one of us.  In his death, he joins himself to our condition.

            He also invites us to be joined to him, in his death, but also to his resurrection.  In fact, the meaning of Jesus joined to us in our sins is only fulfilled when he rises from the grave, and we are joined to him in resurrection.  Thus, the church is the body of Christ, him at work in the world today.

            Theologian Stanely Hauerwas believes that when Jesus is gathered with the disciples for what will be the last supper and offers bread they are to eat ‘in remembrance of him,’ they would associate the bread with abundance.  They have seen him take a few loaves and feed thousands.[i]  They got full on the leftovers.  They know that with Jesus there is always more than enough, and all who come to him will be satisfied.

            The two-way solidarity, Jesus with us in our sinfulness, us with him in God’s redemption of the world, is only one aspect of the unity we find at the Lord’s table.  As we are united with Jesus, so too, we must be united with one another.  The picture of the body of Christ, developed so artistically by Paul throughout 1 Corinthians and especially in chapters 10-14, is an image of many believers joined together with one heart. 

In church lingo, drawing from the New Testament, we refer to one another as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ united in Christ.  Twentieth century Baptist scholar George Eldon Ladd takes this a step further when he writes, “A bond exists between all who are in Christ that is unique and transcends all other human relationships.”[ii]

I’m not sure if American Christians are this tightly bound to one another.  We attend one church until it stops pleasing us and then switch to another.  Such a casual approach would have been unthinkable to Jesus the night he pledged himself to his disciples knowing one would betray him, another deny him, and all abandon him hours before he gave his life for them and for all of us Christians who sometimes take such an individualistic, casual approach to faith.  Perhaps the isolation forced upon us by weeks of “stay-at-home” orders brought about by the specter of the Coronavirus makes us appreciate those times we can be together.  The church is not a collection of individuals who have each made individual commitments to Jesus.  The church is a group of people joined in agape love to one another in Jesus’s name.  Can we be the church and truly take communion when we are quarantined?

Contemplating this, I thought of a couple people forced to join with Christ when they could not be with the church in the body.  Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, a Romanian Jewish couple, came to faith in Jesus during World War II as they opposed Nazism.  After the war, Communism overtook Romania.  The Wurmbrands publicly declared that their sole allegiance was to Jesus and not the Communist party.  Sabina ended in prison for 3 years, and Richard for over a decade, much of it in solitary confinement.  Eventually they made it out of prison and out of Romania, but their faith grew strong when they leaned on Jesus while in isolation.[iii] [iv]

John McCain also grew closer to the Lord when he was forced into isolation.  Before the late senator and presidential candidate served in the military, he was a navy pilot.  Flying missions in the Vietnam War, he was shot down and ended up as a prisoner of war for over 5 years.  During much of that time he was forced into solitary confinement.  Growing up, McCain had memorized passages of scripture as well as the Lord’s prayer and worship songs.  When he was allowed to be with other P.O.W.’s in Vietnam, and they were denied access to Bible, the passages he remembered became their scripture.  Reluctantly, he became the prison chaplain.  The faith that had been an intellectual assent in his younger life became a heart’s passion and a lifeline when he was in solitary confinement.  Cut-off from the world, he was joined to Christ. 

When we gather at the Lord’s table, taking the bread, and the cup, we are joined to Christ and to one another.  Ours is an embodied faith just as Jesus was bodily resurrected.  We are promised that we too will be.  Our expression of faith requires that we be with one another in person, able to shake hands, embrace, and eat and drink.   God in human flesh, touchable, real, dead and resurrected is the very foundation of our story.  We may itemize our beliefs as Christian; we may list our values; but the list only holds up when it stands on the story that has formed us.  It is the story of God in the flesh constituting a people, his body, doing his work in the world.[v] 

The reason the Wurmbrands could unite to God in Christ while in isolation and John McCain could do the same is they were formed by the story.  They were part of the communion of the saints.  For that same reason, we, each one of us locked in our homes by COVID-19, the dangerous, contagious Coronavirus, can be united to one another. 

It’s Maundy Thursday and we expect to be in Church, singing reflective songs of worship as we hear the story of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples.  He washed their feet.  He shared the bread and the cup with them. As we reflect on the Lenten commitments made on Ash Wednesday, we expect to be together as we retell these stories.  The stories come alive in our gathering.

We can’t do it that way this year and that’s disappointing.  It’s OK to acknowledge our sadness.  Obviously in our homes, with internet connections and other comforts, we’re not enduring the hardships McCain or the Wumbrands or other persecuted believers suffered.  It’s not about comparison.  The isolation takes a toll on us.  We miss each other.  I was in a Zoom call with a dozen pastors on Monday and every single one looked stressed out.  We pastors don’t know recognize ourselves when we’re apart from our churches for too long.  One of our Hillside members said it quite well to me in a phone conversation.  “Pray until you run out of prayers and then pray some more.”

God is with you.  God is with us.  God will bring us back together again.  Even though we, an embodied community, tonight are separated, we are joined in spirit.  Where you are, you and I and the entire church family will take the Lord’s Supper together in remembrance of him.

At your home, have the bread ready and the juice poured. 

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gave thanks and broke bread and shared it will all who follow him.  He said, “This is my body, which is broken for you.  Take and eat.”

Then he poured the cup and said, “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins.”  Take and Drink.

After they had finished the meal, they sang a hymn and then went out to Mount of Olives.  We will close our worship with a hymn.  Please sing with me.

1 Let us break bread together on our knees;
let us break bread together on our knees.

Refrain:
When I fall on my knees
with my face to the rising sun,
O Lord, have mercy on me.

2 Let us drink wine together on our knees;
let us drink wine together on our knees. [Refrain]

3 Let us praise God together on our knees;
let us praise God together on our knees. [Refrain]

---

[i] Stanley Hauerwas (2006), Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible: Matthew, Brazos Press, a division of Baker Books (Grand Rapids), p.218.

[ii] George Eldon Ladd (1974), A Theology of the New Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (Grand Rapids), p.543.

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wurmbrand

[iv] https://www.torturedforchrist.com/about/who-was-richard-wurmbrand/

[v] James W. McClendon Jr. (1986), Systematic Theology: Ethics, Abingdon Press (Nashville), p.214-217, 332-333.

The Last Supper Commandment - Matthew 26:26-29

            ‘Mandatum’ is a Latin word that means ‘commandment.’  The Anglo-French rendering is ‘Maundy.’  We call this day, the Thursday before Easter, the day we commemorate the Passover meal Jesus had with his disciples before he was arrested a crucified, Maundy Thursday.  English words ‘mandatory,’ and ‘mandate’ come from this Latin word.  Jesus sits at the table with his closest followers, gives them bread, and says, “Take this,” and “Do this in remembrance of me.  It’s not a suggestion.  It’s a commandment.  Gathering for the Lord’s Supper is mandatory for his followers. 

            What exactly is the commandment?  What does it mean?  And when does it take effect?

            What exactly does Jesus command his disciples and us to do when he tells us to take the bread and drink the wine?  From the writings of Paul and the practice of the very first Christians, we know all in the church were invited to the table for the bread and wine.  The Lord’s Supper was not reserved for elites within the Christian community.  There were not to be elites.  Regardless of one’s social status, rich or poor, powerful or unimportant, all were welcomed as one family at Jesus’ table.

            The assumption is that anyone who desired to follow Christ or claimed to be a follower of Christ would join with the church for communal worship. There was no such thing as a solitary, individual Christian.  In the earliest Christian Communities, the Lord’s Supper happened within worship.  When Jesus commands, “Take this bread, drink this cup, do this to remember me,” he’s commanding us to worship with one another in the gathering of the church.

In the tradition of the practice of the first century Church, when we gather for worship and come around Jesus’ table, we are to welcome all as equals.  Here, there are no rich or poor.  People of all racial and ethnic backgrounds are welcomed in love.  Jesus commands it to be so.  Come to worship.  Remember him by eating the bread and drinking from the cup.  And tell of the salvation he gives by inviting people you know outside the church to come with you.  This was recorded in the gospels.  All four gospels were written with the intention that they be read publicly and repeatedly for the purpose of telling Jesus’ story and drawing lost people to him.  

It’s Maundy, mandatory: gather with the church family; worship; eat and drink; remember; and, bring others with you.

What does it all mean?

Jesus says, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  It sounds bizarrely cannibalistic.  In some worship traditions, believers are certain the bread literally becomes his body as we eat it, and the wine literally becomes his blood as we drink it.  Such thoughts would not have occurred to the disciples at Jesus’ table or to the earliest Christians.  They were eating the Passover and as they did, Jesus transformed it.

The unleavened bread hearkened back to the meal the Jews ate when they were slaves in Egypt and the angel of death killed the firstborn in each Egyptian family.  Moses instructed the people to kill the lamb and spread the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses.  The angel saw the blood and passed over the homes of God’s chosen.  The lamb each family sacrifice died in their place.

Jesus is the final sacrifice covering not only Israel’s sins, but the sins of the world.  Remember, we’re commanded to take this supper.  It means we are all sinners, every last one of us. We are cut off from God because of the sins we have committed and there is nothing we can do to atone for our mistakes.  Sin has stained our souls.   Without Jesus, we’re eternally lost.

But, we’re not “without Jesus.”  He has come, died on the cross, and rose.  When he says, “Take, eat, this is my body,” he means he is going to suffer violence on our behalf.  In Paul’s rendering of this passage, 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus says, “This is my body that is for you.”  Jesus is for us.  He - God in the flesh - came for our good, our benefit.  However hard life might be, and life can be pretty trying, God loves us.  Jesus gives himself for us.  We’re not alone.

Nor are we trapped in our sins.  “He took a cup ... saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant which poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).  In Jesus blood shed on the cross, sin loses its hold on us.  All are invited to drink, but Jesus knew not all would.  Even though this is a command, Jesus knew not all who heard it would obey it.  Many people meet God, receive his invitation to relationship through the forgiveness of sins, and reject that invitation.  God honors that response and those who meet Him and choose to turn away from Him, are cut off, separated from God by their own choosing.  Those who obey and turn to Jesus and take the bread and drink the cup are forgiven.  Our sins are washed away and we become new creations. 

We’ve said what Jesus commands.  We are commanded to worship with God’s church treating all people as equals, as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to come and worship, take the bread and cup and receive forgiveness, and to tell the story of salvation to others who have not heard.

We have said what Maundy Thursday means.  God is for us because God loves us.  Thus our sins are forgiven.  That which would cut us off from God has been removed.  In Christ, we have access to God.  Nothing stops us from living in relationship with God as His sons and daughters.

When does this story take effect?  That happens when we respond to the grace of God, the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts, and step to God in faith.  The original disciples took this step after they met Jesus in resurrection.  Shortly after this Passover meal, the last supper, Jesus would be arrested, and his disciples fled in terror.  They abandoned him and went into hiding. 

However, when he rose from death and they met him and touched his resurrected body, they were changed.  From fear to courage, they went through dramatic transformations.  Tradition tells us that the disciples became so determined to tell the world about Jesus that most of them ran afoul of the Roman Empire.  Under the governance of Rome, the law dictated that all subjects acknowledge the emperor as divine.  “Caesar is Lord,” was the decree.  The disciples could not abide by such a sentiment because they knew that Jesus is Lord.  Most of them died deaths as gruesome as Jesus because they would not recant and acknowledge the divinity of Caesar.  They didn’t care what Rome did.  They believed and insisted that Jesus and only Jesus is Lord.

We mostly likely won’t be threatened with death as our forebearers were.  It doesn’t happen that way in our culture.  So how will we know we have obeyed the command of Jesus?  Obviously we are all here in this worship service, singing songs of faith, confessing our sins and turning to Jesus as we prepare to take the bread and cup.  In that sense we are actively obeying his command.

How we will know this obedience has taken hold in our lives once Holy Week has passed and we are away from the church family?  We become self-giving, following the example Jesus set.  We look out for others and give of ourselves for their benefit.  This happens 100’s of ways, from donating blood to investing in someone else’ life to giving generous monetary donations to works that help people who need it.  The giving of ourselves happens in relationships with people we’ve know all our lives and in interactions with strangers.  We become love-banks extravagantly doling out the love of God to everyone we meet.

In addition to becoming self-giving, we also become storytellers and the story we share is the Good news of forgiveness of sins people can have in Jesus.  God is building the kingdom of God through His church.  Every time we share the story of Jesus, a brick is put in place.  Every time we invite someone to church, a brick is put in place.  Every time we help someone see what the life of a disciple of Jesus looks like, a brick is put in place.  God is building the Kingdom.  He works through the work of the church and the witness of individuals in the church; people like you and me.

Are we saying all that stems from the dinner we call the “Last Supper,” a simple remembrance in bread and wine?  Yes, that’s exactly what has been said. 

Tonight, perhaps you needed to put it all together, the connection from what the 12 went through that night to the life of faith you are currently living.  

Or, perhaps, you’re in a different place. You needed to be reminded that yes, you are a sinner, and yes, your sins cut you off from God.  However, Jesus has covered your sins and opened the way.  The pathway is clear for you to walk into God’s loving embrace.  Tonight, maybe communion is time for you receive forgiveness and begin truly living as God’s daughter or son.

Or, maybe you’re getting a sense of this entire story for the very first time.  You never knew what it all meant, but now you do, at least a bit.  Now that you know, you realize how much you need Jesus.  Tonight, for the very first time, you want to ask Jesus into your heart to be your Lord and Savior.  You can do that as you come to eat and drink.

Everyone is invited to come and meet Jesus in this bread and cup.  Take a few moments in silent preparation.  Pour out your heart to God and ask Him to reveal his love to you.

After we’ve had silent contemplation, join in as we gather at the tables to receive what Jesus has for us.

AMEN

Maundy Thursday Monologues - Simon the Zealot

Holy Thursday Monologue – Simon the Zealot

If you read your Bible in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 10, or Mark chapter 3, you will find there a list of the disciples who followed Jesus.  In that list, you find the name Simon the Cananean.   That’s me.  Luke lists me differently.  He calls me, Simon the Zealot. 

You think you know all the disciples.  James and John were fishing brothers.  So were Peter and Andrew.  Nathaniel, he was the straight shooter.  Whatever was on his mind, he said.  Philip, well, he was a kid.  He and John and Andrew, they were pretty wet behind the ears. I am not much older them, but I had seen things they had not. 

Thomas what a brain on that guy.  He was always thinking, always questioning.  I know he came to be called a “doubter.”  He was much more than that.  He was a thinker.

I think Matthew had the most fun of all the disciples.  That guy could party, almost as much Jesus. 

Of course history shows that Judas Iscariot was a schemer.  We didn’t know it at the time.  We thought he was a brilliant in practical thinking as Thomas was in theoretical thinking.  We deferred to Judas because he was so confidant. 

In some ways he and I were kindred spirits.  Both Judas Iscariot and I were committed to the overthrow of the Romans and the overthrow the corrupt leadership in the temple.  He talked and made strategies and argued with Jesus.  He always thought he knew better than Jesus what we ought to do.  And then Jesus would work a miracle and Judas would shut up and fall in line.

For my part, I was not interested in Peter’s outbursts or Judas’ scheming or Thomas’ philosophy or Nathaniel’s mouth.  I like Matthew’s parties, but even that, I thought, was the wrong priority.  Before I followed Jesus, I was party of a group of revolutionaries.  We weren’t Sicarii.  We did not commit assassinations.  But, we watched closely because we thought the Messiah was coming to call us to arms.  We were ready.

I was at the wedding in Cana when Jesus turned water into wine.  I knew what happened.  So, I left some of my Zealot pals behind and started following Jesus.  I didn’t even realize he noticed me, and then he asked me to be one of his 12 disciples – like the 12 tribes.  Yes, I was sure, he was going to restore Israel to the people of God.

But boy did I have trouble with some of his teaching.  Turn the other cheek?  Love your enemy?  I didn’t understand and he could see that.  He knew how frustrated I was.  He didn’t kick me out.  Neither did he make it any easier on me.  I did not confront him like Peter.  I did not question like Thomas.  I didn’t argue with him the way Judas did.  But sometimes I wanted to.

Things were really heating up when we came to Jerusalem for the Passover.  His confrontations with legalists and priests were edgier.  We were all tense.  Then, when we gathered for the meal in that upper room, well, I can’t describe it.  When he took the wine and said, “This is the new covenant that is my blood,” everything changed.  That night, I could not have told you how, but something happened when he said that and we were never the same.

Later on, when the soldiers came to arrest him in the garden, I just ran.  I don’t even know why.  I, who had been so eager to fight the Roman and fight injustice; when the fight came I ran.  Thinking back now to the wine, the new covenant, it is like I was empty and full all at the same time. 

I haven’t picked up a sword since.  Oh, I’ve used knives and axes, as tools.  But since I followed Jesus, I who had built my life on being a revolutionary, never again thought about fighting or killing anyone.  You follow him, it will change you.  It did me.

I think it about it every time I drink that wine.

Maundy Thursday Monologues - Simon Peter

http://captainsacrament.blogspot.com/2004/04/maundy-thursday-2004.html

My name is Simon Peter.

You know me from the stories about me in the Bible.  You know I was the one to walk on water to Jesus.  Well, I walked until I sank and Jesus pulled me out.

I’m the one Jesus trusted with the keys to the Kingdom.  It was also to me that Jesus said, “Get behind, Satan.”  He said that when I tried to talk him out of going to the cross.

When they came arrest him, I whipped out a sword and start swinging.  I was there, when Jesus said ‘turn the other cheek.’  But in that moment in the garden, I just forgot.  I started swinging the sword and Jesus healed the man I hit.  Then he was arrested and I ran.  To my shame, I denied knowing him just as he predicted I would.

After he rose, he forgave me.  He restored me as one of his followers.

Now, it’s been many years.  I don’t how I’ve survived this long.  James was beheaded by Herod.  John was exiled to Patmos.  Stephen was stoned to death.  I carry on.  Now, I lead the church at Rome. 

We tell a lot of stories this time of year.  We tell these stories to remember the death and new life of our King and to remember who we are. 

This night is Passover.  When we celebrate, we remember that we were created by God’s saving act. Our Master Jesus became the Passover lamb, sacrificed for us, and by his resurrection saved us from the darkness of sin. Many of you who were not of Israel became his because of this. We have been created by his saving act.

Tonight, I remember clearly that Passover before everything happened.  It was the night he was betrayed – by all of us. We gathered in an upper room to share the meal. Our feet had gotten dusty, and needed to be washed before we gathered at table. We were talking, cutting up and just enjoying being together. It had been a dark week, and we needed to celebrate.

But then we suddenly quieted; we could have heard a feather hit the ground. Not many things can silence a room of rambunctious fishermen. I looked about to see what had happened. Jesus had taken off his robe and put on a towel. He filled a basin and began to wash our feet. We were completely speechless, and I was incensed. We had gathered to celebrate our identity as the free people of God, and he was doing what would have been disgraceful even for a slave!

I asked him just what he thought he was doing. “You don’t understand now,” he said, “but later, you will.” I refused him: “You’re never going to wash my feet!” He was patient and adamant as always. “If I don’t do this, you can’t be my disciple.”

I was shattered. I had spent three years of my life with this man, given up everything to follow him. But... if refusing this meant refusing him, I had missed something. I loved him, so I obeyed, even though I didn’t understand.

As the rough hands of the carpenter cradled the rougher feet of this fisherman, I was struck by the tenderness of the act. Feet are very basic things, right? They’re just there. But as his fingers moved between my toes to wash, I was devastated by the intimacy. I began to understand. On that night in a little room in Jerusalem, just before all hell would break loose, this is what it meant to love us to the end. He was dedicated to me and to each of us. There were no lengths to which he would not go to love us, heal us, and set us free. This lowly service showed me the very heart of God.

He told us that this would be the pattern for our lives. This is a symbol of how he bears us up in all of our sins, failings and idiosyncrasies.

We remember this tonight. We confess our needs and submit to his washing—submit to his tenderness. We will leave and remember that our brothers and sisters have dusty feet also. We will wash them.

So in this story, learn who you are.  Let the Lord be with you in the weak places, in the dirt. Then go, take up your basin and towel, and be who you are.

In the name of Christ. Amen.