Daily Archives: April 14, 2022

Chaplain Tucker Messamore: Victory through Humility

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Sermon delivered on Maundy Thursday C, April 14, 2022 at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Exodus 12.1-14; Psalm 116.1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11.23-26; St. John 13.1-17, 31b-35.

The gospel reading we just heard tells a familiar story. If you have been a part of the Church for a while, you know the events that took place on this night long ago, this Thursday night of Holy Week that we have come to know as Maundy Thursday. You know how Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, how He celebrated the first Eucharist with them, how He prayed earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane and sweat drops of blood, how He was betrayed into the hands of His enemies who would torture Him, mock Him, and kill Him. 

This is an account with which many of us are well acquainted, one that we heard read in its entirety on Palm/Passion Sunday. But tonight, as we focus on John’s record of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, let’s try to move past the familiarity and look at these events through the eyes of Jesus’ disciples so that we can see the shock and the scandal of what took place in the Upper Room that night.

Later this evening, if you come forward for one of our priests to wash your feet, it will probably feel foreign to you, something you do not experience often. But in Jesus’ day, foot washing was quite common. Because people wore sandals as they walked around dirt roads and filthy city streets, foot washing was a necessary part of personal hygiene. When you went indoors, you washed your feet. People would often have a basin of water at their front door for guests to wash their feet, and “in the home of prominent Jews, a slave was posted at the entrance of the house ready to loosen the sandal straps of those who entered and to wash their feet” (EBD, 390). Foot washing was considered such a menial, demeaning task that it “could not be required of a [Jewish] slave” (HIBD, 592).

This is where the scandal comes into play in our text. In v. 4, Jesus “got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.” This is the garb of a slave. Jesus takes on the form of servant, and He washes His disciples’ feet (v. 5). We can understand Peter’s objection. We can hear the incredulity in his voice when he asks, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (v. 6). Jesus was taking the social roles and cultural expectations of his day and turning them completely upside down. He was Rabbi, and these were His disciples, yet He was washing their feet. Remember, John the Baptist had said, “The one who is coming after me, I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandal” (John 1:27), and yet here was Jesus, lowering Himself to loosen the sandals of other sand to wash their feet.

How could this be? Why would Jesus do this?  We’re not left to guess because Jesus tells us. He humbled Himself to set an example, to illustrate the kind of self-sacrificial love to which He calls His people. In vv. 14-15, Jesus says, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Similarly in vv. 34-35, Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is where we get the name “Maundy Thursday”: from the Latin word mandantum, which means “commandment,” for the new commandment Jesus gave to us on that night.

But there is more going on here than serving as a model.  Notice that his passage begins with a long preface in vv. 1-3: Jesus knew His hour had come, He knew He was about to depart the world, He knew He about to go to the Father. And so, He got up from the table, took of his robe, tied a towel around His waist, and wash His disciples’ feet. This was a highly symbolic act, an image that would one day help His disciples understand and interpret what was about to happen. In v. 7, Jesus says, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” It would only be later—after Jesus’ death and resurrection—that the disciples would understand the full significance of the foot washing.

We could say Maundy Thursday occurred to help us understand Good Friday. The events of the Upper Room help us comprehend His work on the cross. Like the foot washing episode, Jesus’ crucifixion was a completely unexpected, paradigm-shattering event. At the beginning of Holy Week, Messianic expectations about Jesus had reached a fever pitch. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was heralded as a conquering King, the Promised One who would rescue Israel from its enemies.  No one would have expected that by that Friday, Jesus would be hanging on a cross, condemned to die between to common criminals. 

And yet this was exactly why Jesus came. Philippians 2:6-8 tells us that because of Jesus’ great love for us, He left the glory of heaven to clothe Himself in human flesh and to take on “the form of a slave . . . He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8). And it was precisely through His death that Jesus achieved victory for His people over their enemies—not the Romans, but the greatest enemies humanity has ever faced: sin, death, and the devil. Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet helps us to understand how this victory was possible.

The foot washing account points to how Jesus died to set us free from sin. When Peter refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet, Jesus replies, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me” (v. 8). Jesus’ words point to the sin-sickness of humanity. The curse of sin infects every aspect of the human condition—our actions, our thoughts, and our motives. It distorts the way that we relate to God, to each other, and to creation. Try as we might to live rightly, in our own power, we cannot escape sins clutches. We are in bondage to it.

 But Christ came to set us free. Our Old Testament lesson (Exodus 12:1-14) points us to the first Passover. God instructed His people to slaughter a lamb a smear its blood on their doorposts so that their households would be spared from God’s righteous judgment, the plague He sent on all of Egypt, the death of the firstborn son. The lamb acted as a substitute, it died instead of the children of Israel.

It is no coincidence that Jesus’ death took place during the Jewish celebration of Passover; Jesus, God in human flesh, was the spotless “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus died in the place of sinners, paying the penalty we deserve for our sins so that we might be cleansed of our sin by His blood (1 John 1:7) and set free from our bondage to it. As Paul says in Romans 6:6-7, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.”

But sin is not the only enemy Jesus vanquishes on the cross. Through His death and His resurrection, Jesus put death to death. In our epistle lesson, Paul reminds of what took place after the foot washing. As Jesus & His disciples celebrated the Passover, He gave new significance to the elements of the meal, instituting the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said the bread was His body and the wine was “the new covenant in [His] blood” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Like the foot washing, the Last Supper pointed to Jesus’ impending death on the cross, that his body would be broke and His blood would be shed.

How shocking it would have been for the promised Warrior-King to undergo what appeared to be such a humiliating defeat? How backward and ridiculous it seems that God Himself, the Creator of all and Giver of Life, should die. But what seems foolish to humankind is the wisdom and power of God. Christ succumbed to death that he might overcome death. As the author of Hebrews put it, “Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, [Jesus] Himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

This brings us to the final enemy that Jesus came to defeat: the devil. At the beginning of the foot washing account, John pulls back the curtain to reveal that there are sinister, cosmic forces at work in the world behind the scenes. It is the devil who has “put it into the heart of Judas” to betray Jesus.  Scripture affirms that Satan and His forces have been at work from the beginning to wreak havoc on God’s good world. It was Satan who tempted Adam and Eve to sin, and from then on he has sought only “to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10); he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

But Jesus came to rescue humanity from demonic oppression, as John affirms in his first epistle: “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b). While Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion were the result of a Satanic plot, they were ultimately the means Christ used to render Satan powerless. Through Christ’s death, we are cleansed of our sin, which away Satan’s chief weapons against us: His accusations of guilt. In this way, Colossians 2:15 tells us that through the cross, Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.”

So tonight, as we recount the events of Maundy Thursday, may they point us to the cross of Christ. As our priests wash our feet, may you remember that Christ humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. As we come to the table, may we remember Christ’s body was broken for us and His blood was shed for us that we might be cleansed of our sins. As we see the altar stripped and meditate on our Lord being betrayed into the hands of sinners, may we remember that He willingly endured the devil’s schemes “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b). Tonight, may we behold the love of Christ, the humility of Christ, and the victory of Christ.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Maundy Thursday 2022: St. Thomas Offers a Reflection on the Eucharist

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The happy commemoration of today’s feast with its immense concourse of people invites us to prolong fervently our praises of the Most Holy Body of Christ. What could be sweeter, what more pleasing to the heart of the faithful than to exalt the abyss of his divine charity, and to glorify the overflowing torrent of his love! At the table of the new grace the hand of the priest distributes ceaselessly his Flesh as food and his precious Blood as drink, to those who are his children and heirs of the kingdom promised by God to those who love him.

O endless Emanation of the goodness of God and of his immense love for us, admirable and worthy of all praise! In this sacrament, where all former sacrifices are done away with, he remains with us to the end of the world; he feeds the children of adoption with the bread of angels and inebriates them with filial love.

This is the food and drink for the elect, living bread and spiritual nourishment, remedy for daily weaknesses! It is the table which Christ has prepared for his friends and guests, like the one the father prepared for his son on the day of his return, to replace the symbolic lamb. This is the Passover in which the victim immolated is Christ; 0 Christ our Passover, you want us too to pass over from vice to virtue; as once you delivered the Jews, so now you set us free in spirit. You are the food that satisfies all but the most hardened; food that is eaten by faith, tasted by fervor, assimilated by charity. 0 viaticum of our pilgrimage, you lead travelers to the height of virtue. Confirm my heart in good, assure it in the paths of life, give joy to my soul, purify my thoughts.

The Eucharist is bread, real bread; we eat it without consuming or dividing it; it converts butitself is not changed; it gives strength without ever losing it; it gives perfection and suffices for salvation; it gives life, it confers grace, it remits sins. It is the food of souls, a food which enlightens the intelligence of the faithful, inflames their hearts, purifies them from their shortcomings, elevates their desires.

O chalice that holy souls love to drink of, chalice of fervor, chalice changed into the Blood of Christ, to seal the new Alliance, withdraw us the old leaven, fill our souls with yourself, that we may become a new paste and that we may go to the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. For the Lamb without spot, who knows no touch or stain of any sin, ought to be eaten with unleavened bread. We should not approach without being cleansed by confession, without having a solid foundation of faith, without being in charity.

Come to the Lord’s supper, if you wish to come to the nuptials of the Lamb; there, we shall be inebriated with the riches of the house of God we shall see the King of glory and the God of hosts in all his beauty, shall eat this bread in the kingdom of the Father.

Thomas Aquinas, Lectionary and Martyrology, 288-289

Holy Week 2022: Maundy Thursday

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On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover meal for you?”

So Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with these instructions: “As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.”So the two disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.

In the evening Jesus arrived with the Twelve. As they were at the table eating, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me.”

Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one?”

He replied, “It is one of you twelve who is eating from this bowl with me. For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.”

And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”

Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

St. Mark 14.12-26 (NLT)

On the Sunday of the Passion we looked at the reasons the cross of Christ matters. The crucified Son of God is the living embodiment that demonstrates God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have life forever (John 3.16). Christ is our one and only hope.

Tonight we will observe Maundy Thursday. Maundy is derived from the Latin word, mandatum, meaning to mandate. What is our Lord mandating us to do? First, he gave us a supper, the bread and the wine, to teach us the meaning of his impending death. There is a reason Jesus chose Passover to die. Enigmatically his death buys our freedom from our slavery to the power of Sin, even as our freedom remains only partial in this mortal life.

Christ is also going to the cross to bear the sins of the entire world, your sin and mine, to spare us from God’s awful judgment on our evil. When we come to the table to receive Christ’s body and blood by faith, we have a living reminder that Christ is with us, both in the bread and wine we consume, and in his promise to us that we are participants in his eternal kingdom, not after we die, but right now. So we have a mandate to feed on Christ’s body and blood.

And as participants in his kingdom, how are we to be good citizens? By following his example of sacrificial love for all. We have the mandate to deny our selfish desires, take up our cross in suffering love, and follow our Lord wherever and however he calls us. We are to embody his crucified love for others, difficult as that can be at times. Christ showed us this when he washed his disciples’ feet that night in the Upper Room. Doing so was another tangible sign that we are made clean by the blood of the Lamb shed for us and we are therefore to serve others to bring Christ’s love to them.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. Bring your hurts, your fears, your sorrows, your disappointments, and your deep longing to be loved and have life to the table tonight. Feed on our Lord’s body and blood by faith with thanksgiving that you are loved and claimed by God the Father whose love is simply not fathomable, but whose love for you is real nevertheless. You have Christ’s holy meal that points you to the cross as the Father’s living testimony about his great and undeserved love for you. Give thanks for that love, even in the midst of this terrible plague that besets us. Christ is our peace. God forbid we fail to take the gift offered us.

Your sins cost God dearly. But God in Christ shows you that you are worth reclaiming, despite your rebellion and stubbornness and pride. Come to the Table with a thankful heart for the gift of life God gives you in Christ and find your reconciliation with the Author of all life as well as his peace. Then prepare yourself to kneel at the foot of the cross on Good Friday with sorrow and gratitude. See your Lord give his life so that you can live and find the healing we all need. Doing so anticipates the great Easter feast.

Maundy Thursday 2022: St. Luke Recounts Maundy Thursday

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The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching. The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction.

Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted, and they promised to give him money. So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around.

Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.”

“Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him.

He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.

When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.”

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.

“But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me.For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him.” The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing.

Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

“You have stayed with me in my time of trial. And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”

Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”

But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or an extra pair of sandals, did you need anything?”

“No,” they replied.

“But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one! For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”

“Look, Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.”

“That’s enough,” he said.

Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives.

—Luke 22.1-39 (NLT)