"He Loves Us To The End" (John 13:1-17, 31b-35)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come 
to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

 

Jesus utterly loved His apostles. Jesus utterly loves you. He loves His whole creation.

 

Tonight is Maundy Thursday, or also called, Holy Thursday. The word “maundy” is derived from the Latin word mandatum, which means command. For it was on this night that Jesus gave the command to His disciples saying, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

 

“God is love” (1 John 4:16). John 3:16-17 sum up God’s love for us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

 

It was out of God’s love that caused Him to create the world in the first place. And His love endures forever. Jesus is the embodiment of this love. He is love in human flesh.

 

But we are the opposite of what God intended us to be. Instead of truly loving God and loving our neighbor, we are curved in on ourselves. We love ourselves. We would rather be served by others than to serve. We daily sin against the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods,” since we want to be God. We grasp equality with God as Adam and Eve did. We follow right in line with the original sin. We all want to be almighty God. This is supreme idolatry.

 

We so often fail at love. But what are we best at? We are best at being selfish. We are best at putting ourselves as the center of the universe and that everyone else should love and serve you. We use people. We manipulate people for our own benefit. A holy and just God would have every reason to give us what we truly deserve: eternal death apart from God. May we repent of our selfishness.

Because of our sinful condition, we cannot change ourselves into holy and righteous people. All we can do is possibly turn us poor, miserable sinners into sinners. Maybe, we could sin less, but we will continue to sin. And all sin separates us from God. It’s our sin that pulls us away from God’s love, while God is reaching out to us in His love. Our sinful nature wants nothing to do with God and His unconditional forgiveness.

 

For us to change, we must die and be born again as new people, with new minds, new thinking, and a new disposition. Clearly, we cannot do that. We can’t kill ourselves and make ourselves alive as holy people.

 

But God is love and as a loving God, He “desires all people to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4a). So, how does God show this love so that people would be saved?

 

We see this love in the Son of God who came down from heaven to serve, give everything, even Himself. He was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin and placed in a feeder’s trough. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”(Matthew 8:20). Jesus was willing to leave everything behind and empty Himself of all the glory of heaven and the treasures of the entire universe to live among us and one of us.

 

What man covets; God laid aside. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

 

We all try to serve. We attempt to lose ourselves in service to our fellow man, but ultimately, self-righteousness and a self-serving attitude win the day.

 

But Jesus loves us to the end. On that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus used that occasion to demonstrate His complete, unwavering love for them and for us, a love He bore to the very end. The Passover dinner was underway, and this would be His last. On this night, He would institute the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of our sins and to strengthen our weak faith. On this night, He knew that He would be betrayed. Yet, Jesus was still in control. Heaven’s plan was coming together. It was now up to the Son of God to see it through.

 

So, Jesus, gives His disciples an old commandment, to which He renews. He speaks the words of Leviticus 19: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), to which He had previously renewed elsewhere in the Gospels. But Jesus uses this occasion to not just speak of this commandment, but to show this commandment in action.

 

So, Jesus rose from dinner and served His disciples as a slave would serve his master and his master’s guests. He washes their feet.

 

Now, is Jesus instituting a new sacrament? No. For He says, “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15). What Jesus is doing serves as an object lesson, a pattern of humility for Christians to follow, that still applies to us. You see, a true leader, a true friend, a true neighbor, is one who serves others. This act of washing His disciples’ feet tells us that a follower of Jesus will act in humble service as Jesus did.

 

This new commandment is not being spoken about, but shown. And by showing His love in action, He is giving this commandment a fresh and new quality. So, Jesus’ command was to love one another as He had loved them by lowing Himself to a servant. And from that night on, Jesus’ disciples were to practice that love in the light of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

 

This love is called “agape.” This love sacrifices for others. Jesus is the embodiment of this love. He gives and He gives, and He gives. He gives of Himself tonight in His very body and blood under bread and wine to forgive your sins.

 

Later that night, Jesus would “give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28) as He would “give for the life of the world [His] flesh” (John 6:51). 

 

As Jesus hung on the cross one day later, He took upon Himself all our wickedness, all our iniquity, all our brokenness, all our pain. He reconciled you and me back to God the Father. He changed us. He took all our selfishness upon Himself. He made a way to reconciliation. He made peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20).

 

God loved you so much that He died for you. And God did not remain dead. He rose, so that you would also rise. In Christ alone, you are a new creation. In Christ alone, you are born again. This is what happened at your Baptism. It was through the water and Word that the Holy Spirit gave you a new mind with new thinking and a new disposition. 

Now, through Christ’s love, you are able to look outside yourself. You are now able to serve your neighbor in agape love – sacrificial love. You don’t ask for anything in return. You just serve out of love. You serve in loving service to God.

 

God’s heart is one of eternal love, of sacrificial love. He loved you even before you loved Him. For “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

God loves us to the end. He loves by serving. Serving is what defines the one true God. He serves us sinners with His forgiveness in Word and Sacrament. He serves us life and salvation. May we all repent of our selfishness and receive Christ’s love through the forgiveness of sins. And may He continually empower us to “be imitators of God, as beloved Children” walking in love as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:1-2) by giving and serving our neighbor in sacrificial love. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for Maundy Thursday: "Ninth & Tenth Commandments" (Exodus 20:17; John 13:34-35)

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

 

Now, this commandment is not exactly new. As we have learned throughout these Lenten midweeks, we are to love God and love our neighbor. This is commanded of us in the Ten Commandments. In Leviticus 19:18, God says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

 

But there is something new here. What Jesus says here is fresh, it is of new quality. Here, Jesus is teaching His disciples that they are to keep loving each other and practice this love in the light of the cross. Jesus has brought in a new love to the world, a love that is not only faultless and perfect, but a sacrificial love.

 

On this Maundy Thursday, Christ showed His almighty power with a bowl of water and a towel. He showed His disciples who God is: God is who came not to be served, but to serve. In following Christ’s example, we show we are His disciples by loving one another. This is sacrificial love. So, where one member of the body of Christ is lacking, another member fills that void. 

 

Tonight, we conclude our study on God’s revealed Law with the Ninth and Tenth Commandments: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

 

Now, is it wrong for you to want a house? No! But it is wrong to want your neighbor’s house! So, if you are scheming to get your neighbor’s house, that is coveting.

 

These last two commandments are for the heart. We may be able to say that we have followed commandments four through eight, since we tend to focus on those as outward acts. Coveting is wanting what you don’t have. This wanting is a sin of the heart. It’s like saying, “I don’t trust that God will provide for me, so I want what my neighbor has.”

Coveting begins in the heart. One such example of coveting comes from 1 Kings 21. There, King Ahab desired his neighbor’s vineyard. It was a beautiful vineyard. At first, the king was going to offer money to his neighbor to sell. But his neighbor says that he would not sell. Instead of moving on, Ahab is annoyed and frustrated – he won’t even eat – as he pouts and cries to his wife Jezebel.

 

Jezebel says to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard” (1 Kings 21:7).

 

And she did. She set into motion the death of the neighbor as she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, so that this neighbor would be charged as cursing God and the king. Soon, this neighbor would be stoned to death – and all for a king coveting his vineyard. It sure is great to be king!

 

It all started with coveting. But instead of stopping there, so many other commandments were broken – the First (no other gods), the Second (misusing God’s name), the Fifth (murder), the Seventh (stealing), the Eighth (lying) – and all from coveting.

 

Another example of coveting is found in a popular song from 1981 that reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100: “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield.

 

Jessie is a friend

Yeah, I know he’s been a good friend of mine

But lately something’s changed that ain’t hard to define

Jessie’s got himself a girl and I want to make her mine.

 

You know, I wish that I had Jessie’s girl!

I wish I had Jessie’s girl!

I want, I want Jessie’s girl!

 

The singer’s heart and voice just wants what he does not have. “If I could only have Jessie’s girl.”

 

Instead of being content with what God has given, so often we look to our neighbor’s things, or our neighbor’s status, or our neighbor’s reputation. “If I could only have that!”

 

Not only does coveting happen to us personally, it is also so common in the church and in society. In the church, we might hear, think, or even say things like: “If only we could have more money” or “If only we could be like that other church down the street.” In society, we hear, think, and say things like: “No one should have that much wealth, or that much stuff” or “The rich really need to pay their ‘fair share.’” 

 

No matter where it happens, or when it happens, or who says it, the sin is still the same. You and I have a problem with being content with what God gives us – whether it’s house or spouse, goods or kids, members or monies. These two commandments shine the light of truth on us good, religious people. They show us for the discontents that we really are. And this all goes back to where we began on Ash Wednesday with the First Commandment: we really don’t trust God and how He chooses to take care of us.

 

The only way out of the coveting trap is by God’s giving to us – His daily bread – and by His forgiving. Because of Jesus crucified and risen, we have a gracious God. Because of His dying and rising, we have God’s good favor. God is content with you because of His Son. That’s how God is forgiving. And we have God’s promise that He knows what you really need. We have God’s promise that He always sees your needs. So, you have what you need and your neighbor has what he needs.

 

Throughout these Lenten midweeks, we have focused on the two tables of the Law: loving God and loving our neighbor. We also learned that every commandment goes back to the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods, since without proper fear, love, and trust in God, we cannot love God and love our neighbor.

 

In the Commandments, we have the most precious teaching. And since it comes from God, no one could improve upon it. But we also have our hands quite full in trying to keep these commandments for these commandments keep us rooted in our everyday actions of faith in God and love toward our neighbor.

 

But too often, we fail to live up to God’s commandments for us. Now, God demands that we keep each commandment perfectly. If we had no Savior, we would certainly despair, since the Lord is a jealous God, who visits iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Him by not keeping His commandments.

 

But we don’t despair, since we have a Savior! So, where you fail, lay all your commandment breaking onto Jesus who kept each commandment perfectly. Repent and confess that sin and receive God’s forgiveness.

 

On this Maundy Thursday, we recall Christ’s commandment: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” 

 

Again, Christ showed this love by serving His disciples. 

 

On this night, Jesus not only washed His disciples’ feet in serving them by making them clean, but He also instituted the Lord’s Supper, which is His true body and blood under the bread and the wine for us to eat and to drink to which He serves us the forgiveness of sins.

 

In this Sacrament, we receive a great treasure: the forgiveness of our sins. We receive what Christ won when He suffered in His body on the cross and shed His blood to redeem us. Because of this, we are content as we receive life with God now and salvation everlasting. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. 

 

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

On This Holiest of Weeks...

In times of uncertainty, we can still be certain of something. We have the sure and certain hope of eternal life, salvation and the forgiveness of our sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone!

Beginning with Palm Sunday, throughout Holy Week we remember what the Son of God has done for all of humanity. Now, we remember this all the time, but as the Church, we focus on Christ’s Passion this week.

• §  We remember how Jesus entered into Jerusalem, not upon a war horse, but upon a humble donkey.
• §  We remember how Jesus displayed His love for His disciples on Maundy Thursday as He said, “Take, eat; this is my body” and “Drink of it , all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26, 27-28).
• §  We remember how Jesus washed His disciples feet following the institution of the Lord’s Supper when Peter asked Him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:6-7). Christ later says, “For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).
• §  We remember how Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, prayed at Gethsemane, was denied by Peter three times, was judged by Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried.

To be continued...