Mandate: Love

No way, by no means do I diminish or make light of it, that in my generation the church has effected the 15th century Lenten practice of showing Christlike humility by washing people’s feet on Maundy Thursday. 

All well and good, though in this time of social distancing, I doubt anyone washes feet tonight. Yet notwithstanding John 13:14, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet”, the Church did not see foot-washing as a Dominical Sacrament; and unapologetically, even on a good night I'm not gonna wash your feet and you’re not gonna wash my ugly aged feet. Jesus is about a LIFE of humility. Symbolic humility of proudly washing feet once a year is not the Gospel, or the Faith, or the Evening. In fact, the Thursday we call Maundy has two specific elements: Loving Others, and Breaking Bread.

From the Latin Vulgate Bible, ”Mandatum novum do vobis … ”, “A new commandment I give you - - that you love one another - - as I have loved you.” A new commandment, a new mandate. Mandate Thursday, and the Mandate from Jesus is that we love one another as he loves us. We do not get away with washing feet once a year. This night institutes Love, sacrificial love, as the Way of the Cross.

In the Gospel according to John, Novum Mandatum is the key event of the disciples’ final gathering with Jesus - - the New Commandment that for Christians takes precedence over all other commandments, including The Ten.

What does it mean? It means you love God by ἀγάπη, loving others. Even sacrificially, considering and giving way to others’ point of view, and not despising or slamming people who are different from you. You can only love God by loving others. You cannot love ONLY God, you cannot love God and hate others. 1st John 4:20 “anyone who claims to love God yet hates other people is a liar”. 

Significantly, COVID-19 has shifted human focus from hatred and war to health and wellness: we need to make it a lesson, and come out of this nightmare obedient to the New Commandment: 
    out of error into truth, 
    out of sin into righteousness, 
    out of death into life. 

It is our tradition to Strip the Altar on Maundy Thursday, and we'll do that tonight. As we do it, may the New Commandment of love signal a new beginning in which Good Friday becomes Easter morning for all the world.

Now: Gospel John says nothing about Jesus instituting the Bread and Wine as his Body and Blood. We get that from the synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew & Luke, and Paul (1st Corinthians 11, the Epistle for tonight). The Lord’s Supper is the other key element of Maundy Thursday:

On the night he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ Took bread, and when he had Blessed it, he Broke it and Gave it to his disciples saying “Take, eat. This is my Body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

So on Maundy Thursday we have two gifts from Jesus.
  New Commandment: Love one another as he loved us.
  Holy Communion: bread and wine as body and blood.

Charlie Price, my Baptism & Eucharist professor at Virginia Seminary, brought the Lord’s Supper to life by asserting that this is no memorial, this is that meal, and we are there. Powerful eucharistic theology: this IS the Last Supper and we are in Jerusalem, in that Upper Room with Jesus and friends. A bit of bread is placed in your hand as his body. As you eat it, Jesus becomes physically part of you, and you become physically part of Jesus. “This is that meal, and we are there”. 

Because disease prowls the Earth, we cannot gather in that upper room for the Holy Meal tonight. But when all is well and all is well and all manner of things are made well - - we will meet again, and the Lord will feed us. The body of Christ, the bread of heaven. The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.

Let us pray:
Eternal God, heavenly Father,
    you have graciously accepted us 
    as living members
    of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ,
and you have often fed us with spiritual food 
    in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Send us into the world in peace tonight,
filled with the hope and confidence that are Faith,
and with strength and courage 
    to love and serve you
with gladness and singleness of heart,
until the time comes 
    that we gather in this holy place,. 
    and you feed us again.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Father,
   + Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


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Homily, Maundy Thursday, HNEC PC FL 9 Apr. 2020 T+