“Do You Understand What I Have Done to You?”
On the night when He was betrayed, Jesus did a most curious thing. He took His clothes off, laid them down and washed the feet of His
disciples. When He finished, He took up His clothes and put them on again. Then He asked the disciples if they understood what He had just done to them. I suppose their obvious and simple answer to the question was, “Yes, You washed our feet.” But there is far more here than merely washing off dust and dirt. Jesus said as much when He told them, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” And dear St. Peter testifies to this when he enthusiastically changed his position from refusing to be served by the Lord, to asking Him to wash his head and hands as well. St. Peter may not have understood fully what Jesus was trying to teach, but he did see value in what Jesus was doing.
When Jesus took off His clothes to wash the soiled feet of His disciples, He was teaching them through a parable, but instead of speaking it to them He was doing the parable to them. Like so many other parables, they didn’t understand until He explained it to them. They had the same problem we have today, sin. When Adam sinned a barrier was placed between God and His creation. God became unknowable, unforgiving and terrifying. As a result of our limited ability to understand God, He speaks and relates to us in our limited capacity.
Parents, do our children always understand when we tell them to do
something? No? I didn’t think so. There are times when we can explain things, there are times when we can tell them what to do, and there are certain things which can only be shown or demonstrated. When we do this, the goal is to build comprehension within our children, so that it is more than head knowledge, it becomes understanding.
Jesus was teaching His disciples how to be servants for His Bride the
Church, but how do you “teach” humility and servitude? The best way I can think of is to model it, the way Jesus modeled humility and servanthood to His disciples. By DOING humility and servanthood TO His disciples, He was building an understanding so that it would become part of who and what they were. He was teaching them not merely to know what service and humility are, He wanted them to BE those things.
This is precisely what He has been doing for His creation since the
beginning. Who created a perfect place for man to live? When man fell from grace and was naked, who provided clothing? Who watched over Noah and his family while they were in the Ark? Who protected and provided for Israel while they were in the wilderness? Who defeated enemies, brought down the walls of Jericho, protected Daniel in the lion’s den? All of these and countless more have all been done by our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, purely for our benefit because He loves us.
As we reflect this night on the Last Supper of our Lord, we are reminded of another Passover, the first one. The hour had come for the people of Israel to leave Egypt and come into the land God had promised. In a prideful manner, Pharaoh refused the will of God to let them go. And so, to teach Pharaoh that He is God, and to humble him, God sent the plagues upon Egypt.
In these plagues He protected the people of Israel and the land where they lived. But in this one, the land of Goshen was included. God was delivering His people out of the bondage of Egypt through His Angel of Death, taking the life of all first-born people and animals. So to fix this event in the hearts and minds of Israel, He ordered a solemn remembrance meal “throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” The Lord was being a servant to His people, and it’s probably safe to say that Israel did not understand what was happening.
Their protection was reduced from a region to individual homes, and the sign for protection was lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintels. You see, Israel did not get a “free pass” through this plague. They had to gather in their homes dressed and ready to go on a journey. All households were to slaughter a male lamb at the same time, taking the blood to put it on the door posts and lintels. Then they were to eat all of the lamb, and what they could not eat they were to burn completely in the fire.
When the Angel of Death came upon the blood of the lamb, He sheathed His sword as it says in the hymn, “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing,” the third stanza, “Where the paschal blood is poured, Death’s dread angel sheathes the sword, Israel’s hosts triumphant go Through the wave that drowns the foe.” There is life in the blood, and there is power. The blood of Abel, martyred for his faith, cried out to God. Noah was ordered not to eat meat with its blood still in it. Blood of the sacrifice sprinkled on the people sanctified them to the Lord, it was a sign of the covenant with God. He would be their God and they would be His people.
Because the children of Israel were obedient to the Word of God, the
Angel of Death passed over them. Mary became the Mother of God because she was humble and obedient. And Jesus, who is the perfect humble and obedient servant, took the sin of the world into Himself and became the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus demonstrated that He was a great leader because He was willing to become a great servant.
Do we understand what Jesus has done, is doing and will continue to do to us? No, our Old Adam rebels because it cannot understand God or the things of God. That is why Jesus in His infinite wisdom gave us Holy Baptism, so that His Spirit and faith could do in us what we could not. Christ in us is responding through faith to the Word, and our fallen self rebels. Because of this inner struggle, we need to hear the Word of God proclaimed.
We also need to confess our sin to Christ, and in Holy Absolution you are given the gift of certain forgiveness from your sin. It takes humility to admit sin and receive true forgiveness. Pride will try to hold on to sin because it does not understand and so it rebels against the very thing that gives freedom. Don’t we battle with pride every day? Our sinful pride understands quite well what it means to be a humble servant, but only from a fallen perspective. It is against our nature to be humble.
In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul demonstrates that he rightly understands what it is to be a humble servant. He wrote, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.” Paul didn’t make this up on his own, but he passed it on obediently as he was instructed. It is the same for us when our Pastor obediently speaks the words of institution, the same words given by Christ to the disciples after He washed their feet. This is My body and this is My blood given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sin.
When Jesus gave us this holy meal of His body and blood, He gave it as a remembrance of His humble obedience to the will of His Father. It was also a demonstration of His love for us, He was DOING love to us. As Jesus washed the feet of His disciples to make them clean, He makes you clean. The blood He poured out for you on the cross is the very blood you receive in this meal which gives you life. His living blood is covering the door posts and lintels of your life forcing the Angel of Death to sheath His sword.
Christian friends, covered in the blood of the Lamb we proclaim His death and resurrection for the world to see. It declares that God is God, and in Him there is life, protection and deliverance. Jesus DID servanthood to His disciples so they could BE servants to others. Jesus DOES servanthood on you by lying down His life and then taking it up again, for you. He is the Shepherd, He is the Lamb, He is the door, He is the bread and He calls you to put down your pride to become humble as He is humble, and to take up love for one another as He has loved you. Praise to You O Christ!
Amen.
