Foot Washing and the Eucharist
John 13:1-17
Maundy Thursday, 2004
In Calcutta, India some people still make a living washing feet. Others are paid to keep particular persons cool when it is hot by fanning them. Some workers clean ears. The Los Angeles Times reported on these laborers several months ago. Jamal, a professional ear cleaner, has an interesting vocation. For about 10 cents, Jamal sticks one of the implements he has fashioned from bicycle spokes into a customer’s ears and scrapes out the wax. When Jamal gets a client, he invites him to sit on the edge of a concrete planter on the sidewalk, in the shade of a tree. “Only those who trust me call me. It’s a great responsibility, to be trusted with other people’s ears,” Jamal says.
The method is simple. He pulls a small piece of the cotton wool tucked into a leather loop on his camel skin satchel, twists the cotton around the end of a sawed-off bicycle spoke and inserts it in the ear canal. For the hardest wax, he uses a spoke flattened into a tiny spatula. Once he unclogs the ear, he enjoys displaying the uprooted wax to his client before wiping it on a handkerchief flung over one shoulder. He’s been in the ear cleaning business for eight years.
The feet washers of India, I suppose, have a similar kind of operation. On this night 2,000 years ago, our Lord washed the feet of His disciples. It was a simple labor of love. The custom was for a slave to wash the feet of those entering a home. He or she would clean off the dirt and dust of the roads. Jesus’ foot washing favor was a lesson in humility. The disciples needed to be more humble, and the Lord wanted to teach them on the eve of His passion the importance of simple acts of service for the Kingdom of God. He was showing them the excellence of common duties.
Maundy Thursday, the feast we are celebrating this evening, has two major themes, the institution of the Holy Communion and the new commandment to love one another summed up in foot washing. The word “Maundy” means commandment, or new commandment, thus, Maundy Thursday. Let’s explore first the implications of foot washing before switching over to the Eucharist.
Jesus Christ did not look for great things in His followers, but in washing the feet of His disciples, He showed the power and worth of little things, when they are done in a spirit of love. There is, the Lord teaches us, in humble deeds of kindness, the potential for great sanctity and grace. Raising children obliges parents to do a dozen small duties for them: changing their diapers, cleaning the wax out of their ears, dressing and undressing the baby, tying and untying their shoes, brushing their teeth and combing their hair, feeding them, and cleaning up after their meals, hugging them and holding them. These are small acts of service that help parents grow in service to others.
Every once in a while Christians can advance Christ’s cause through grandiose projects, and massive campaigns, but more often than not, the Church is built on the countless small contributions of normal Christians. Little acts of kindness, generosity and self-sacrifice can make a huge difference in the places where you live and work. Learning good manners. Saying “please” and “thank you.” Exchanging pleasantries to strangers as you wait in line at the checkout counter. Sending a card or letter to someone who would be encouraged by it. Giving gifts. Inviting people to meals. Lending tools, books, cars, a ride, money, a room, or any other service when these things are needed. These deeds go a long way.
In accord with this idea of serving others, and helping them in their needs, B.B Warfield, had this to say, “Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice will lead us, His followers, not away from but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will we be to uplift. Wherever men succeed, there will we be to rejoice. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows: it means absorption in them. It means forgetfulness of self in others. It means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings and despairs; it means many-sidedness of spirit, multiform activity, multiplicity of sympathies. It means richness of development. It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives; binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours. It means that all the experiences of men shall smite our souls, and shall beat and batter these stubborn hearts of ours into fitness for their heavenly home.” [Close quote.]
Christ’s foot washing in the Gospel from John 13 points to His desire that we sacrifice ourselves for others through numerous acts of kindness. Let’s now ponder the institution of the Lord’s Supper found in our Epistle lesson from 1 Corinthians 11. After washing the feet of the disciples Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the upper room. Let’s review a few of the basics.
I. When Christ, at the time of His institution of the sacrament, said to His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24), He certainly intended that we should remember what He was about to accomplish on the cross. The remembrance it touches off is of His Body broken and His blood shed for us. It is a dramatic pointer to that sacrifice offered once-for-all for us sinners to purchase our redemption. We look backwards in love and gratitude to that event. II. We also look forward to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb at the End of time. “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom” (Mt. 26:29). These words tie into Rev. 19:7, “the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready… Blessed are these who are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!” (v. 9) The sacrament looks forward in joy to the New Heavens and New Earth upon the culmination of all things. The Church, the Bride, celebrates a banquet with Christ, the Groom. Joy will come to perfect fruition on that day. Our hope is bolstered in the present, and our joy stirred up when we get a foretaste of that feast during the Eucharist. The memory of Christ’s death on the cross and our anticipation of the marriage banquet in Heaven are thus central facets of the Supper of the Lord.III. While we acknowledge that the Holy Communion is a recollection of what Jesus did in the past, we can’t restrict the sacrament to mere memory as Zwingli and his followers tended to do. Christ also said in the institution, “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:24-26). The celebration of this sacrament is thus a proclamation of the Lord’s death. By combining words and ritual action the Supper of the Lord is a dramatic representation of the Gospel, a ritualistic announcement of Christ’s death and the benefits of life that flow to believers when they partake of it. Maybe we should think of it more often as an evangelistic sermon in ritual form. IV. The sacrament is a remembrance of what Christ did in the past, a proclamation of the Gospel in the present, and a reminder of the marriage banquet of the Lord in the future. Is there more involved? Yes. Union with Christ, especially His humanity! This is a point that Calvin tried to make. When partaken in faith, Christ becomes present to us and we become united to Him. The unity notion is implied in the one loaf of bread Jesus broke and the one chalice He raised. Bread was broken and the words were uttered, “This is my body which is broken for you.” The wine was poured out with the words, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” The great English Reformer Archbishop Thomas Cranmer had this to say about the sacraments, “Our Savior Christ hath set forth …one visible sacrament of spiritual regeneration in water, and another visible sacrament of spiritual nourishment in bread and wine, to the intent that, as much as is possible for man, we may see Christ with our eyes, smell him at our nose, taste him with our mouths, grope him with our hands, and perceive him with all our senses. For as the word of God preached putteth Christ into our ears, so likewise these elements of water, bread, and wine, joined to God’s word, do after a sacramental manner put Christ into our eyes, mouths, hands, and all our senses.” [Close quote.]
The point is this: the sacrament offers us Christ Himself. By faith and through the Spirit we are partakers of Christ’s humanity. That is a great mystery, yet true. A logical result of everyone partaking of Christ together means: we enjoy union with Him and communion with one another. Though we are many members, yet we are all members of the one Body. The Apostle describes participation in the cup of wine as “communion in the blood of Christ,” and participation in the broken bread as “communion in the body of Christ.” And what is communion? Communion means fellowship in corporate unity. “Because there is one loaf,” he says, “we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the same loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16 ff.).
Sadly, in ecumenical negotiations this sacrament of unity has become an embarrassing symbol of disunity. Some branches of Christ’s Church insist on barring other branches from partaking with them. When you and I visit those churches we are denied the meal of Christian unity. The Reformed Episcopal Church sets a more mature and biblical example by extending an open invitation to all baptized believers in Christ to partake of the feast. The one loaf and the one cup symbolize the unity, and the unifying power of the sacrament. As much as possible, we try at St. Luke’s to make our Lord’s Supper observance reflect the unity principle. For practical reasons, we sometimes use two or three loaves of bread, instead of one, and then we have an extra intinction cup for those who prefer to dip their bread. Still, it preserves the unity idea better than a multitude of wafers, saltine crackers, and individual small cups that are popular nowadays. As much as possible we must think of ourselves as partaking of one loaf and one cup. The Lord’s Supper is a visible reminder that we are not isolated individuals, but we belong together in the one Body of Christ. Therefore, we have the privilege of bearing one another’s burdens, supporting the weaker members, and encouraging those who are passing through severe trials.
V. What else can we say about the Lord’s Supper? Much more, of course! One more point: we call the sacrament a means of grace. Cranmer called its benefit to us “spiritual nourishment.” In other words, God uses the sacrament as an instrument for our spiritual transformation and sanctification. Baptism gets us going on our journey to Heaven, and the Lord’s Supper gives us strength for the road. Without it we run out of energy. The muscles droop. Through regular communion God Almighty gradually recreates us through an ongoing participation in depth with the glorified body and blood of His Son Jesus Christ. We are strengthened for godly living as we are strengthened by the sacrament to resist sin and overcome temptation. Because the Eucharist increases our faith, it lessons our propensity to sin.
Though the Bible seems to teach that the sacrament is a means of grace for our sanctification, St. Paul makes an important qualification in our epistle lesson. He teaches that the Eucharist is not automatically a means of grace, that is, of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood for spiritual and physical blessing. The apostle warns that “whoever… eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of [profaning] the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27). What does it mean to partake of the supper in an unworthy manner? To eat and drink unworthily is to do so without faith in Christ as our Savior, without gratitude to God for His love and mercy, and without true confession of sin. The sacrament is sacred because its concern is our eternal destiny. Therefore it must not be approached lightly, but with examination. The Corinthians found out that to partake of the sacrament while inebriated, or fomenting strife among believers was to eat and drink to their judgment and condemnation. For that reason many in the Corinthian parish were weak and ill and some had died (1 Cor. 11:27-31). If the wrongful reception of the sacrament can produce such harmful physical effects, what can the proper reception do? It can be a great benefit!
The primary and proper purpose of the sacrament is that it should be a means of grace and strength to the recipient, but with this solemn qualification: to those who receive it in an ungodly fashion, it becomes a means of condemnation. It always does something. Instead of being a source of grace and strength, to those who scorn the Lord with their immoral behavior, the sacrament becomes a source of sickness and death.
On this Maundy Thursday, let us commit ourselves to a lifestyle of small acts of service – that is the lesson of Christ’s foot washing. And let us devote ourselves to Christ by a regular and faithful participation in the Lord’s Supper.
