Maundy Thursday – Pr. Faugstad homily
Text: St. John 13:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who produces the fruit of humble service through us by serving us through His powerful Word and Sacraments, dear fellow redeemed:
“Greatness” is often defined as being better than everyone else at something. Athletes are said to achieve greatness when they break long-standing records or win the world championship. Professional singers achieve greatness when they reach the top of the music charts or get inducted into the hall of fame. Business people achieve greatness when they hit a record-breaking level of sales or become CEO.
Jesus defines greatness in a very different way. He says, “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mar. 10:43-44). In today’s reading from the Gospel of St. John, Jesus taught this greatness first with actions and then with words.
Jesus had arranged to eat the Passover meal with His disciples in Jerusalem. They did not know how quickly His death would come, but He did. John tells us that He knew that His death was near, and that He would soon return to His heavenly Father. In these last hours before His death, Jesus did something that surprised His disciples. He set aside His outer garments, tied a towel around His waist, and proceeded to wash their dirty feet.
When He got to Peter, Peter would not have it. Without knowing why Jesus was doing this or being willing to learn why, he blurted out, “You shall never wash my feet.” It was like Peter’s statement some weeks before this when Jesus predicted His suffering, death, and resurrection. “Far be it from you, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you” (Mat. 16:22). Peter was so sure of himself, so certain that he saw and understood things clearly.
Peter was proud. Who was he to tell Jesus, the Son of God, what He should and should not be doing? And yet, we fall into the same sin when we criticize God for not fixing the problems in society, or when we question why He doesn’t give us more in this life or make things better for us. We act like we are in charge, like Peter did. First, Peter wanted to tell Jesus what to do: “Do not wash my feet.” Then when Jesus warned him about rejecting His service, Peter wanted to tell Jesus how to serve him: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus had to teach Peter to receive humbly the gifts He was giving. He knew what Peter needed, just as He knows what we need. When Peter asked for a whole body washing, Jesus replied, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.” Then He added, “And you are clean, but not every one of you.” The one who was not clean was Judas Iscariot who was about to betray Jesus for money. Judas had fallen from faith. He was no longer under God’s grace.
But the other disciples, despite their pride and their confusion about Jesus’ work, were clean in God’s sight. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent by the Father for the world’s salvation. You are clean like they were because you also believe that Jesus is your Savior. You believe that He gave His body to be crucified in your place and shed His blood to wash away your sins.
This cleansing was applied to you in Holy Baptism when you became a member of the holy body of Christ. Baptism brought you the forgiveness of sins, but that doesn’t mean your sinning stopped at your Baptism. This is why you need continuous cleansing through Jesus’ Word and Sacraments. Jesus demonstrated this by washing the disciples’ feet. He was showing them and us that we need His ongoing, sanctifying work in order to remain clean.
This is why He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar on this holy day. He took the unleavened bread from the Passover meal and said, “This is My body.” Then He took the cup of wine and said, “This is My blood.” He also told them what it was for: “for the remission of sins” (Mat. 26:28). We continue to partake of His body and blood because we continue to sin. Jesus humbly meets us in this Supper with His grace, stooping down to remove the dirt of sin that has become stuck inside us.
But it is possible to reject this work that Jesus comes to do among us. Like Peter, we could misunderstand what Jesus is doing and act like Holy Communion is a service we render to God instead of a gift He gives to us. Or like Judas, we could watch Jesus stooping down to serve us but despise Him in our hearts. Isn’t it shocking: Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, and He still knelt before him to wash his feet. In the same way, Jesus gives His body and blood to all who partake of the Supper, but it only benefits those who believe His words.
Those who receive His body and blood without faith, take the Supper to their spiritual harm. 1 Corinthians 11:27 says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” This is why we insist on meeting with visitors who attend our services before they take Communion. We have the same concern for our members who have fallen into public sin. We want to ensure that they are repentant of their sin and recognize what Jesus is giving in the Supper before we invite them to commune.
That same examination must happen with all of us before we come forward to receive Christ’s body and blood. 1 Corinthians 11:28 says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” We examine ourselves by acknowledging that “our feet are dirty,” so to speak. We admit the sins we have committed in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. We also confess our trust in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, that He shed His blood to pay for our sins. We acknowledge that He is present to give us His holy body and blood. And we express our intention to stop our sinning and do better.
That last point is difficult. We might think to ourselves: Do I really want to stop the sins I keep falling into? Do I want to stop hating my enemy? Do I want to stop listening to and watching what I know I shouldn’t? Do I want to stop drinking too much, eating too much, lying, gossiping, prioritizing my pleasure and my plans above everything else? These are all sins of selfishness.
Jesus calls us to set aside these sins, leave them behind, and receive His body and blood to wash our guilt away. No sin is too great that He cannot forgive it. Jesus died on the cross to pay for all sins, every single one. As we come forward for Holy Communion, burdened by our sins, we remember why Jesus instituted this Supper. It is for our forgiveness.
As we leave the Communion rail cleansed and return to our homes and our work, Jesus also directs us to the needs of our neighbors. He says, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
This is where true greatness is found: first in Jesus’ humble service to us, and then in the humble service toward one another that He moves us to do. This sort of greatness might not impress the world, but it is the sort of greatness that changes the world, that changes hearts, just as the sacrificial work of Jesus has changed ours. “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mar. 10:45).
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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(picture from painting by Giotto di Bondone, c. 1267-1337)
The Second Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 John 3:13-18
In Christ Jesus, Love incarnate, who demonstrated God’s love for the world through His sinless life and sacrificial death, and who calls His people to follow His example of love, dear fellow redeemed:
There are different ways we express the fact that we are alive: “I’m breathing.”—“I’m upright.”—“I have a pulse.”—“I’m still above ground.”—“The ol’ ticker is still working.” Our reading for today gives another proof of our being alive, but it is talking about something more than physical life. The apostle John writes, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”
The “brothers” that John is referring to are fellow believers. Although it sounds like John is saying that it is our love for the brothers that has brought us “out of death into life,” this is not the case. John makes this clear a couple verses later when he writes, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.” We “know love,” because we have seen the love of Jesus.
The love of Jesus was completely sacrificial. He came, as He said, “not to be served but to serve” (Mar. 10:45). Of all the people who could have demanded the love of others, it was Him. “For by him all things were created” (Col. 1:16), and “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). He is the only-begotten Son of God the Father from all eternity. We would not exist apart from Him. When He took on human flesh and revealed Himself through His gracious words and works, He should have received nothing but love, honor, and respect.
At the same time, His love was not contingent on receiving what He deserved. Whether or not His words were listened to, whether or not His works were praised, whether or not He was thanked for His miracles and blessings, He still loved, like the love we see from the master of the house who invited “the poor and crippled and blind and lame” to his banquet (Luk. 14:16-24). Jesus loved the sinners around Him all the way to the cross, where He lovingly carried all their sins to make payment for them. He came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mar. 10:45).
What He has done, that is what we are called to do. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples and told them, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (Joh. 13:15). Then He added that it is love that would set His disciples apart from the world. He said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35).
Jesus is not referring to a love that will come from deep down in our heart, as though all we need to do is look inside to find it or try harder. He is referring to a love that comes from God Himself. As John wrote later in his epistle, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1Jo. 4:7). That tells us there is a difference between the love of the world and the love of God.
In fact, we learn from the Bible that those “loves”—worldly love and godly love—are opposed to each other. The world has a warped understanding of love. “Love” might be defined as “the acting out of my passions.” It is “doing the things I find fulfilling.” The “love” that the world embraces hardly ever has a sacrificial component. It is about what is good for me more than it is what is good for you.
It is no wonder, then, that the world chafes under the Bible’s definition of love. God says that nothing can be loving if it goes against His Ten Commandments. The Commandments show us the shape of love and the focus of love. They do not direct us inward toward a love of self. They direct us outward toward love for God and neighbor.
Therefore, we say, it can’t be love when we dishonor or disrespect parents or the governing authorities (4th). It can’t be love when we do harm to others or wish harm on them in our hearts (5th). It can’t be love when we act on our sexual passions and desires outside of marriage (6th). It can’t be love when we have the world’s goods and see a brother in need, yet close our heart against him, as our reading says. Anything that does not agree with God’s holy law cannot be loving, since “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10).
The world, of course, disagrees, and it doesn’t disagree mildly. It says that you should indulge your sinful passions, do whatever you want to do, put yourself first. The world doesn’t take kindly to these things being questioned or challenged by we who hold to the true Word of God. The effect is as John says, “the world hates you.” He is saying nothing different than the Lord Jesus who said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Joh. 15:18-19).
Love for God means hatred from the world. You cannot have it both ways. Jesus says you cannot enjoy the love of the world and the love of God. The unbelievers of the world walk around dead in their sins, like the people in the Holy Gospel who thought their worldly pursuits were more important than the banquet of salvation. They do not know the love of God. They are unable to love as He loves. So it is no surprise when we are the recipients of their hatred. Hatred comes naturally to the unbelievers of the world, just as it once came naturally to us.
But now we are alive in Christ. We have been buried and raised with Him through Baptism. We have been grafted into Him, which means that life and love flow from Him to us like nourishment from a vine to its branches. Through these branches—through us—God produces fruits of love for the benefit of others. John describes what that love looks like. Just as Jesus laid down His life for us, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” If any brother has a need, we should do our best to help and supply him. Believers in Jesus should never be accused of being “all talk.” We show our love by our words and our actions.
But what if we don’t? What if we fall into the same snares and sins of the unbelievers? And of course we have. We have played the part of murderers by hating a brother or sister in Christ. Perhaps it was hatred toward a parent, a sibling, a spouse, or a member of the congregation. We wanted them to be hurt like we hurt. We wanted them to suffer like we suffered. And there have been times when we saw a fellow Christian in need, but we didn’t want to trouble ourselves to help. Or we told ourselves that surely someone else would step up who had more resources and more time.
When these behaviors have described us, then we were no better than the unbelievers of the world. Then this indictment is true for us: “Whoever does not love abides in death.” It is death—lifelessness—when we fail to love. Christians who do not love are like lungs that don’t breathe or hearts that don’t beat. We do not represent the God of all love when we are selfish or judgmental or too proud to lift a finger to help those we think are below us.
If the wheels in your brain are turning right now, remembering when you did not love, but then trying to justify those times, that is death in you. But if you recall those times of weakness and sin, and you are sorry for them, that is life in you. St. Paul writes, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13).
“Putting to death the deeds of the body,” means repenting of your sins and trying to avoid them in the future. Every one of us here has sins to repent of, sins of hatred and selfishness. The Holy Spirit leads us to recognize these sins and hand them over to the Father. This remorsefulness and repentance is a clear sign of life. It is a sign that you are not dying along with the loveless world. You are alive in Him who loved perfectly.
His love for you does not change, even though you have sinned, even though you have not always loved like you should. The Son of God accepted the punishment for all those sins in your place, so that they are not charged against you anymore. His love for you from cradle to cross covers the multitude of your sins. He gave Himself to save you.
The Holy Spirit gives you the faith to believe this. And He continues working through the Word and Sacraments to strengthen your faith and renew your love toward others. You come here bringing your sin and guilt, but you leave holding His grace and forgiveness, with plenty to share with everyone around you.
That is what we do. We pass on what we have received. We Living Ones Love. We do not lose anything by loving. We only gain, like honeybees transferring pollen from flower to flower, or like a flame being passed from one candle to another. Just as the love of God has come to us from others, so we share this love, not just “in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut of the poor, the blind, and the lame being invited to the banquet from the 1880 edition of The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation)
(No audio recording is available for this sermon.)