To Be Loved is To Be Served

To Be Loved is To Be Served

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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this evening comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated.

Dearest brothers and sisters, everything about the texts this evening speaks of taking different people, different things, and molding them into a oneness. That’s unlike any other oneness out there. With the Old Testament reading and the Passover feast, did God bring to all of these people, not just hundreds of thousands, but nearly millions, for them to do that very feast all the same, everything about it, so that each of them could say and see to one another, we are the same. There is no difference.

Then Christ comes and fulfills the great sacrificial lamb that we eat in the Lord’s Supper. And Paul writes about this very supper that binds us as one. So when you consider every time you sit in the pew, everything that goes on in this service reinforces the fact that we are not different. We are all the same. Everything about what we confess to one another and to God rings with unanimity, not anonymity; solidarity, not fracture.

And yet, when you consider the gospel reading, when Jesus sits down with his disciples to celebrate the last Passover, none of them are thinking of anybody but themselves. Everybody’s waiting to see who’s going to be the servant of all. Who will it be? Peter or John or James? And, surprising them all, does Christ disrobe them, wrap the towel around his waist, pour the water into the pan, and begins to wash their feet, reminding them again, you are all the same. I come to each one of you in the exact same way. I don’t come to Peter in a more profound way than I come to Philip. I don’t come to James in a more profound way than I come to Andrew. I come to each one of you in the same exact way because each one of you are the same sinful person.

Think about the history of the apostles. They didn’t struggle with serving one another. They struggled with vying for superiority over one another. Remember the arguments that they would get into? Who is the greatest? Asking James and John’s mom to see if Jesus would let one sit on his right and one on his left. That’s what prevailed among them, even though the Lord, each and every day as he taught them, taught them unanimity around him who came to them all in the same exact way, because they all are the same exact sinner.

And so, when the celebration of the Passover is about to begin, Jesus washes feet and then he comes to Peter. “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Almost as if Philip needs his washed and Andrew, my brother, needs his washed. But Lord, really? Me? Isn’t that how we are? We’re very good at seeing everybody else’s problems, and we are lousy at admitting our own. We are astute at understanding, dissecting, and giving advice in our own mind to everyone else, but to receive it to ourselves? Ooh.

We say many times to our Lord, do you need to wash my feet, Lord? There’s so many worse people out there that need you more than I need you right now. And so it is among us, isn’t it? Our flesh desires us to always see ourselves as being different. And Christ is always completely and totally telling you, you’re the same. You’re the same. Satan is prodding us to see ourselves as different, and Christ is continually reminding us, you are all the same. You are broken people. Not more broken or less broken. You’re all broken. And you all are given the same grace. Yes. Not a little bit more to one because they need more, but a little bit less to the other because they don’t need it as much. All the same, creating unity while our flesh bulks at such unity.

And then we do these kinds of things. We compare horror stories and war stories. “You have no idea of what I’ve had to go through. You have no idea of what I’ve had to put up with,” as if our scars are bigger and brighter and deeper. You have no idea. Or we take the flip side of that and tsk, tsk. “They’ve had a rough upbringing. They didn’t get those advantages. They were never taught that.” And we have this air of superiority over us. All the while, Christ keeps telling you and me, “You are all my sons and daughters. One is not more my son than the other, and this is not more my daughter than the other. You are all mine, and I give you all of me, each, every one of you.”

I don’t parcel myself out apart to you and apart to you. You get all of me, every one of you. So along comes Peter again. “You shall never wash my feet again. I will not allow myself to be cast in the cesspool of everyone else. I’m markedly different.” And isn’t that interesting? The very thing we want, God desires us to be different. But he desires us to be different according to his definition and standard and not our definition and standard. Because our definition and standard of difference between one another is all based on sinfulness.

Sinfulness. And Christ’s definition of us being set apart is all equally redeemed, equally adopted, equally heirs of the heavenly treasures. Well, Peter goes from one extreme, “You will never wash my feet,” to the other logical extreme. “Not just my feet, but my hand and my head, everything. Everything.” I’m going to show everybody here that I’m even more pious and holy than you all. Misplaced pride. Vying for that difference. Vying for that something that makes me stand out more than you, which is counter to what Christ is doing each time we sit in this pew.

Each time we sit in this pew, everything about our liturgy, everything about what we are focusing on with the Scripture readings, the word being preached and proclaimed and read, the absolution being given, the supper being received has everything to do with “you are all the same and I love you each the same.” He is knitting us into a common union in spite of ourselves. God be praised.

But we struggle, don’t we? The same apostle John wrote in his epistle, “In this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loves us and gave himself as a propitiation for our sins.” As he washed each of those disciples’ feet, he washed each of them equally. He didn’t wash one more than the other. And you know they were watching. You know they were watching. Just like how you watched your sisters and brothers if they got a little bit more of an advantage than you. Or how you watch your fellow co-workers if they get a little bit more of an advantage than you. Or your child compared to their child. Lord have mercy upon us.

Christ wants us to be the same. He desires us to see ourselves as he declares, both as damned sinner and as redeemed saint. We were all washed with the same water. We were all cleansed with the same blood of the Lamb. We all eat the same flesh and blood with the bread and wine. We are knit together as sinner saints together. It’s not about us loving God. It’s about us finding equality in God, loving us the same. As we grasp God loving us the same, it’s a no-brainer that we can love one another as he has loved us. He didn’t show favorites. He wasn’t unjust in how he has doled out himself to you.

In fact, he makes it very clear. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them the same to the end. As he loves you to the end. This is what the supper does for you and for me. As pastor read, bread comes from different grains that are all crushed and mixed together to make something bigger than what they were before. And grapes to make wine, each individually different and yet crushed, fermented, to make something different, bigger and better than what they were as an individual.

And when Christ refers to himself and the church being his body, that each of us see ourselves as connected to one another, not autonomous, equally damned and equally redeemed. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another in the name of him who loved you totally and completely, Jesus himself alone. Who feeds you, not a portion of himself, but all of himself this evening. Each of you, individually, to make you into one body. Jesus, him. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.