Doing the Basics

Rebecca Sheridan
Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025
1 Corinthians 11:23-26

“Do this in remembrance of me,” Jesus instructs us.  Tonight is “Maundy Thursday,” which is Latin for “commandment.”  There’s actually a few commands we hear from our Lord tonight.  First, we remember the Passover from Exodus, how the Lord passes over the homes of the people of Israel that are marked in lamb’s blood so that the firstborn’s lives are spared, and the people of Israel can leave slavery in Egypt for the promised land.  God commands us to observe this as a perpetual ordinance, and so we do remember this first passover, each time we celebrate Holy Communion.  Then, we hear Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians, the oldest account of the Last Supper, that Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples on the night when he was betrayed.  He lifted up the cup saying that this is a new covenant – HE is now the Passover lamb, his blood is shed for us and for our salvation. And so we do this in remembrance of his death on the cross.  In John’s gospel for this evening, Jesus has two other final commands – “So if I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”  Washing feet was the duty of the servant of the house.  It was dirty and demeaning work.  Yet, Jesus, King of the Universe and Lord of All, stoops to wash his followers’ feet.  He calls us also to loving service.  And finally, Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Tonight is the beginning of what we call the Great Three Days.  We hold all of these rememberings and commands together as we prepare to walk with Jesus once more through his suffering and death on a cross for our sakes.  In these commands are the basics of our faith – Holy Communion that promises the forgiveness of sins.  Holy Baptism as to foot washing that cleanses us and calls us into loving service.  We are celebrating Jesus’ Passover from death to life and trusting that his Passover will be ours, also.  The most basic command, however, is simply to love like Christ loves.  This is the heart of the matter – why Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again – to show us how much God loves us and to live in us so we can love like him.  The pattern of our worship and preparation for Easter helps us practice what we preach, so we can go out from here to follow Jesus’ simple command to love one another as Jesus loves us.
If we review our worship service, all of these elements empower us to love just as God has first loved us:  we come to God in prayer and pray for one another.  We listen to God’s word in Holy Scripture and strive to respond to it.  We sing praises to God and fellowship with one another through our harmonies.  We confess our sins to God and to one another, practicing forgiving and be forgiven.  We share the peace of Christ with one another.  We offer what we have, particularly our financial resources, so the church can share the love of God in Christ.  We come to the altar to share in the holy meal – fed by the body and blood of Christ, we pray that we become what we eat – Jesus’ body living in the world out there.  This is why we do what Jesus asks us to do, in his remembrance.  It is following the greatest commandment, to love God and one another as ourselves.  It isn’t that new, actually, it’s what God created us to do from the beginning, but every day we hear it anew; clearly, when we look at the state of our lives and the state of the world, we NEED to hear it anew, “Love one another.”  As we come to the end of our worship service tonight and listen to the psalm and watch the stripping of the altar, may we remember that all that we do is in loving response for what Jesus has first done for us:  all of this is for us – the water, the bread, the cup, the lamb that was slain – for us and for our salvation.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.