Jesus Commands and Commends

Rebecca Sheridan
Maundy Thursday, April 14, 2022
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Tonight is not MONDAY Thursday. We’re not confused about what day it is! It’s Maundy Thursday, Maundy being the Latin for “commandment.”  Have you ever thought that Jesus commands us to do a lot of things that are pretty hard to do, actually?  He says for example, “Don’t worry.”  “Be not afraid.”  And tonight, “Love one another.” Not with a superficial, emoji-text “luv ya,” here’s the kicker: “just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  Jesus commands us to love one another just as he has loved us, with a deep, forgiving, steadfast, persistent love.  Jesus, sigh, I am not you.  I am not the Son of God, pure and sinless.  I am often worried, anxious, and afraid, and I have a hard time loving other people, try as I might.  Help me to love you as you have loved me, because Lord knows, I need your help!
There are a few other commands in our scriptures from today – did you notice?  Wash one another’s feet – that’s another hard one, it’s a powerful thing to do and maybe we can try that next year at our Maundy Thursday service.  We might think of what it means to serve others in a way that is LIKE washing someone else’s feet – not easy, convenient, or culturally popular.  In our first reading, God commands us to remember the Passover. In our second reading, Paul commands Christians to celebrate Holy Communion, in remembrance of Jesus, to proclaim his death until he comes again.  These are commands to share a holy meal together in fellowship and service to one another, and to remember who God is and what God has done for us throughout history.
In addition to remembering and striving to honor God’s commands to us tonight, this is also the night in which Jesus commends himself to God. “Commend” means to entrust something or someone to another’s care.  As Judas is commending, or handing Jesus over to the religious and political authorities, Jesus tells us that the Father has given all things into his hands – Jesus, not the devil, is in control here, because God has entrusted all things, including our salvation, to Jesus and his care, his great love for us.  Jesus has come from God and is going to God.  Tomorrow on the cross, Jesus will pray, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  In asking us to love one another as Jesus loves us, Jesus shows us in his final days what it means to commend ourselves to God in faith.  In other words, in his betrayal, arrest, suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus shows us what it means to put our trust in God, who alone is entirely, completely trustworthy.  So Jesus commends these rituals to us and commands us to do them – washing of feet, baptism, Holy Communion, the forgiveness of sins, to name a few as signs and reminders of Jesus’ great love for us.  And these concrete rituals empower us to love like Jesus loves, even if we don’t get it right all of the time.  St. Augustine once said, “We become what we eat.”  In the sharing of this meal tonight, THE night when he was betrayed, may we become what we eat – the body of Christ, given for the sake of the world; gathered, strengthened, and then sent out by Jesus’ command to love and serve as he first loved and served us.  Amen.