Death and Life: Service (Sermon for Maundy Thursday: April 17, 2025)

Watch the sermon here. Listen to the sermon here.

Texts:  Exodus 12:1–14

            1 Corinthians 11:23–32

John 13:1–17, 31b–35

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon for this evening is our Gospel reading, especially these words of Jesus, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 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” (John 13:13-15).

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

This Lenten season we have been looking at the theme of Death and Life. The life of the Christian is to be one that is spent dying to the self, dying to our own sin-filled desires, dying to our own wants, dying to our own thoughts of what is best, and living to walk before God in the way that he knows is best, following his example. And tonight, we see that so clearly. Jesus goes with His disciples to the upper room to celebrate the last Passover and the first Lord's Supper. He goes there and then He does something that is completely unthinkable. He acts with surprising humility as He lays aside his outer garments and takes on the form of a servant. In so doing, He teaches His disciples and He teaches us that we are to live our lives dying to our sinful desires and instead follow Christ's example of serving others.

Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, Your Son, true God, begotten of You from before eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, began His act of service by descending from His holy throne at Your right hand, and taking on our mortal flesh so that He could serve us in giving Himself for our salvation in His death on the cross. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we may always follow Christ’s example and be of service to all. It is through His name we pray. Amen.

There are plenty in our world who seem to do outwardly good things, but the fact of the matter is that our culture is one that if you are serving others, it's usually done in some sort of benefit for yourself. We have this idea built into us from the time that we are little, from the time that we are almost too young to even have thoughts. We have this idea ingrained in us, especially as Americans, of pull yourself up by the bootstraps, of taking care of yourself, of being the one. who handles everything yourself. We live in a culture that is so set on competition and on self-promotion. Families do everything in their power to get their kids into the most elite preschools, to the most elite elementary schools, to the most elite high schools, to get their kids on the best sports teams in order that they can give in to the best colleges with the best athletes, athletic programs, and the best scholarships. All of this so then they can be the best and either go on to play sports or, if they aren’t that good, they can at least get a really good degree and can be the valedictorian so that they get the best job and then from there as they get the best job work their way up to get you new positions of leadership and be honored in their company. It's a competition where there's never any end. It's a competition about always making yourself higher, yourself greater than your competitors. There’s no time or energy to serve others. It’s all about what you can do to get ahead.

But it's not a new thought. There were thirteen men gathered in the Upper Room that first Maundy Thursday. Twelve of them knew they weren’t the most important person in the room. They all knew that Jesus was the rabbi. Jesus was the teacher. If anyone should take on the servant's role in this table, it shouldn’t be Jesus. There are twelve perfectly capable men who could have gotten up, could have served their neighbor, since a servant wasn't washing their feet. Undoubtedly each of them was thinking that someone else should do it. Peter may have thought that James and John should do it. After all, they were so anxious to be seated at God's right hand and His left in His kingdom that they had their mommy go and ask him for that honor. Others might have thought that they shouldn’t have to do it because, while they weren’t part of the inner circle, they were still part of Jesus’s closest friends. Judas probably was too worried with how he was going to betray Jesus to recognize that his fellow disciples needed served. No matter what was going through their heads, none of them stepped up.

But as much as we don't like serving, we also don't like being served. We don't like it when we have to ask others for help. We don't like it when others have to come and support us. Peter certainly didn't. He hadn't stepped up to wash any of the people's feet, but when his Lord comes to him, Peter says, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). He doesn't want to be served, especially not by the One who should be his Teacher, the One whom he should be serving. Our own sinful pride keeps us from receiving the service of others. Our own sinful pride keeps us from accepting help from others. We try to do it things on our own. Especially as we age, as children, friends, and or fellow church members have to do things for us, we don’t like to accept help. Instead, we want to think that we can still do it on our own. We can’t humble ourselves enough to let others serve us.

And yet, in the upper room, we see another example, As Jesus, the greatest at the table, “knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:3-5). Jesus, the one whom all the others knew was the greatest there, the One who was their Rabbi, goes and He serves. He washes His disciples feet. He takes care of their physical needs. While our feet can get tired at the end of the day, at least we're not walking around in the middle of the desert in sandals, getting dusty, dry, cracked feet from just the weather. That's the importance of the feet washing, it was to cleanse them so that they could have relief from their journeys. Jesus takes on that role. What was supposed to be the lowest role, Jesus takes on Himself.

That's not the only time that Jesus would serve them that night. As they were at dining, Jesus “took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). Jesus doesn't just take care of their physical needs. He also serves them in taking care of their spiritual needs. He knows the trials that they are going to face. He knows that they will all run away and desert him. He knows that for three days they will despair, as they gather back in the same upper room mourning the loss of their friend and teacher. And so as an act of service to them, God gives them His very body of strengthen their faith so that, as they go through these trials and these challenges ahead, they may remain true in the faith.

But all of this is pointing to Jesus' greatest act of service, when He would go to the cross. There He would stretch out his arms. There He would die, not the death He deserved to die, for he was perfect, He had no sin. There for us men and for our salvation, He would willingly give Himself over to death, bearing your sins on the cross so that you could be forgiven, so that you could have your sins washed away through His blood. It is there in that act of service as Christ suffers on the cross that God's glory is revealed. Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once” (John 13:31-32). God shows His glory to the entire world not in great acts of power or might, but when the Son of God looked His weakest and most defeated, when the Son of God was crushed. For there on the cross, God’s glory was revealed to all the nations—a glory which so loved all of mankind, which so loved you, that God died for you.

So now as ones who have been forgiven by God, ones for whom God has shown this great act of service to us, we are called to go out and serve others. We don't do so trying to gain salvation, trying to merit our way into heaven by our works. No, God has done that by his work. Instead we go out and serve others, fulfilled Christ's Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have [loved you by giving Myself over to death for you], you also ought to [love and be of service to one another]. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:34-35, 13-17 alt.). Jesus calls us to follow His examples and serve others. Why? Because He’s already accomplished all that we need. No longer are we bound to trying to work for our salvation. Jesus has done that for us. So we now get to serve others. We now get help those in need. We now get show forth God’s glory to others in being God’s hands and feet of service to our neighbors, serving and loving them the way that God has served and loved us. And, we get to receive from our neighbor that love of Christ when our neighbor serves us. You are not being loving to your neighbor if you refuse to let them show you God’s love by serving you.

What does this look like? It varies person to person. Some are given great gifts of visiting the sick and the lonely. Others, the ability to pray for those in need. Others, the ability to offer rides to various places to people who can't drive themselves, or calling people. Everyone serves in various different ways and how you serve will change throughout your life. But what won't change is that God has called you to follow His example and to serve your brothers.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, we rejoice and give thanks to God tonight and this weekend as we remember and celebrate our Lord's great act of service for us in His death on the cross. Thus we live our lives daily in gratitude for God's great love. By serving others and showing forth God's glory. For in so doing, we point others to God. We point others to the hope that is theirs as well in Christ Jesus. May you, today and every day, continue to serve your neighbor out of love, showing forth God and His great love for you throughout your lives. Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.