Today is a day known as either Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday on the Christian calendar. This is the day during Holy Week when Jesus meet with His disciples in the Upper Room. Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples instituting the sacrament of communion. During the course of the evening, Jesus shared with His disciples several important teachings that have become known as the Upper Room Discourse.
One act that Jesus performed during Maundy Thursday is what I want to focus upon in today's post. While the disciples were reclining around the dinner table, Jesus got up, took off His outer garment, obtained a basin of water and He began to wash His disciples feet.
Washing of feet was necessary in the day in which Jesus walked the earth. The people wore sandals. The roads were dusty, and when someone entered a home, it was proper etiquette to wash a person's feet.
The job of washing someone's sweaty, dirty and stinking feet was considered the lowest type of job that there was. This task was reserved for the servants in the home.
This is what is so striking about what Jesus did on Maundy Thursday. He was the Lord and Master of the universe. He was the teacher and Lord of the disciples who were reclining around the table. However, Jesus took it upon Himself to take the place of a servant and wash His disciple's feet.
When Jesus came to Peter, Peter resisted. He said to Jesus, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus told Peter that if He didn't wash his feet, that Peter could have no part with Him. Peter said that if that was the case that Jesus could wash his head and hands as well.
What does Jesus' action on Maundy Thursday have to teach us? I think that there are at least two important messages we should focus on today.
Jesus took upon Himself the role of a servant when He left Heaven to come to this earth. He humbled Himself. First, Jesus came in the form of a helpless infant. Then He lived a holy life as our perfect example. Jesus further humbled Himself by dying on the cross and suffering in agony so that we might be redeemed from our sins and have new life in Him. Jesus came and washed our sins away. Our hearts and souls were filthy with sin just like the dirty feet that Jesus washed on Maundy Thursday. By His shed blood on the cross, Jesus has washed our sins away. Though our sins were as scarlet, we are made white as snow by the blood of Jesus.
Jesus' actions on Maundy Thursday also demonstrate for us the way that we as His followers are to act in the world. We are to have the nature of servants. We are to go into this world and seek to serve others and help them. The most important way in which we do this is by sharing the message of salvation and the love of Jesus with those whom we know and with those whom we come into contact. We also serve when we give of our time, talents and our resources to help make this world a better place and to help the least of these who are among us.
We must have the same attitude of humility that was expressed by Jesus Christ in the Upper Room. We must not seek to be served but to serve. Let us always look to the example of our and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow, I will have a short message for Good Friday. The Weekend Sermon will be posted on Saturday this week. May God bless you all. Amen.
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