Love Each Other

A meditation by Currie Burris

John 13: 1-17, 31-35

March 24, 2005

The table is set. The bread is here. The wine is here. The pitchers, bowls and towels are here. You are here. We gather this evening in response to Christ’s command. This is Maundy Thursday. The word “Maundy” is rooted in the Latin word that means “command.” We gather here at Christ’s command, to do as he asked us to do. When Jesus gathered for a meal that last week with his disciples, it was a Passover meal, a meal enacting the last night of the Hebrew people in Egypt before God liberated them from slavery. It is a meal commanded by God to remember and give thanks for God’s liberating love.

Jesus commanded us to observe such a meal when he said “Do this in remembrance of me.” He wanted it be a meal where we too would remember and give thanks for God’s love. Then Jesus did something for them that would demonstrate the full extent of his love for them. He got up from the table, removed his outer garments, took a towel and bowl and began to wash the disciples’ feet. He became a servant, taking on a menial task that showed no regard for his status or place. He put the needs of others above his own.

His love was so great that he sacrificed himself for those he loved. Washing their feet was a symbol, a pre-embodiment of the loving act that would begin just a few hours later and which would end the next day with his death on the cross. “Greater love hath no one, than that he lay down his life for this friends” (John 15:13)

He then commanded that we should do the same. As Christ washed our feet, so we must wash each other’s feet. Tonight we will symbolically fulfill Jesus’ command by either washing another’s feet or washing each other’s hands and by allowing someone else to wash us. In so doing we recommit ourselves to being servants to each other and to the world. As Christ has served us, so we must serve each other. We humble ourselves to serve our fellow Christians, our neighbors, and strangers. Our life, in service to God, is life in service to the world.

Jesus said, “Love each other. A new commandment I give to you, that you should love one another as I have loved you.” It is his command to us, not an option, not a choice, not something we might try to do, not something we do if it feels right or it is convenient. We are commanded to love each other, just as Christ loves us. We humble ourselves before the needs of those around us.

Such loving may involve feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, and visiting the sick or imprisoned. It may be in seeking justice for the oppressed, peace for those in conflict, liberation for the captives, healing for the wounded. It may be in welcoming the stranger, washing the dirty, caring for the dying, teaching those who are learning, nurturing those who are growing, listening to the lonely, seeking those who are lost.

In loving others, we are a part of Christ. And until we love, we are without Christ. In serving others, we serve Christ. And being served by others, we are served by Christ. We love because we are loved; we serve because we are served.

From this simple meal, Jesus goes to the garden to pray. There he is betrayed. He is arrested, led to trial, beating, torture and finally to death on the cross. All the weight of all evil in the world, all the burden of sin, all the brokenness of all humanity is carried there on the cross. There is no greater love than to lay down your life for another. The greatest love of all time is God’s giving of God’s own life for us.

The command we are given tonight is to go and do likewise, “to love one another as I have loved you.” Tonight we go to cross with Christ, in Christ, to be one with Christ, to be one in loving, serving and dying.