A Reflective Service for Good Friday 2020

Show me that scene in the garden,
of bitter pain;
And of the cross where my Saviour
for me was slain;
And, through the sadness,
help me to see
how Jesus suffered
for love of me.

IntroductionGood Friday is, of course, the day we remember more than any other the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross

Hymn: Singing the Faith

My song is love unknown,
my Saviour’s love to me,
love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from his blest throne,
salvation to bestow;
but they made strange, and none
the longed-for Christ would know.
But O my Friend, my Friend indeed,
who at my need his life did spend!

Sometimes they strew his way,
and his sweet praises sing;
resounding all the day
hosannas to their King.
Then ‘Crucify!’ is all their breath,
and for his death they thirst and cry.

Why, what has my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
he gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries!Yet they at these
themselves displease, and ‘gainst him rise.

They rise, and needs will have
my dear Lord made away;
a murderer they save,
the Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful he to suffering goes,
that he his foes from thence might free.

In life no house, no home,
my Lord on earth might have;
in death, no friendly tomb
but what a stranger gave.
What may I say?Heaven was his home;
but mine the tomb wherein he lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
no story so divine:
never was love, dear King,
never was grief like thine!
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

Samuel Crossman (c. 1624–1683)
Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 277

https://youtu.be/HMart4wXsI0

Prayer

Let us pray.
Gracious and eternal God, 
look with mercy on this your family, 
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed 
and given up into the hands of sinners 
and to suffer death upon the cross; 
who is alive and glorified with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Reading

John 18:1-27

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley.
On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.

Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.  So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’

‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied.

‘I am he,’ Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.)  When Jesus said, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.

Again he asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’

‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they said.

 Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.’  This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: ‘I have not lost one of those you gave me.’

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

Jesus commanded Peter, ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?’

 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant-girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

‘You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?’ she asked Peter.

He replied, ‘I am not.’

It was cold, and the servants and officials stood round a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

‘I have spoken openly to the world,’ Jesus replied. ‘I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.’

When Jesus said this, one of the officials near by slapped him in the face. ‘Is this the way you answer the high priest?’ he demanded.

‘If I said something wrong,’ Jesus replied, ‘testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’  Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, ‘You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?’

He denied it, saying, ‘I am not.’

One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, ‘Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?’  Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a cock began to crow.

Hymn: Singing the Faith 280

O sacred head, sore wounded,
with grief and pain weighed down,
how scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown!
How pale art thou with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
which once was bright as morn!

O Lord of life and glory,
what bliss till now was thine!
I read the wondrous story,
I joy to call thee mine.
Thy grief and thy compassion
were all for sinners’ gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.

What language shall I borrow
to praise thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
Lord, make me thine for ever,
nor let me faithless prove;
O let me never, never
abuse such dying love!

Be near me, Lord, when dying;
O show thy cross to me,
that I, for succour flying,
my eyes may fix on thee;
and then, thy grace receiving,
let faith my fears dispel,
for whoso dies believing
in thee, dear Lord, dies well.

Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676)translated by James Waddell Alexander (1804–1859) and Rupert E. Davies (1909–1994)

Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 280
Translation: © Eecutors of Rupert E. Davies

https://youtu.be/3M4uUJibpvw

Reading

John 18: 28-40

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.  So Pilate came out to them and asked, ‘What charges are you bringing against this man?’

‘If he were not a criminal,’ they replied, ‘we would not have handed him over to you.’

Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.’

‘But we have no right to execute anyone,’ they objected.  This took place to fulfil what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’

‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’

‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’

Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’

‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.

Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’

‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.  But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release “the king of the Jews”?’

They shouted back, ‘No, not him! Give us Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

Hymn: Singing the Faith

There is a green hill far away,
outside a city wall,
where the dear Lord was crucified,
who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
what pains he had to bear,
but we believe it was for us
he hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiven.
He died to make us good,
that we might go at last to heaven,
saved by his precious blood.

There was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin;
he only could unlock the gate
of heaven, and let us in.

O dearly, dearly has he loved,
and we must love him too,
and trust in his redeeming blood,
and try his works to do.

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895)

Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 284

https://youtu.be/d0ybUpuLn8M

Reading

John 19: 1-42

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’  When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’

But Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.’

The Jewish leaders insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.’

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. ‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’

Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).  It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’

‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.

‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).  There they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.  Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.  The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Do not write “The King of the Jews”, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.’

Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

‘Let’s not tear it,’ they said to one another. ‘Let’s decide by lot who will get it.’

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

‘They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.’

So this is what the soldiers did.

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.  The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.  But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.  The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.  These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.’

 

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about thirty-five kilograms.  Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.  At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, 
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
set his passion, cross and death 
between your judgement and our souls, 
now and in the hour of our death,
and bring us, with the whole creation, 
to the light and glory of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Hymn: Singing the Faith 287

When I survey the wondrous cross,
on which the Prince of Glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,|
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the death of Christ my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down;
did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
spreads o’er his body on the tree;
then am I dead to all the globe,
and all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 287

https://youtu.be/mDkuxEIcpdI

Blessing

Most merciful God, 
who by the death and resurrection 
of your Son Jesus Christ, 
delivered and saved the world: 
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross 
we may triumph in the power of his victory; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Why Are Some Clergy Obsessed with Being in Church Buildings?

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 4: 19-24



There is something that is really puzzling me during this current Coronavirus crisis, and that is the insistence of ordained people that they must be allowed into their church buildings to pray and even to stream services over the internet.

I myself am ordained.  I’ve been a Methodist Presbyter for nearly eight years now and I just don’t understand it.

For years we have been quite rightly telling people that the church isn’t the building, it is the people who meet together week by week to receive Holy Communion, to worship God, to pray and to gather in fellowship with each other.  The Church, the Body of Christ, is the people, sisters and brothers in Christ who are united as disciples of Jesus.

The church building is just that, a building.  Yes, it is a building consecrated for a special purpose, the worship of God and, yes, older church buildings are soaked with prayer and you can feel a sense of the sacred when you enter them; but that doesn’t mean that the Ordained have to go into them for their prayers and to record or stream services for broadcast on the internet.

We can pray to a God anywhere.  We can worship God anywhere.  We can celebrate Holy Communion anywhere.

That is the message of the verses from John’s gospel above.  The woman at the well asked Jesus where the correct place to worship God was.  Jesus’ reply was that there was no right or wrong place: it wasn’t a matter of being in a particular place or building but of heart and mind, of worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth.

We don’t need to be in our church buildings at the present time, and those of us who are ordained have no more right to be there than anybody else.  If our congregations can’t come into our church buildings to pray and worship why should we enjoy what could be seen as a special privilege that that can’t?  I write this on Maundy Thursday, when we remember Jesus taking the role of a servant and washing his disciples feet.  How does this servant mentality fit in with the idea of clergy being in church buildings when others can’t?

Our church buildings are important and special to us and I am missing being in all of my five church buildings, but I could not, in all good conscience, go into one of them to pray or worship when I know that those God has called me to serve cannot?

Maundy Thursday Service 2020

 If you have a candle at home you might like to light it before beginning.

Introduction

This will be a very different Maundy Thursday this year because we cannot share Holy Communion as we normally would; nor can I include the Communion Liturgy as part of our devotions.  Instead we will concentrate on the washing of the disciple’s feet by Jesus as all that it means.

Although this is traditionally an evening service, I have posted it this morning for those who would normally attend Rhyddings Thursday Holy Communion. 

Below each hymn is a link to a Youtube video, so that rather than just reading the words you can either listen or join in with the singing.

On this night our Lord Jesus Christ said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love each other as I have loved you.”

Hymn: Singing the Faith 608

All praise to our redeeming Lord,
who joins us by his grace,
and bids us, each to each restored,
together seek his face.

He bids us build each other up;
and, gathered into one,
to our high calling's glorious hope
we hand in hand go on.

The gift which he on one bestows,
we all delight to prove;
the grace through every vessel flows,
in purest streams of love.

E'en now we think and speak the same,
and cordially agree;
concentred all, through Jesu's name,
in perfect harmony.

We all partake the joy of one,
the common peace we feel,
a peace to sensual minds unknown,
a joy unspeakable.

And if our fellowship below
in Jesus be so sweet,
what heights of rapture shall we know
when round his throne we meet!

Charles Wesley (1707–1788)Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 608

https://youtu.be/W6Bv5KY9ZRo

Prayer of ConfessionLet us confess our sins to God and ask him to cleanse us. 

Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you, against our neighbour, and against each other, in thought, word and deed,

in the evil we have done and in the good we have not done,

through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. 

We have wounded your love and marred your image within us. 

We are sorry and ashamed and repent of all our sins. 

For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past and lead us out of darkness to walk as children of light.  Amen. 

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.  If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, 

we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

This is Christ’s gracious word:

‘Your sins are forgiven.’

Amen.  Thanks be to God.

Reading
Exodus 12: 1-4, 11-14The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.  If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat 

This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.  Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

John 13: 1-17It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”  For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.  If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Reflection

In our minds, let us travel back in time to an upper room in Jerusalem in the year 33AD.

We see Jesus sitting at a supper table with his disciples.  He gets up from the table, takes off his robe, wraps a towel around his waist, pours water into a basin. 

As they watch Jesus making his preparations it is obvious to the disciples what Jesus is going to do.  They stir uncomfortably, watching him with a growing sense of discomfort and uneasiness. Not one of them speaks as Jesus kneels before them and washes their feet.  Not one of them cries out, “No Jesus, let me do it!”  The disciples surely feel contrite and miserable, feeling more and more embarrassed as Jesus washes each pair of feet in turn.  The silence is tense and still, nobody speaks.

Then Jesus comes to Peter, who is always impulsive, never tongue tied and usually blurts out whatever is on his mind.  Jesus washing his feet is more than he can stand.  He cries out, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

I have quite often thought that it is easy for us, as Christians, to become so familiar with some passages from the Bible that we think we know them back to front; that they are so familiar that we have understood all we can from them, that we have learned all there is to learn.  This is a real danger, but one we must not succumb to; because the word of God in the Scriptures I deeper than we can ever conceive and there is always something new that God reveals to us through the Holy Spirit each time we read and reflect.

So it is with this evening’s gospel reading.

It is quite difficult for us to understand as twenty first century people the incredible, almost unbelievable thing that Jesus did when he washed the feet of his disciples.  It is quite easy to concentrate on the fact of the foot washing itself and miss the deeper message in this portion of Scripture.

To understand the depth of Jesus humility in washing he disciple’s feet, we need to understand something of the context of the time.  The roads of Judea were not surfaced in any way.  In dry weather they were inches deep in dust and in wet weather they were liquid mud.  The people wore on their feet a primitive sandal, a sole held to the foot by simple straps.  

This meant that as people walked along their feet ended up filthy.

For that reason, there were always water pots at the door of a house and servants to wash dirty feet.  Jesus and his disciples had no servants and so there was a problem as to who should wash their dirty feet.  it is easy to picture the twelve looking uneasily around them, wondering who was willing to stoop so low that he would take the role of a servant and wash their feet.

We know from Luke’s gospel that the disciples had recently had a disagreement about which of them was most important, so none of them would have been willing to take the least important position of all; the position of a servant.

It was Jesus who did it.  Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, stripped off his outer garments, knelt before them and washed their filthy, smelly feet.

It was an incredible, unbelievable act.  Preachers like to us illustrations, but there is no equivalent in our society that I can think of that comes anywhere near to it, there is nothing I can think of that wouldn’t trivialise what Jesus did.

            “This is our God, the Servant King”

Jesus did what none of the others was prepared to do.  He took the role of a servant.  Afterwards he said, “Do you understand what I have done for you?  You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master’ and rightly so.  That is what I am.  So if I, the Master and Teacher washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet.  I’ve laid down a pattern for you.  What I’ve done, you do.  I’m only pointing out the obvious.  A servant is not ranked above his master.  If you understand what I’m telling you act like it – and live a blessed life.”  That’s how the Message translates it, and it really hits home.

Jesus’ words really ought to make us think and examine ourselves.  We need to remember that we are servants of a Servant King whose example we are commanded to follow.  In the Kingdom of God there is only one kind of greatness and that is the greatness of service: putting our own needs, desires and preferences aside to follow the vision God has given to us and to serve others. 

In our church fellowships a desire for personal prominence and unwillingness to be open to God and to others can wreck things and destroy our witness of and mission for Christ.  So much of the trouble we have in our church fellowships comes because somebody considers themselves more important than others: that what they want is more important than what others want or, indeed, what God wants.  They go into a sulk and make life difficult for others or try to shout everybody else down so that they can force their own preference on others.  They threaten to resign if they don’t get their own way!  People in their church fellowships are afraid of them and afraid of upsetting them.  They are more focussed on themselves, on their personal dignity and prestige, on their rights, on their preferences for worship and what they want than they are on serving God and serving others.

As William Barclay writes, “When we are tempted to think of our own dignity, our prestige, our place, our rights; let us see again this picture of the Son of God, with a towel round his waist and kneeling at his disciple’s feet.”

Jesus demonstrated in a very practical way that nobody is so important that they cannot serve others.  Jesus had already said to them, just a few days before, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus was practicing what he preached, putting the words he spoke into very definite and visible action.

Francis of Assisi understood the way of Jesus.  One day he was out riding alone, and as he rode, he saw a leper, a man covered in a mass of sores: a repulsive sight to the normally fastidious Frances.  But something moved within him.  He got down from his horse and on an impulse flung his arms around the leper.  The leper turned into Jesus Christ as he embraced him.

This Scripture is about Jesus washing his disciples dirty, smelly feet; but it is also about much more than that.  Just as the sharing of the bread and wine pointed towards his death on the cross, so too does the washing of his disciple’s feet.

We are told that when Jesus came to wash Peter’s feet, Peter said, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" and “You will never wash my feet."

He didn’t understand what Jesus was doing.  He thought it was wrong for the man he knew to be the Son of God to wash his feet.  We know this from Jesus’ own words, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

This wasn’t just a simple washing of feet!  The foot washing was a foreshadowing of the cross.  At the very beginning of chapter 13 we read, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.”  We also read, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”

Jesus knew that if Peter could not accept having his feet washed by Jesus then he could never accept Jesus dying for him.  It was an act of great humility by Jesus to wash the disciple’s feet; it needed an equal act of humility to accept that foot washing from Jesus.

It takes a great act of humility to accept that Jesus died for us.  It takes a great act of humility, repeated again and again throughout our lives, to accept that only through Jesus can we come to God.  When Jesus said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me" he wasn’t just referring to that moment, but to his saving death on the cross.

The Cross of Christ is really, really hard for people to accept.  We don’t want to believe that by dying on the cross Jesus won our redemption; the forgiveness of our sins, the restoration of our relationship with God and the reward of our eternal life!

Paul the Apostle wrote, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The late, great Billy Graham once said, “’I've found in my own ministry that I can preach anything else, and it’s called popular. It pleases the ear. But when I come to the heart of Christianity, when I come to the cross and the blood and the resurrection, that is the stumbling block. That’s the thing people do not want to hear. That’s the thing that is an offense, and yet it’s that very thing that is the heart of the Gospel. Without the cross, there is no salvation, there is no forgiveness.

God said, ‘I’ll meet the human race only one place. That is the cross.’ And if you haven’t been to the cross, there is no salvation and there is no forgiveness.

Why is the cross an offense? I got to thinking about this not long ago. I see Christ hanging on the tree. I see Him dying for me. I see blood being shed. I see nails in His hands. I see a spike in His feet. And I see Christ dying for sin, an offense. Why is it an offense?

The cross is an offense because it says to the world, ‘You’re a sinner. You’d better repent.’

The light of the cross begins to penetrate into your extortion, into your pride, into your idolatry, into your bigotry, into your intolerance. Into all the sins of your life, the cross sends a beam of light. You cringe and say, ‘No, no, no. Don’t expose me.’ But the cross goes down into the dark recesses of your heart where even your wife or husband cannot go, even your family cannot go, even your best friend cannot go, down deep inside of you, and sees the sins and exposes them to the light.”

The Cross of Christ is offensive because it exposes our human sin and reveals us as we truly are. 

The cross of Christ is offensive to many people in the 21^st century because we like to think that, as modern people, the idea of the shedding of blood to appease God is a primitive notion we can no longer accept.  We think we know better than our spiritual ancestors because we are more advanced.

We don’t like the idea of blood sacrifice in the twenty first century, of somebody giving their lifeblood that we might be forgiven: seeing it as primitive; rather than accepting it is God’s way and that it doesn’t matter if it offends our modern sensibilities.

I’ve recently re-read Billy Graham’s autobiography.  In it, Billy wrote of a time when he was struggling with his understanding of the scriptures because of the often-contradictory views of contemporary Biblical scholars and theologians.  He prayed about it: “O God!  There are many things in the Bible I do not understand.  There are many problems with it for which I have no solution.  There are many seeming contradictions.  There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science.  I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Biblical Scholars are raising.”

He writes, ‘At last the Holy Spirit freed me to say this, “Father, I am going to accept the Bible as your word by faith.  I’m going to allow faith to go beyond intellectual questions and doubts and I will believe the Bible to be your inspired word.”

I have made the same decision.

The Bible clearly teaches that on the cross Jesus died in our place; he paid the price for our sins, he died our death.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “But God proves his love for us, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  Paul also wrote, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”  The Apostle John wrote, “Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

The inspired word of God, the Bible, tells us that Jesus’ death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice for our sins, meaning that Jesus suffered the consequences of our sins on our behalf.  The Bible says it and by faith I believe it.

There is another reason people reject the cross.  We lack humility.  We don’t like the idea that we could do nothing in our own strength to make ourselves right with God.  We lack the humility to accept that Jesus died in our place on the cross and that through the death of this man who was God and lived a sin free life, our sins are truly forgiven if we confess him as Saviour and Lord!

We want to think that we can save ourselves by our good works.  We want to think that if we live a mostly good life then we will get to heaven when we die.  We hear people say of a person who has died, “they lived a good life.  I’m sure they are in heaven with God now.”

If living a mostly good life was the way to heaven then Jesus might as well not have been crucified.  To attain heaven by our own efforts is impossible because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  He also wrote in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.”

Sin is disobedience to God and the punishment for disobeying God is death: not the death all must die but the death which is eternal separation from God.  We cannot earn our own salvation and we need the humility to accept that, just as Peter needed to be humble enough to let Jesus wash his feet.

We must accept the Gospel truth that Jesus did indeed die in our place.  We must accept the Gospel truth is that through Jesus’ suffering and death our sins are forgiven if we repent and believe is him.  There is no other way of salvation, but through Jesus.  Jesus himself said, “I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  He also said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

The overwhelming message of this passage for us today can be summed up in one word, “humility”.  We need to be humble enough to put our own preferences, desires and needs aside to serve others; and we need to be humble enough to accept all that Jesus, the Servant King, has done for us.

Let us pray.

Gracious God, 

your Son Jesus Christ girded himself with a towel and washed the feet of his disciples. 

Give us the will to be the servants of others as he was the servant of all, 

who gave up his life and died for us, yet lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Hymn: Singing the Faith 459

Captain of Israel's host, and Guide
of all who seek the land above,
beneath your shadow we abide,
the cloud of your protecting love;
our strength, your grace; our rule, your word;
our end, the glory of the Lord.

By your unerring Spirit led,
we shall not in the desert stray;
we shall not full direction need,
nor miss our providential way;
as far from danger as from fear,
while love, almighty love, is near.

Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 459

https://youtu.be/q91QXsRBoWw

Scripture

When the disciples had sung a hymn 
they went out to the Mount of Olives. 

Jesus prayed to his Father: ‘If it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me; yet not my will but yours be done.’ 

Christ was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

If you have lit a candle please extinguish it and sit in the darkness and silence and stillness and think about Jesus going out into the night.