Maudy Thursday

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-15, 34-35

April 2nd, 2026

The word Maundy in Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin and means mandate or command. Thursday night is about the institution of the Lord’s Supper, but our reading is Jesus washing the disciples feet. The mandate or command referred to is not the Lord’s Supper but verse 34 of the Gospel reading. Jesus said: “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.”

On the night in which He was betrayed and instituted the Lord’s Supper, Jesus knelt down and washed the feet of His disciples. Even Judas, His betrayer. Jesus knew the kiss of death was only a few hours away and yet Jesus still knelt and washed the dirt, the grime and the stink off the feet of that betrayer, Judas. What sort of love would do that? Only God’s love.

Jesus washes the disciples feet to show His humble, sacrificial love. We are to do likewise. No, not wash each other’s feet. Jesus did not institute a new sacrament of foot washing. He wasn’t giving us a ceremony to be duplicated one a year. He was demonstrating Christian love and humility. It’s the humility and the sacrificial love that we are to show to each other in all things.

Christian love and humility is not easy. It demands sacrifice and setting aside our pride. Christian love does not ask to be loved in return. It does not request an equal sacrifice. It doesn’t seek respect. Christian love is a willingness to suffer for each other if necessary. It means bearing another person’s burdens even when it feels a bit too heavy. It is a giving so that others may gain from our humility and sacrifice. That’s Christian love.

Jesus washing the disciples feet is an object lesson. I must admit I am not a fan of object lessons, especially in spiritual matters. I believe they usually fall a bit short and fail to teach the spiritual truth they are attempting to teach. Usually all you remember is the nifty prop and clever demonstration but fail to properly hear God’s Word as He intended.

But this is Jesus. He’s definitely the exception. Jesus gives a good, right and true object lesson. Jesus is the object of the object lesson that He gives. His prop and demonstration is lived out and manifest in His own sacrifice and death on the Cross. The blood He sheds cleanses the sinner from all unrighteousness. After His sacrifice the disciples would understand the object lesson rightly.

Jesus is the model servant foot washer. He has taken our dirt, and grime and stink into Himself on the Cross. In return He has given us His perfect righteousness. Cleansed in Jesus blood through faith we are changed and given the power to love.

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Jesus said: “love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” We are not greater than our Jesus. But we are baptized into Jesus and made one with Him and given His mind and His love and filled with His Spirit. Therefore, you have the power to see the object lesson of true Christian love and humility in Jesus and then love as you have been loved. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Bear one another’s burdens.

That is the mandate and command of Maundy Thursday. We don’t follow it to gain or earn anything for ourselves. We hear it, learn it, and then follow it that others might benefit and gain from us. That’s Christian love.

But this Thursday is about much more than a mandate or command. It’s about the institution of the Lord’s Supper. And yet the washing of the disciples feet took place in the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed and instituted the Lord’s Supper. So they are connected.

The humility and love demonstrated in the foot washing is how we must approach the rail and properly receive the body and blood of Jesus. Hearts softened in repentance and reconciliation to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Humility and love toward each other. Then we are prepared to receive this gift and partake as one in the body of Christ.

The institution of the Lord’s Supper is not an object lesson. It does not symbolize anything. It isn’t pointing us to something bigger and better. It isn’t showing us how to sacrifice and love each other. The Lord’s Supper doesn’t simply mean something. The Lord’s Supper is something.¹ The Lord’s Supper is the thing that Jesus says it is. It His body that suffered and died for you. It His blood that He shed for your forgiveness. You have everything to gain in receiving it. You only lose by not receiving it.

When Jesus gave His body up to die on the Cross, the Cross became a tree of life that bore fruit. In the Lord’s Supper we are given the fruit of Jesus death on the Cross. It is the eternal and immortal medicine that delivers the mystery of the body of our Savior crucified and risen into our bodies. It is the body of Jesus hidden behind the bread and His blood hidden behind the wine.

We believe it’s there because Jesus said that it is. And it forgives us just as Jesus said. It’s that simple and that yet profound. It’s powerful stuff. It’s all about forgiveness. Forgiveness we need often because we sin often. We don’t do anything to make it special. It is special because of what it is.

It is meant to be received again and again. Every time we gather together on a Sunday morning in the Divine Service. Not once a month. Not every other Sunday. Every Sunday we gather together until we die Jesus wants to give us His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

For over two years now the Lord’s Supper has been offered every Sunday and every midweek Divine Service right here at St. Paul Lutheran Church. I have witnessed and experienced firsthand the great blessing and benefit this precious gift has brought to this church.

Of course the main benefit can’t be seen with eyes of flesh. The forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of the faith. That is the main thing. But when sins are forgiven and faith is strengthened the fruit of faith is bound to follow. And it has followed in abundance among the brothers and sisters right here at St. Paul.

As you all well know, the first year and a half was a little rough. But you stood firm. You didn’t budge. You kept coming, you kept hearing, you kept learning, and you kept receiving Jesus. And Jesus did His work in you and through you. Your faith grew. Your resolve and determination to be in the place where Jesus abides with us in His Word and Sacrament to save us didn’t falter.

Faithfully and frequently Jesus took the Fruit of His Bloody Cross in His Word and Sacraments and He placed that fruit into your ears and into your mouths and into your hearts and your faith grew strong. Your love for each other increased. Your patience and long suffering remained steadfast. Your ability to bear one another’s burdens was strengthened. Your willingness and desire to forgive as you’ve been forgiven and love as you have been loved is the shinning proof of the love of Christ that has been poured into your hearts through faith with the Spirit.

This is the fruit of faith I have seen and experienced in abundance over the past year. You are the light of Christ that is not hidden under a basket but put on a stand so that all who enter here see it as it shines forth from your hearts in word and deed with joy.

This is fruit of the Spirit Paul writes about: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. This is who God has made you to be through your faithful and frequent hearing and receiving the fullness of Jesus. It has been a beautiful thing to witness and be a part of.

More times than I can remember I’ve heard visitors come into this church and comment how joyful it is to worship here at St. Paul Lutheran Church. As soon as visitors walk in those doors they see and hear the fruit of faith in the joyful reception you give them. Then they see and hear it among all of you as you talk, laugh, and cry with each other.

You feel each other’s pain; you lift up the one who is down. You hurt with those who hurt and mourn with those who mourn. You rejoice with those who rejoice and laugh with those who laugh. People notice this and they are blessed when they fellowship among us.

It doesn’t end in here. Go to fellowship after the Divine Service and the joy in that crowd gathered together just kind of picks you up and carries you right into Bible class. I have not seen such love and joy in any other church I’ve been a part of. This church is a loving and welcoming place to visit and an even greater place to call home.

When you keep the main thing the main thing and you do it often God does His work. And God has been working in this place. We are blessed.

Will the road ahead be easy? Of course not. Christian love and humility. Washing dirty feet, isn’t supposed to be easy or all that fun. But it’s who we are in Jesus. And we know where our hope lies and we know the power of Jesus to work in us when we gather together as one in the body of Christ to receive the sacred mystery of His body and blood given and shed to save us.

The body and blood of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper is the lifeblood of the Church. It is our fuel, it is our food, it is the strength to love as we’ve been loved and to forgive as we have been forgiven and the power to keep pushing forward in the battle of life that we may stand the test, reach the end and receive the crown. Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.