Maundy Thursday A; 04.02.26; G. Miles Smith+

1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35 

I have an indelible memory from my childhood…of my father in his postal service uniform…walking out the front door of our home…into the dark of a very early morning…when all the rest of the world was quiet and still. And him readying his car…to begin a drive across town…to where he would sort and carry the mail for the day. He was usually up from bed and long gone by the time I got up for school. But there were a few mornings…when I saw my father go to work like that. It looked like a very hard thing to do from my young perspective…such a lonely thing to do…an almost incredible thing to do. And that memory remains with me still. Maybe you have some similar memories of your own…from long ago.  

Looking back…I can definitely tell you that my father did not do that, morning after morning, for decades, because he was on a “career track” or otherwise being self-fulfilled by his work. It was hard, repetitive, daily work. But he did it to be a public servant to the people who awaited their mail, many of whom he had come to know. And he did it for my mother, me, and my sisters...because he loved us...even if he found saying it…to be unimaginable. In that way, my father--and my mother in her own way--were selflessly loving. And it may very well be that they, by their very determination to do so, planted the seed for my calling to the priesthood. 

This is a very tangible part of my experience…which helps me more deeply understand…a night like tonight...here in church. So much ink has been spilled over the millennia trying to explain Jesus in Holy Week…and his determination and suffering, the Last Supper, and the “sacrifice” of Jesus in his body and blood and death upon a cross. And yet, the simple…and yet daunting heart of it all…is like the selfless loving which we have been a witness to in lives close to our own.  

And yet, there is also a startling difference which Christians have learned to name: When Jesus was selflessly loving…he carried with him the very reality of God selflessly loving.   

Jesus wasn’t just mirroring God when he was being strong and in control. Jesus was especially God when he spoke lovingly to God the Father…and he spoke lovingly to his disciples.   

The divine presence in Jesus…dwelt in humility and the sacrifice of love…and not just in power as we usually think.  

And so, Jesus, in obedience to his Father’s love…poured himself out to the world whom the Father loved.  

The Last Supper and Jesus’ death was not--as has been imagined sometimes--some kind of cultic sacrifice to appease an angry and resentful Father. Instead, Jesus poured out his life…in the love of the Father for the world…without violence and in all humility…not even calling attention to himself…but willing to live and die for God’s love of the world.  

It was an exceedingly courageous thing for Jesus to do, trusting in God the Father…when the darkness…not of early morning…but a descending night of oblivion…was gathering about him on the night of his Last Supper. And yet Jesus persisted, with quiet determination…giving signs of his love at the Supper…even as his betrayal and loneliness in the Garden awaited him. Soon his body would be broken, bled, and entombed.  

This is what we are entering into tonight…Jesus’ humble obedience to the Father’s love. We are not entering into just an idea to toss around…we are entering into the living presence of Jesus tonight…for those who are ready to discern it.  

In a real sense, Maundy Thursday has never really ended. In this evening’s darkness, we are not, as it were, peering out a window…as distant witnesses to Jesus’ self-giving...from long ago. We are invited…to be by his side tonight…and to enter into the same way of love that exists in God.  

Sometimes in our own lives…this way of love will be lonely for us too…and painful…and if we stay the path we will eventually disappear into it.   

But this path of selflessly loving is also the very way of God…and to follow into it…in whatever way we can manage…is to find ourselves dwelling…within the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

There…entering into the endlessly selfless love of God…is the endless beginning…of new possibilities…and even…the resurrection of the dead.