Pastor Sarah R. Cordray
Luther Memorial Church
Maundy Thursday, April 2, 2015
John 13.1-17, 34-35
Really a Towel?
I remember when I was preparing to say goodbye to the very first
congregation I ever served as I was their youth director for five
years. I had done everything with these people and it almost felt
like I was leaving my family. We had grown together sharing
meals, staying up all night on over 30 lock-ins, sharing in their
tears and their celebrations. Even one family I spent a Christmas
with them. When it came down the last week before I was to
depart to seminary, I began to be showered with parting gifts, but
I will never forget one of the craziest, most special gifts I have
ever received. Mark came into my office one afternoon as I was
packing and said, “Here Sarah. I know you won’t know how to use
one of these, but I still want you to have it.” I opened up the gift
and there it was…pliers. I said, “You’re right Mark, wouldn’t know
what to do with it!”
1
He said, “Trust me you will. When you are willing to get down and
work hard with your people, you will know.” It was then that he
showed me the inscription, “To Sarah-a servant in Christ.”
I am sure I had much the same reaction that the disciples did this
day that their Lord, Jesus gives them a parting gift. The disciples
knew that this night was special-the night before the Passover.
They knew also that they would only be with Jesus a little while
longer. And I am sure they were hoping for some type of parting
gift like the Old Testament prophet Elijah gave his apprentice
Elisa before Elijah was swept up into the heavens. Elijah gave
Elisa the parting gift of his mantle of authority, which he used to
part the waters of the Jordan River. As soon as he received it,
Elisa tried the same and parted the waters also. But for the
disciples, such a parting gift would not be.
2
Instead Jesus took off his outer robe, tied a towel around himself,
poured the water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’
feet. There was no blazing mantle of authority that could part
waters; there was simply the parting gift of a towel.
Really, a towel? Jesus gives a towel…the very thing that is used
to dry dishes, wash children, wipe tables, clean wounds, cool
fevers, warm aching joints, mop up sweat, blot away tears? Jesus
mantle of authority he passes on is a tool of service—of practical,
daily, unglamorous service? Indeed Jesus gives a towel that he
uses as his tool to teach the disciples and us one last lesson on
receiving in humility, serving in love, and revealing God’s glory.
First lesson…receiving in humility. Receiving in humility comes
when one empties oneself of pride. Peter empties himself of pride
this night. When Jesus comes to wash his feet, Peter is
embarrassed to have his highly respected teacher wash his feet.
3
Like Peter, many of us resist the same vulnerability…the act of
being humbled to have another care for us. Peter and we would
rather remain in control and choose what gifts we will accept, yet
a fundamental fact of our humanness is our dependency. God
created us to depend upon God to receive from God our very
livelihood.
Second lesson…serving in love. Jesus commands his disciples to
follow his example. After they feel what it is like to be on the
receiving end of things, they are asked to respond and serve on
the other end of things. Jesus says, “Do you know what I have
done to you? If I have washed your feet, you also out to wash one
another’s feet.” Jesus calls us to live in a servant love that is
about others first. He explains to his disciples and us that if we do
things, we will be blessed. I truly don’t believe Jesus means
blessed with rewards, but rather blessed with something much
deeper…as deep as the love that will give his life for us all.
4
I believe we will be blessed with joy…a joy we will live as Easter
people in just a few days when God’s love wins over death.
The final lesson…revealing God’s glory. To glorify God is to
reveal God. When Jesus bends down to wash his disciples’ feet,
he reveals a God who comes to love us not through power and
might, but through a love that gets down and serves. Jesus
reveals a God that is willing to give it all, even his life, so that the
ones he loves will live in this love now and forever. It is such a
love that fully reveals God’s glory. It is such a love that we are
given to share and when we share, we experience heaven on
earth…God’s kingdom come. God’s glory is revealed in humble
serving love that blesses this world and blesses you.
You are blessed this day with a parting gift in a towel…really a
towel that is only the beginning of God’s new life poured over you
and this world God so loves. And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”
5