Image: Christus, from Passionary of the Christ and Antichrist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1521.
April 17, 2025: Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
A long time ago in a faraway land, the people of Israel witnessed an epic clash between two rival lords. On one side was the Pharaoh of Egypt. This pharaoh, like all pharaohs before and after him, considered himself a god. In his realm, he exercised powers of life and death. His word was law. To cross the pharaoh meant courting one’s own demise. On the other side was the mysterious God of the Israelites, who reveals Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM”.
This I AM sent Moses to accomplish the impossible—the liberation of God’s people from Pharaoh’s dominion. This God, the great I AM, led Israel “with a mighty hand and outstretched arm”. This God gave Israel bread from heaven in the desert and water from the rock. And despite their unfaithfulness, God remained faithful to them. Every year, observant Jews remember God’s faithfulness in the Passover meal. Every year, they celebrate their release from the cruel Pharaoh whose weapons were slavery, torture, and death, and the gift of a new, free life in the one true Lord and God—the great I AM.
Much later, after a meal the evening before the Passover, Jesus revealed more to his disciples about true Lordship—about true authority and power. And that authority and power is revealed most clearly not in revenge. Not in military might. Not in domination of one’s enemies. But in a self-emptying love that is faithful to the end.
Think of what happens that night. In the days of dusty roads and poor footwear, every self-respecting householder would have water available for footwashing. Poorer households would invite guests to wash their own feet, but wealthier ones would have a slave wash. In washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus, the Lord of life and Author of creation, takes the role of a household slave. He washes their feet, not merely as an act of service. Not simply a nice thing to do. But as representative of his Lordship, his work, and his mission to liberate the world from all false lords, now carried forward by us contemporary disciples.
But sometimes we are seduced by these false lords. False lords have been around since the dawn of human history, but now we only need to open our social media accounts, turn on the news, or read the newspaper (assuming anyone reads the news anymore) to see these false lords at work, in every part of human life. And I mean everywhere. They’re in the workplace to the church to all levels of government. And as Jesus once said, we know them by their fruits: intimidation, bullying, threats, unwillingness to dialogue, gratuitous use of force, dehumanizing others, and at root, a willful refusal to see oneself as a human among humans. In other words, there are pharaohs aplenty in our world doing the exact same things that pharaohs did four thousand years ago. Little wonder Psalm 146 issues this warning: “Put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.”
But our triune God is not like the pharaohs of yesteryear or today. God is utterly unlike any other human leader. This God is not defined by His domination of the world, but by his love of it. This love is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, who washes the feet of all his disciples, even the one who would betray him. Even on the eve of his murder at the hands of the pharaohs of his day—of the religious leaders and Pilate—Jesus shows his disciples his determination to be in a relationship of mutual agape love with humanity. This love is not demanding but inviting. This love is not based on fear but on faith. And this love will be revealed on the cross, where Jesus, the Lord of all, will open his arms to all. As he will say to the crowd in John 12: “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”
And Jesus’s invitation is offered to you tonight. Jesus invites you to his table, where he will feed us once again with the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation. Jesus invites us, yet again, to abide in him. To wash the feet of others, so to speak, as he has washed our feet. And Jesus also invites us to recognize today’s pharaohs for the false lords they are. Whatever trouble they cause in the world, Jesus has already won the victory. Jesus has already triumphed over all things which separate us from his Father. And Jesus will welcome us all who abide in him into his Father’s house. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.