Do You Know What I Have Done to You - Maundy Thursday 2018 — Michael Flowers

Jesus’ Question: What Has He Done to Us?

As I was meditating on this text this week, I couldn't get away from the question that Jesus asked, Do you know what I have done to you? We typically think of Jesus and all that he's done for us. But having done for us, he wants to do stuff to us.

And that's a very crude way of saying it, but having walked with the Lord, I always come into this place where I find him doing things to me, with me, based on all of these things that he's done for me.

Maundy Thursday and the New Commandment

Well, let's look at this text a little bit tonight and contemplate some of these mysteries. Tonight is Maundy Thursday. It's also called Holy Thursday. Maundy is that it's taken from the Latin word Mandatum.

It's kind of like the word mandate, mandatory. It's where we get these words. Commandment is what it actually means. This is the night that Christ gives the new commandment. In verse 34, it says of Jesus, a new commandment, I give to you that you love one another, not just any kind of love, just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another. And then he says the world is going to have the right to judge whether we're doing it. Whether we're his disciples or not, whether we're believable, he says in verse 35, by this.

All people will know, the world will know, everybody's going to know that you're my disciples. Based on one thing, not memorizing the creeds and, you know, being a liturgical aficionado, it's easier to be a liturgical aficionado than it is to do this.

By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you. There's so much packed into this one short night, it's an iconic moment. God, who created the heavenly bodies and humankind.

The Divine Son Washes Dirty Feet

Kneels down in front of a human being. And washes dirt. Off his feet, what he does outwardly in washing dirty feet. He really recalls the effectual grace of what happens in our baptism. A circumcision not made with hands, as it were, Paul says, to restore us in that blessed communion back to the father would have been broken through sin.

Jesus is about restored communion with the father. He wants to take us all back to the father's house where he's returning. And there's some things that has to happen in order for that to occur. This is what it's all about.

Now, he's expressing in exemplary form, in visual form. What he's come to do inwardly. In his death and in his resurrection. It is to wash the human person, the washing of the water of the word. His question to us is, do we know what he's done to us?

Freedom Through Christ’s Cleansing

That's his question tonight. Do you know what he's done to you? Based on what he's done for you. And Derek, always in listening to the Lord. And what hims to choose. In this question tonight from Jesus is answered with the last two lines, thou alone shall be my glory.

Nothing in this world I see. Here it is. Thou has cleansed and sanctified me. Thou thyself has set me free. He himself has set us free. That's what he's done to us. That's a progressive freedom as we walk more and more with Jesus, we find chains dropping off day by day, sometimes year by year.

I still have a whole host of chains behind me. I go, wow, there's another one. Clink. You know, thank you, Lord. Thank you so much. And there's so much more. There's so many more to be in that trail behind me.

Judas, Thirty Pieces of Silver, and the Love Slave

But that's his promise. When Jesus knew that his hour had come, speaking of the cross to depart out of this world to the father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Well, that phrase and during supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him.

Parenthetically, he was betrayed with 30 pieces of silver, Judas, right? Do you know what price that is? That's the price of a slave in the Old Testament. That's how much Jesus was worth to Judas. And yet what is Jesus about to illustrate none other than he is a slave.

He's a love slave. He's enslaved to love. That's all he is.

The Incarnation Revealed in Humble Service

God is love. God doesn't love. He is love. He doesn't have to try. He be love. I be love. I be.

And be loves. And this is what Jesus is trying to illustrate to us tonight. He's illustrating his identity and his mission in the divine son taking on human flesh. He's giving a visual as to his nature and meaning of what follows in the trial and the crucifixion, because it says this during the supper, he laid aside his garments.

Oh, speaking of the incarnation, my brothers and sisters, emptying himself and coming down and becoming a human person, even a slave, taking a towel, he tied it around his waist. This laying aside of his divine glory is the picture here in becoming a human being, but not just any human being, not like Caesar or Pilate, but at the lowest of the lowest.

Peter’s Resistance to the Washing

Not any rabbi would do this, and this is why Peter objects, no, teacher, rabbis don't do this. You will not wash my feet, Jesus says in verse seven, and this should have gotten through. But, you know, the Lord has to do this with us all the time, I think.

Hey, what I'm doing, you do not understand now. You ever felt that way? What he's doing, you don't understand now. We walk by faith and not by sight, what I'm doing, you do not understand now, but afterwards you'll get it.

You'll understand. Peter, like us, intensifies his objection and says, you will never wash my feet, you're not going to do this, this is not who you are, it's so out of place. And Jesus gives him the consequences.

OK, no share in me. No inheritance. Nothing. If I don't do this. He offends our pride to reveal our hearts, right? Yeah. Peter says, wash me all over, please. OK, I can't handle that. That's utter rejection.

You know, Jesus trumped his rejection with a bigger one. OK, fine. Do your own thing. Now, this is no longer about the dirt. The grime of everyday life, is it? This is about the soul, this is about the inner person, this is about our lives, this is about purification, sanctification, restoring the image of God, the means of transformation.

Transformation, Self-Denial, and Faith

Just as he transformed the bread and the wine into his body and blood that night is a picture of the transformation as we eat his body and drink his blood that we experience in the doing. It's powerful.

What he instituted that night is a transformative event so he could have a transformative people. Don't you long to be transformed? And it's only Jesus, it's only Jesus that can do that in us. There's enough resistance in me with what he wants to do to me that sometimes it's better not to know what he wants to do to me.

Because that's going to hurt, it's going to take some self-denial, it's going to take some walking and turning and and walking by faith, not by sight, that's what it's going to take sometimes. And so it's easier to go for the immediate, the tangible, the visible, the fast payoff.

Raised and Seated with Christ

Right. And so in verse 12, it says. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, think about it, what is he saying, what is he giving us a picture of? He said to them, do you know what I have done to you now?

He asked that question after he washes their feet. And he puts on his he puts on his outer garments and he resumes his place. The resurrection and the ascension. It's what I see in this, brothers and sisters, yes, the resurrection and the ascension.

In light of that, do you know what I have done to you? You have been raised with Christ and seated in heavenly places. That's what he does to us. He changes our address. Well, do you know what I have done to you?

Christ’s Return to the Father’s House

This is the big question, isn't it? It's the big question that keeps coming up every moment in every Christian's life. He puts on his outer garments and resumes his place, a picture of his resurrection and ascension, taking us with us, seating us with him in heavenly places, co-heirs with Jesus Christ, all because of what's happening these three days that we're moving into.

He assumes the glory he had before the world began and he's praying that in John 17 in the same upper room, in the same gospel, just savoring to be back in that place with the father, the father's house.

But he's coming back with sons and daughters. He's not coming back alone to the father's house. Right. And so the cross that we're looking at tonight, tomorrow, Holy Saturday is that's the way to this restored glory.

Foot Washing as Divine Hospitality

There's no bypassing this, this washing of feet in this story. It's a prophetic act of divine hospitality in the father's house. We must be cleansed upon entering the father's house. And it's the divine son who does so without without this washing.

We will have no share in him. That scared Peter to death. And it extinguished his objections. And I'm thinking of divine hospitality and foot washing, not only in just the Middle Eastern culture, but all that this symbolizes.

The Sinful Woman’s Hospitality to Jesus

And I'm thinking of another story that I dialed up that came to mind, divine hospitality, the washing of feet. There was a sinful woman that washed the feet of Jesus one time. He had to be he happened to be in the house of a Pharisee.

And when he walked into that house, he was given no signs of hospitality and acceptance because the first thing that should have happened when he walked into that house was to have his feet washed. And the Pharisee didn't wash his feet.

He would have kissed him, the kiss of peace, the kiss of greeting, and then he would have put oil on his head. And so this woman was there. I don't know how she got in to a Pharisee's house. That's not a party I care to go to.

I'd rather go to Matthew's parties than the Pharisee's parties. Right. She brings this alabaster jar of perfume with her. This is a woman in that town who had lived a sinful life, learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house.

It's the word on the street. And so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Jesus at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. And then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

And now when this Pharisee who invited him saw this, he said to himself, this man were a prophet. He would know who is touching him. See, this Pharisee doesn't know that whoever Jesus touches is cleansed, set free.

He can touch lepers and he's not ceremonial unclean. Right. He restores all he touches, but he doesn't know who is touching him. Of course, he doesn't know who's in his house and what kind of woman she is.

She's a sinner. Oh, my goodness. Jesus gives a parable. I'll spare that. And then the question comes from Jesus to Simon. Do you see this woman? And in my notes, I put C in all caps. Because we fail to see a lot of people right in front of our eyes.

Forgiveness, Love, and Faith

Because of this thing in the Pharisee's house, we can't see this woman. Sometimes any better than this Pharisee could. Do you see this woman? I came into your house and you did not give me any water for my feet.

But she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn't give me a kiss. This woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven. This woman is cleansed. This woman is ready to enter in to the father's house. Her many sins have been forgiven. Did she ask for forgiveness? No, I don't see it in the story.

As her great love has shown, here we go. This is tying into the new commandment tonight, you see. For whoever has been forgiven, little loves little. And whoever's been forgiven, much loves much. And then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven.

Who is this who forgives sins? They begin to ask, Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. And so tonight, Jesus gives us a new commandment. And if you pull that out of the context of where he's at and what he's done, it sounds like another law that we can't pull off.

The Supernatural Meal and Cleansing

But he gives us supernatural bread. He gives us a supernatural meal, his very own body and blood. And he cleanses us and he washes us as we renew our baptism on a daily basis, really. And this Easter vigil, we're going to all renew our baptism again.

We're going to renew that cleansing fountain that is never running dry and is always cleansing us and washing us through the washing of the water of the word. And so there's that supernatural meal and there's a supernatural cleansing so that we can live a supernatural love to love as Jesus loves.

That's the only way we can do it. If we allow him to wash our feet, do you know what he has done to you? That's what he's asking tonight, and he wants to come once again and do that very thing to us tonight through his body, his very members here tonight.

The Congregation Enacts Christ’s Servant Love

We're going to have three basins of water up here tonight. I will be at one basin. Liz will be at another basin. We're going to have another chair here with a basin of water and it's set aside for anyone that wants to wash someone else's feet.

And we've never done this before, but we just want to experiment with that just to see if that's something that the Holy Spirit is doing with us tonight, that you could actually go to a brother or sister and say, may I wash your feet?

Now, this is all optional, of course. No one, not everyone in here has to have their feet washed or anything like that. I don't want to put that on you, but I want to invite you. It is an invitation. What we're going to do is that we're going to worship while this is happening and it's going to be in the spirit of the sinful woman washing the feet of Jesus.

It's worship, it's worship. So thank you, Lord. We give you glory and honor and praise that the God who flung the stars into existence kneels down. And washes our feet, not only our feet, but our hearts, our very bodies.

Restoration to Sonship and Daughterhood

And restores us back to sonship and daughterhood in Christ. Because of this great work of redemption that you have done for us in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.