SERMON | John 13:1-17, 31b-35 | IN AWE OF GRACE - Maundy Thursday "Commanded to Love" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Sellersburg United Methodist Church in Sellersburg, Indiana

SERMON | John 13:1-17, 31b-35 | IN AWE OF GRACE - Maundy Thursday "Commanded to Love" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Sellersburg United Methodist Church in Sellersburg, Indiana

Jesus seized the opportunity to love his disciples…his friends…

because why wouldn’t he?

THIS is God glorified.

to give of God’s self for God’s children.

The foot-washing is just a small example of what Jesus was about to do the next day.

Is there any greater love than to lay down your life for your friends on the cross?

Is there any nobler act than to wash the feet and die for those who betray you and fasten you to the instrument that will kill you

Yet…that’s what Jesus did.

He washed their feet that night and he would die for them the next day.

And none of them understood.

Most would abandon him.

One would deny him.

Another would betray.

And yet…here he is this night…washing their feet and preparing to die tomorrow.

As I have loved you, love one another.

We will take of Holy Communion tonight to REMEMBER how Jesus loved us.

Not just to take and eat and ritualize it to a once a year or once a month thing.

Let’s see the foot-washing and Holy Communion for what they really were:

an invitation into an entirely new way to live a life of LOVE.

Jesus shows us LOVE

and then invites us to live into this love for others…

not one night a year, but in every opportunity we can find to break from the routine and norm and SERVE each other out of love.

What would our communities look like if every Christian decided to start loving like Jesus?

EVERYONE would experience a love they wouldn’t understand either.

Some would overreact one way to such an experience.

Others would overreact in another way.

There would be confusion…

there would be betrayal…

there would be denial…

But what if our LOVE, the love we’ve come to know from Jesus, outlasted all reactions?

What if the church became ONLY a place where people love each other in ways that we were constantly lowering ourselves to one another…because…

why shouldn’t we?

why wouldn’t we?

We are commanded to love

As we take of the elements…and as we serve each other…

Let us remember what Jesus did during the supper for each disciple…

and let us remember what Jesus did the next day for everyone across time and space.

Let us REMEMBER…and let our remembrance lead us into the new life to which we are called.