Do you still not know Me?
Welcome to OnMission.
Today we're invited into the upper room for the last supper and we hear Jesus ask, “Do you still not know me?” We watch and listen as He takes the images of Exodus and covenant to lead us forward to new life. He offers us a new covenant; a covenant of Love in a Kingdom founded on Love given to all who know Him.
But first, as we turn to God’s Word, let’s begin in prayer:
Merciful God, as we turn now to Your Holy Word and
as we reflect together on that evening when Jesus ate His last supper with His friends,
show us Jesus. Give us open eyes, eyes that see – we want to know Jesus.
We pray in His Name and in the power of God the Holy Spirit. Amen
Our Bible reading today is found in the Gospel inspired in John chapter 13:1-15:
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to His Father. He had loved His disciples during His ministry on earth, and now He loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.
When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to Him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to Me.”
Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what He meant when He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
After washing their feet, He put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.
Now here's today's reflection entitled, Do you still not know Me?
This past Sunday, we imagined encountering Jesus in a very public space.
We imagined standing together on the walls of Jerusalem as chaos and turmoil swept through the crowd.
We heard how the question “Who is this?” inflamed the people.
Who was the source of this turmoil? It was Jesus.
The appearance of Love and pure righteousness among us was like placing a new brilliant white cloth beside one that had fallen to the dust and filth.
Yes, our cloth was laundered and we’ve done our best to hide the stains, but standing against His perfect brilliant white, the filth is there for all to see … the faults and failings are stark and undeniable.
With the appearance of Jesus, our sin stands stark against His sinlessness.
As brilliant Light reveals the lies we project and the truths we have carefully hidden in the shadows of our hearts there is turmoil – as our nature is revealed and sin stands stark and undeniable, there is chaos as we strive to preserve our dignity and our carefully laundered public image.
And as so often happens in this world when sin is made obvious and when guilt becomes known, the world jumps at the opportunity to judge and condemn; and as people, stained and guilty mount their defence they blame, deflect and deceive in self-preservation. Indignation is the response, not repentance. Retribution, not confession. Condemnation, not Grace, mercy or Love.
That day in Jerusalem, with traditions, culture, national pride and personal identity revealed as stained and corrupt, against the presence of Jesus the question “Who is this?” burned through the crowd.
Perhaps people‘s first thoughts might have been expectations of profit, power and prosperity; is that what this approaching messiah is all about?
But when these expectations themselves convict us, another stain in the fabric of our souls, the conclusion and cries “this Jesus must“ die soon replace the songs of Hosanna.
As we read the Gospel accounts of this week, we hear Jesus teach the Way of God that stands in such stark contrast to our ways.
We see miracles and we witness attempts to entrap Jesus - yet with each attempt, the brilliant white of His pure holiness shines brighter and His Light shines deeper into our darkness.
The Way of God, the gift of pure Love was shunned among us as the conspiracy to kill Jesus took shape - the murder was justified and rationalized as necessary and good - this one Man must die that many might live.
This prophetic conclusion is heavy with irony and contradiction. Evil is called good. Wrong is right. Truth is blasphemy.
As we follow the events of that momentous turbulent week we see how perfectly Jesus knows us.
He knows our deepest hidden thoughts.
He knows our lusts and desires.
He knows each motivation.
He knows our idols.
He knows our innermost being.
He knows how we will choose to respond to Him.
He knows each stain we think we’ve hidden.
He knows, yet still, He Loves us.
Today, we are invited into an intimate space. To an upper room and a meal shared among a close group of friends.
The sun is setting; the light recedes.
Beyond that room darkness shrouds Jerusalem.
A conspiracy to murder begins to unfold. Agents are deployed. Lies are rehearsed as death whispers in the hearts of men.
In the room, around that table images of Israel’s Exodus are spoken, amplified and now radiate with new reimagined meaning.
As the moment of the cross approaches, we are given glimpses of the new Exodus, the One like Moses freeing God’s people from the ultimate bonds of death in sin. He leads the redeemed to abundant life; the promised land where God tabernacles among His beloved people.
Jesus is the manna. Born as a man in Bethlehem - the town‘s name means house of bread - He is the true Bread of Heaven given that we might live.
And there is bread broken and eaten, a memorial of unleavened sinless Bread, His Body given just as He said that day when so many abandoned Him! The Word made flesh is for us; living and active among us. His Body is broken for each of us - receive, eat, remember.
We hear of sacrificial lambs. The lambs born in Bethlehem and killed by priests in Jerusalem in atonement for sin, just as Jesus was (and would be) the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
There is the Paschal Lamb - its blood taken to mark God’s people and save them from death. This wine is the blood of the new covenant, His blood marking those redeemed from sin and saved from eternal death. Receive, drink, remember.
A new covenant is established; offered again, exchanged for the broken, abused old covenants.
Yet the precept remains unchanged:
“What does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to Love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the precepts and statutes of the LORD.[1]
Love each other as I have Loved you.[2]
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you Love one another.[3]
All these images form a mosaic of multifaceted religious and cultural ideas, rituals and images - a mosaic drawn from ancient words breathed by God now taking shape and brought into splendid focus in Jesus.
A focus soon to be made even sharper as it is reconceived upon a sinners’ cross; Christ’s death on that rebel‘s cross recontextualizing the covenants and constitutions received as commands of Law in Israel’s Exodus; now redefined, unified and perfected in this new Exodus from sin.
Here is God’s true covenant, constituted in Grace and established in Love. A covenant sealed in Christ – in His Body given – in His Blood shed - receive, hold, remember.
Around that table, there are fears, doubts, betrayals, ignorance, ambition, jealousies, frailty, deceit, pride, greed, idolatry, and hidden questions.
These followers who gathered with Jesus that night were fallen; infected and corrupted in the sin born of Eve as all of us are. They don’t yet understand, but only one will be lost.
We must never forget, that Jesus standing among them is God.
He knows. He sees into their hearts then just as He sees into our hearts now - nothing is hidden.
He knows this faithless and perverse generation.
He knows each stain that marks their souls.
He knows the political ambitions of John and James.
He knows the pride, aggression, competitiveness and jealousies in each of these twelve.
He knows Philip‘s uncertainty.
He knows Thomas‘ doubts.
He knows Peter’s ego and bravado and the coming denials.
He knows their deceptions.
He knows their fear.
He knows their greed.
He knows the unbelief that belies their words.
He knows all their betrayals and He knows the one who will not repent and so is lost.
He has taught them, but He knows the lessons have not yet taken hold of them.
“What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”[4]
“You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.“[5]
Jesus knows the question, “Who is this?“ still echoes among them. “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me?... Do you not believe?“[6]
Jesus provides the example. The only Way. The only Truth. The only Life that leads to restoration to God.[7]
What is the example? Having Loved His own who were in the world, He Loved them to the end.[8]
As time runs short, what is the lesson He leaves to echo in the ears of these men even as they abandon, deny and betray Him?
If you Love Me, you will keep my precepts.[9] ... Love one another: just as I have Loved you, you also are to Love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have Love for one another.[10]
Abide in my Love. If you keep my precepts, you will abide in My Love, ... Love one another as I have Loved you. Greater Love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.[11]
This is the covenant of the new Exodus.
As Jesus rises and washes each disciples‘ feet we witness the Way He calls us to follow. From those who doubt to those who deny – from those who betray to those who worship things of this world - He washes each of them – He serves them all,[12] - He Loves them all.
Here is the first as last – the leader the servant of all – the cheek turned - the extra mile walked – the evil endured ... the unloveable Loved so the dead might have Life.
Here is Love that endures all, surrenders all, and sacrifices all to give life.
This is His example to His followers. This is His Way. This is His great Love lived as a man. This is how His followers will Love each other and Live.
As we witness Jesus wash the feet of fallen sinful men, we see a deeper meaning, a more persistent call to a new covenant revealed by Love.
Amen.
Let us pray:
Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us – we want to know You.
Cast us not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from us – we want to be with You.
Restore to us the joy of Your salvation, and uphold us with a willing free spirit – we want to Love You and worship only You.
Open our eyes, our ears and hearts to You.
We pray in the Name of Jesus and in the power of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen
[1] Deuteronomy 6:12-13
[2] John 13:34, 15:12, 15:17,
[3] John 13:35
[4] John 13:7
[5] John 13:13
[6] John 14:9-10
[7] John 14:6
[8] John 13:1
[9] John 14:15
[10] John 13:34-35
[11] John 15:12-14
[12] Matthew 23:11, 20:26 cf Mark 9:35, 10:43