Homily for Maundy Thursday 2025
Tonight, on this Maundy Thursday, we are reminded of feeding and washing. We have the direct teaching - on the feeding of the Holy Eucharist - in our Epistle for tonight. At the same time, our Gospel for tonight alludes to the mystical washing - Holy Baptism - that would become a direct commandment after Our Lord's resurrection. Recall Jesus' words in the moments preceding his Ascension - “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” In some mystical sense, we experience Our Lord's presence through His sacraments. Indeed, he continues to be with us in baptism and in the Holy Eucharist - even unto the end of the world.
We call to mind tonight Our Lord's self-giving love even as he anticipated the agony of the crucifixion. While most of us would be thinking of ourselves, maybe contemplating with no small amount of self-pity the suffering we would be embracing, Jesus was instituting gifts and pledges of His love for us: Sacraments, more specifically, what are called "Gospel Sacraments" - those commanded by Jesus in the Gospels to be practiced in His Church until He comes again. They confer grace to those who receive them rightly, giving us strength to grow in godliness, to be sustained in obedience. For God never gives his people commandments without giving them the power to be obedient.
So, in our Epistle, St. Paul instructs his "trouble children" in Corinth about the Holy Communion. In the verses preceding our Epistle, St. Paul is correcting the Corinthians on their divisions and heresies. Moreover, their divisions and their theological perversions are evident in what the Corinthians called the Lord's Supper.
The rich are banqueting while the poor are hungry. The affluent were over-indulging in wine and were drunk. St. Paul corrects them by reminding them that disregarding the poor is particularly shameful in the house of God. Instead, they need to understand the purpose of the institution of the Lord's Supper - the Holy Eucharist. In doing so, St. Paul distills the elements, the liturgy of the Holy Communion. Words that are at the core of our celebration - every time we have Holy Communion. Paul reminds the Corinthians that he had passed on to them that which he received of Jesus Christ - either from direct revelation similar to the direct address that Paul received on the road to Damascus or from a reliable tradition that he had received related to Our Lord's institution. Notice that Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, then instructed them to eat, for the bread was his Body broken for them. In the same manner, the cup of wine became a new testament in his blood.
The bread and wine remain in their physical sense bread and wine, but through their offering up in obedience to Christ's institution, they become, in some mystical sense, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We do not define the nature of Christ's presence in the elements but state that Christ is present for the full benefit of the soul who faithfully receives them.
Throughout this passage, Our Lord uses the word "remembrance". Remembrance in English does not give us the fullness of what the term "anamnesis" communicates in Greek. Remembrance is not my subjective bringing to mind of what Christ did, as helpful as this may be. Instead, we are pleading for God to remember us through Jesus Christ. For God the Father, to look on Jesus, the great mediator, the truly holy and obedient one and remember what he promised to do for us through Our Lord's objective sacrifice for sin.
Recall God's promise to Noah in the sign of the rainbow - God said he would see the rainbow and remember his promise not to destroy the world again with water. Here, in our Epistle, In bread and wine, the body and the blood, God promises to see Our Lord's once-for-all perfect sacrifice and forget our sins. Separating our sins by His unfailing covenant as far as the East is from the West. Jesus, in the institution of the Holy Eucharist, on this Maundy Thursday, is giving a commandment to us to re-present to God through our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving His promise to forgive our sins. To remind us also to be living sacrifices eager for the Lord's coming again in glory.
The Eucharist is premised on eating and drinking, the events that characterize our existence in the present. We must eat and drink to live. Therefore, the Eucharist is to be an ongoing part of our life as Christians - being fed regularly with Christ.
The Gospel for tonight speaks to the singular event of Holy Baptism. The washing is a sign of God's unmerited favor, making us acceptable to Him by His own action. In the great liturgy of Easter Vigil, the narrative begins with the story of Israel's baptism through the Red Sea - a theme St. Paul picks up on in I Corinthians 10. Passing through the Red Sea was testimony to God's power to save and his goodness in doing so. Israel did not know the significance of the Red Sea until afterwards when God explained why he had saved them. Their obedience in the Wilderness was a response to their redemption, being new people redeemed from Egypt.
In our Gospel from John 13, Jesus washes his disciples' feet. He takes the role of a servant and cleans the dirtiest part of their bodies - their feet. We read that the Lord comes to Peter and Peter refuses to accept Jesus’ servanthood, for it was repulsive to him because Peter knew he should be the servant and not Jesus.
Yet, Peter must accept Christ's cleansing on his behalf to have any part with him. Our Lord promises that what he is doing at the present in the washing will not be understood immediately, for Jesus will accomplish complete forgiveness of all sins on the Cross. When it is finished, Peter will realise the significance of what Christ had done. Once again, Peter refused - Lord, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus brings it back to the core issue - unless Peter allows Jesus to clean him, he will have no part with Our Lord. These are the conditions of discipleship that Jesus dictates as servant-Lord and not vice versa. Peter overreacts as is typical and commands the Lord to wash everywhere else. Jesus brings him again to the issue - when one has been cleaned completely, only the feet need to be washed. Cleansing occurs in baptism, and the actions of engaging with and being contaminated by the world - represented by the feet - are those that need cleansing.
Sanctification, the on-going purification of those baptized into Christ Jesus and living in faith and repentance in obedience to His commands, is an ongoing responsibility of the Christian. Indeed, we are called to wash each other's feet - Christ modelled it, and we are called to do what the symbol represents.
In ancient times, bishops and kings would wash the feet of beggars on this day. That is commendable, but what is Jesus speaking about? Augustine says it best - This act is done literally by many, when they receive one another in hospitality. For it is unquestionably better that it should be done with the hands, and that the Christian disdain not to do what Christ did. For when the body is bent at the feet of a brother, the feeling of humility is made to rise in the heart, or, if it be there already, is confirmed. But besides this moral meaning, is not a brother able to change a brother from the pollution of sin? Let us confess our faults one to another, forgive one another's faults, pray for one another's faults. In this way we shall wash one another's feet.
So, on this Maundy Thursday, let us give thanks for the Gospel Sacraments - one that washes us in the sacrament of grace and the other that strengthens us in daily service to our heavenly King. Praise God, who provides cleansing for sin and a constant reminder of Christ's righteousness before God the Father. Let us meditate on His suffering through the lens of thanksgiving. May we submit ourselves moment by moment to washing each other's feet in confession, forgiveness, prayer and practical helps. Amen.