Passion of the Christ - Communion (part one) ...

After opening his gospel with a prologue, and spending a great deal of time discussing at length all of the miraculous witnesses to the divinity of Christ; John now turns his attention to the fulfillment of the ministry of the Messiah.  Though miracles would still be a significant part of the completion of the mission of Jesus, the idea of the magnitude of His sacrifice warrants our undivided attention.  The time of His mission was nearly complete.  He would only be with them a short while now.  The immediacy and the priority of what He must share with His few faithful companions, His friends as He called them, was now of paramount importance.  These final hours would be the thing most prevalent in their minds as events were about to unfold.  So only the most important truths must be shared.  Everything else could wait, everything else could be discovered later, or revealed by the work of the Holy Spirit.  What He must share with His disciples now, had to be what was of utmost importance as time was nearly at an end.  Against this backdrop, Jesus begins by sharing the most important thing between God and man, He shares communion.

Communion is more than a tradition of the newly established Christian church.  It is fellowship between God and man.  As time is nearly out, Christ takes precious moments to “be” with His disciples.  As He used to enjoy His walks with Adam and Eve in the Garden at sunset, and even set aside an entire day to be “Holy” just to be with us; so now He takes out a moment to simply “be” with His disciples.  They will eat, drink, and commune together.  From the point of view of the disciples this is a celebration of the feast of Passover.  From the point of view of the Messiah, this is the last meal He will ever enjoy with His disciples.  With all the burden that must come upon Him in just a few short hours, He makes time to be with His disciples and speak, and do, what is most important to them.  John sets the stage for us, in his gospel account beginning in chapter 13.  It is the time for the feast of Passover, but John puts his emphasis on the truth of the character of Christ.

He opens in verse 1 saying … “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”  The love of Christ never wavered.  He loved all of His disciples right up to the end of His life.  That love was paramount.  That love was the reason why He had come to our world.  Jesus did not restrict His love to only those disciples He knew would be faithful to Him in all things.  If He had so restricted it; who would have been left to enjoy the meal with Him?  For all deserted Him in His time of greatest need.  Judas was at this dinner.  Judas enjoyed this meal with His Lord like John, Peter, and all the rest of them.  Jesus did not restrict His love to Judas even knowing what Judas was about to do.  Nor did He restrict His love from Peter knowing how Peter would deny Him openly.  Both dined.  Both enjoyed the company of their Lord.

But John, with the benefit of hindsight, writes now what he knows about that night.  He continues in verse 2 … “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;”  Judas had too long refused to be changed by the Messiah he spent his every waking moment with.  His greed and avarice, and thirst for power and prominence had never given way to the simplicity of humble service that the life of Christ exemplified.  That life was not the one Judas wanted.  Judas wanted the life of a great leader.  He wanted the power and fame that comes from a position of authority.  He was not alone in his ambitions.  Right up to these moments the disciples often jockeyed for position in who would be the next greatest leader in the kingdom of Christ.  Judas was no different in that respect, if perhaps only in that he was more ambitious and more secretive about his own desires.  What he was not; was transformed.  He lacked the humility to be transformed.  He was “happy” with who he was, and only wanted more of it, not less.  In that respect, does he sound like the person in the mirror who stares back at you every day?  Are you so comfortable with “who” you are, that you believe you need no transformation into something else, something more humble, something resembling more of servant and less of a king?

Christ had a knowledge of the thoughts and desires of His disciples.  He knew that what Judas wanted was not so different than any of the others, though only Judas was willing to betray His Lord to acquire it.  John continues in verse 3 by revealing what Jesus knew … “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;”  His death is nearly upon Him.  His mission is nearly complete.  So does He finally accept the glory and praise He is due?  Does He seek out the people to praise Him, for the act of sacrifice He is about to perform for them?  Wouldn’t we?  We seek praise for our accomplishments.  We seek adoration when we do something good for others, if only to remind us of how good we are.  Yet Christ makes no such moves.  Instead John continues with what He does with time so short, and burden so high.

John relays in verse 4 … “He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. [verse 5] After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.”  He served.  He took upon Himself the most humiliating duty of a servant and performed this act of humility on those who SHOULD have done it for Him.  Their feet were dirty.  Their feet were smelly.  They had no Dr. Scholls to reduce the smell, or orthodic shoes to protect their feet from the dirt, mud, and animal waste they must walk upon.  They had only sandals of rough leather to protect them from dusty, rocky roads.  They had no chance to bath regularly, or rub oils on their feet, or keep themselves well maintained.  Yet Christ who considered Himself willing, was willing to wash and dry the feet of these men.  All of them.  Judas included as well as Peter.  Jesus stooped to serve the one who would choose to be His enemy.  He did not restrict His love from Judas, nor did He refrain from serving one who would choose to do evil.  Every opportunity would be offered to all who were there, regardless of what they would choose to do with the opportunity and love He offered.

It was a stark contrast in the minds of those who were only moments before thinking to themselves what greatness would be theirs in the kingdom He was sure to establish.  Here was their King, serving them in the most debasing of ways, the most humiliating.  A King who served?  Who had ever heard of such a thing?  This was too much for Peter to accept.  Peter says in verse 6 … “Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? [verse 7] Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.”  Peter had to question this.  Peter thought it his place to remind the Lord that servants do this kind of work, not Kings.  If he accepted Jesus performing this act of humility upon him, it was like admitting that his own pride had kept him from even considering doing this kind of work.  Not an easy pill to swallow.  Jesus however, tells Peter that while he may not understand this act right now, it will become clear to him later as to why He would do it.  Peter responds in verse 8 … “Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. …”  Peter response is “forget it” Lord.  I am not going to allow you to humiliate yourself or me in doing this kind of work.  In effect, Peter was too proud to accept that.

But the words of Christ in response were overwhelming as Jesus responds continuing in verse 8 … “… Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”  Peter was blown away.  They were all just thinking about the establishment of the kingdom of Christ.  For him to have no part in it would be devastating.  Peter still does not understand why Christ would do this, but he will not risk becoming a power broker in the new anti-Roman kingdom Christ is surely about to setup.  So he quickly answers in verse 9 … “Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”  If this is about cleanliness perhaps, then go ahead and give me a full bath.  Whatever it takes to be the number one general, or number one secretary of state, or number one chief council, just go ahead and do it Lord.  Ironically Peter was really asking to be the number one servant, but he just could not comprehend that yet, as Christ had just told him.

Jesus responds to Peter’s overdoing-it by saying in verse 10 … “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. [verse 11] For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.”  Obviously none of them had recently bathed, nor was Christ trying to say that a literal clean-up of our feet can take the place of proper bath when it comes to cleanliness.  However, being served in humility, is by definition humiliating.  We are cleansed by a power outside of ourselves.  That fact is humiliating.  To admit we are unable to cleanse ourselves is not something most Christians are comfortable with, let alone non-believers.  Christians like to think they can remove the sins from themselves by their power, or determination, or abundance of good works.  They like to think that at the worst case, they are in a partnership with God, where the Christian does his best work first, and only THEN does God do “His part”.  But none of this is true.  The disciples feet did not clean themselves, they were not allowed to participate in the cleansing.  They did not even necessarily want to be clean or at least want it enough to do it to themselves, let alone for others.  The act of cleansing their most exposed and dirty part was done solely by Christ.  They were clean only as they allowed Him to clean them.  They had NO partnership.  They did NONE of the work.  Christ did it all.  All they did, was let Him.

With time for Christ as short as it was, He takes time out to eat and socialize and commune with His closest followers.  And now with time growing even shorter, He serves them all in the most humble of ways, taking the part of the lowest slave to do work, none of them would even consider.  This is the heart of our God.  This is the level of service He will do for us if we but let Him.  He will cleanse us from the filth we have embraced like a patient parent who cleans up his baby from an accident in going to the bathroom all over themselves.  Sin is that distasteful to God, but He cleans us up from it because He loves us that much.  And in this act of humility, Judas participates.  He allows Christ to wash his own feet as well.  But his heart is unmoved by it.  We may allow Christ to clean us, but we do not remain clean if we do not choose to do so.  Judas was only growing more indignant that this purported King would so humiliate Himself and them.  And Jesus recognizes Judas resistance to being made clean by a force outside of himself.  Thus He offers out loud to all of them, the idea, that one has not accepted the cleaning He is offering.

Now because it was still a mystery in the minds of those He had just served, Christ must explain to them why He did what He did.  Jesus asks in verse 12 … “So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?”  Notice that it took Christ a minute to get his own clothing back on, and to sit back down at the table.  Notice too that no-one took the initiative to clean the feet of Christ with basin and towel.  Jesus continues in verse 13 … “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. [verse 14] If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. [verse 15] For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. [verse 16] Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. [verse 17] If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

First Jesus acknowledges that He is indeed their Lord and ours, the title is not lost on Him, or inaccurate in any way.  He is God after all.  For God to be willing to stoop to serve man, in the most humble of ways, should show us that we should not be reluctant to serve each other in equal humility.  Christ was not setting up a feet cleaning business, or stating the clean feet are the mark of His followers.  He was however plainly stating that no act of humble service from one to another is something we should think ourselves “above” doing.  Often we continue the tradition of feet washing in our churches in times of performing an ordinance of communion.  We follow the literal words of Christ, but lose the deeper meaning.  Washing another member of our churches feet, is a much different proposition today, when everyone is sure to have bathed and worn appropriate footwear for just such an event.  But to bring a member in need groceries without being asked, or even desired, is something we are more reluctant to do, as it might embarrass him or us in the process.  To take the initiative to serve another in tasks we consider unpleasant do not spring to mind.  We reserve our service for more convenient actions that require less of our time, and perhaps only more of our resources.  Digging a latrine in a mission is not considered “glory” work … by anyone other than God.  The message of Christ to us, is that when we love each other as He loved us, no act of service is beneath us.  No need should go un met if we can meet it.  And there is no room for pride in any part of the equation of love and service.

To wash each other’s feet in our day, can hardly breach the gulf of an entrenched pride that refuses to be made humble.  And there is ancestor who felt that same way.  One who had the benefit of the literal company of Christ, but would leave that very night to betray Him to His death.  Is it the path of Judas we follow?  Or is the path of our King, who put aside his garments, took basin and towel, and washed each of the feet of his disciples in the condition they were in?  There is nothing wrong with following the traditions and ordinance of humility our communion services offer.  But the heart of the transformed by Christ can hardly stop serving before or after such an event.  When the heart is transformed, it values love above all else, and must express that love in humble service meeting every need it can, in any way that it can.  We can choose to express our love to our parents, our siblings, our spouses, or our children.  Or we can love greater, by loving those we know less, and associate with more.  Or we can love greater still, by investing our time and energy on those who seek to call themselves our enemies, and desire nothing but our destruction.  To love those who would do us nothing but harm, is to love as Christ loved.  For He showed that same tender love to the eleven as He did to the twelfth (Judas).  Nothing was ever held back by Christ despite what we would choose to do with it.  The same is true today.  But communion was not over yet …