This sermon was preached at Canoe Ridge Lutheran Church, Decorah, Iowa on Maundy Thursday, April 18, 2019. It’s based on John 13:1-17, 31b-35. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson..
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
31b“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
There’s such a gap between knowing and doing. Or is it just me? I know, for example, the kind of food I need to fuel my body properly and to feel good. But actually eating that food ends up being quite the challenge. There’s a Culver’s-snack-pack-gap between knowing and doing.
One expert in organizational behavior says that the gap between knowing and doing is larger than the gap between ignorance and knowledge. Just think about that for a minute. The gap between knowing and doing is larger than the gap between ignorance and knowledge.1
It’s mighty hard to actually do what we’ve come to know we need to do. It’s hard to eat what we know we need to eat; it’s hard to exercise like we know we need to exercise; it’s hard to say no when we know we need boundaries to protect our time and energy.
It’s hard to love one another as Jesus has loved us, even though we know it’s what we’re called to do.
There’s a gap between knowing and doing agape2 love (love centered on God’s preferences, love that chooses what God chooses). There’s a gap between knowing and doing this kind of divine love…and it’s filled with ego, and anger, and pride, and selfishness, and inconvenience, and fear, and the scars of past pain, and the still bleeding wounds of fresh hurts. There’s so much in that gap that keeps us from loving one another as God intends.
Jesus comes to bridge that gap.
The new commandment Jesus gives his disciples, to love one another, isn’t necessarily new. The law has made it clear that they’re to not only love God with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their might, but also that they’re to love their neighbors. They know this. The commandment isn’t new.
What’s new is Jesus embodying that love, emptying himself, washing their feet, choosing them, setting an example for them to follow into the future. This is what agape love looks like. This is the pattern to live by—getting up from the table, pouring water, washing the feet of those around you, dismantling power and privilege, setting aside all ego and fear, loving not just with words but with a body that kneels in service and in witness to God’s faithfulness.
Jesus sets an example for us—not just in the washing, but in the witness. The gospel writer tells us that Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world. He knew, even, who was to betray him. He could have been bound by fear and pain. He could have been bitter and angry. He could have given up caring. But instead he set an example for us. He gave us a pattern to follow, because he also knew that he had come from God and was going to God.
It was that knowledge that compelled him to love wholeheartedly, to kneel down and wash the feet even of the one who would betray him, to choose even him. Because that’s what God does—chooses forgiveness, chooses mercy, chooses grace, chooses us who fail time and time again.
There was no gap, for Jesus, between knowing and doing. That’s the pattern we’ve been given—agape love that leaves no room for ego or fear.
John Stahl-Wert, Director of the Center for Serving Leadership, suggests that one way to bridge the gap between knowing and doing is to figure out what’s really important: Everything doesn’t matter equally. A few things matter a great deal. If you have dozens of must-do’s or could-do’s staring at your day, your week, your month, your quarter, your year, it matters that you know which ones to implement with determination.3
Jesus has ensured that we know exactly what to implement with determination—agape love for one another. Love that chooses forgiveness, chooses mercy, chooses grace. Love that loves to the end.
Will we fail? Yes. But Jesus stands in the gap between our knowing and our doing. He is the way across. His word compels us. His spirit empowers us.
Jesus chooses you to be love in the world, to bear fruit that will last, to trust God—knowing where you’ve come from and where you’re going.
At this meal we share tonight, you become what you receive—the body of Jesus alive and at work in the world. Together, we rise from this table to bridge the gap between knowing and doing, to wash the feet of neighbors near and far, to embody God’s love for all the world.
Together, we rise from this table to love not just with words, but with a body that kneels in service to God’s beloved and in witness to God’s faithfulness. Amen.
1, 3 https://johnstahlwert.com/how-to-close-the-gap-between-knowing-and-doing/