Dr. Christopher Graham

Note: This sermon was recorded outdoors in a park, so there are outside noises.

Maundy Thursday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
John 13:1-15

Jesus has an encounter with the Samaritan woman in a place where there was no water. There was no food, and we presume by extension, there was no wine. You may recall that this lack of water and food and wine stood out even more because through the first five chapters of John, there’s water, water, everywhere.

And food and wine. There’s John baptizing in plenty of water, but of course, there is plenty of water at the feast in Cana, where Jesus turns it into wine. And just after he meets the Samaritan woman, he performs a miracle, a sign in the waters of Bethesda.

And then in the same chapter, we read, he takes the five loaves of fishes and two fishes and turns them into enough bread for the multitudes. Tonight, we see Jesus in a place where there is water. and bread and wine. But it’s really a rather mundane scene this evening.

No miracles going on here. Of course, on this side of history, we see that it’s the beginning of a complex of days and events that are going to have great significance. But tonight, it’s just a meal.

So how are we to respond to this evening? to this passage that was read for us from John 13? I want to give you three reasonable and straightforward, appropriate responses.

First, we could simply obey. Jesus gives commands here. Take this.

Divide it among yourselves is how Luke records it. eat and drink. Do this in remembrance of me. Wash, one, another’s feet.

The passage is full of commands. In fact, as your bulletin this evening points out, we call this Mondi Thursday because it comes from the Latin word for commandment, specifically the one that’s given in verse 34. When Jesus says, I am giving you a new commandment. that you love one another, just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Obedience is a proper response to any anyone’s master. It is appropriate response tonight for those of us who call Jesus Lord. And Jesus does not shy away from that title as you heard read.

You called me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. Unless we think somehow that love somehow obliterates obedience. Remember that Jesus goes on to teach his disciples very soon in this next chapter.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Oh, my God! The second response that we could have, that would be entirely appropriate, is to emulate or to imitate Jesus.

He tells us here that he has given us an example that we are to follow, for I gave you an example. He says, that you would also do just as I did for you. It is, again, expected. that a disciple follows the example of one’s teacher.

It’s rather striking, I think, that the one who resists Jesus’ actions, Peter. Well, then also refuse to follow Jesus in the days ahead. But then this same Peter will write in his letter, for you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered leaving you an example so that you would also follow in his steps.

The 3rd appropriate response is to apply the principles that Jesus teaches here. So if I, the Lord and teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Truly, truly, I save you, a slave is not greater than his master.

Nor is the one who sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. As he has often done, Jesus lays out the conventional wisdom, which holds true.

A slave isn’t greater than his master. And a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. But in his actions, Jesus shows us that these truths do not restrain the principles that characterize his kingdom.

He, the Lord, washes their feet. It’s in line with his other teachings, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

So the last shall be first and the first last. Obedience, imitation, application, these are all appropriate responses to our reading this evening. Individually and even in combination, all are appropriate.

Then each one of these would be good to anyone who is in charge or anyone who teaches us. What makes our response powerful… is not the response itself. But the one whom we obey, the one whom we emulate, and the one from whom we learn.

At the beginning of his teaching, Jesus identifies himself as teacher and Lord. But after he does these things, he says this, from now on, from now on, I tell you, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe that I am. Hmm.

The Greek there is ego a mi. And if we follow through the Gospel of John, we know that Jesus uses that phrase, a go, a me, time and again to identify himself as the Lord God. Before Abraham was, Jesus says, eh, go, eh, me.

Ego, Amy, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Ego, Amy, I am the bread who comes from heaven. It was… this one.

This one, this god who came out of heaven, who now washes the disciples’ feet. This is in Jesus’ mind. We heard it this evening.

John tells us, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to him, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God. So Jesus is certainly aware of this as he does this. And then after he does this and teaches, he says, I am.

It’s in line with what Paul teaches in Philippians 2, about the fact that Jesus being in the very, in the very nature of God, the very form of God, didn’t consider it something to be grasped, but empty himself and took on the form of a bond servant being born in the likeness of men. Paul says, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death. Death on a cross.

John tells us in our passage, this evening, that Jesus will love his disciples to the end that tell us the completion. Which will end in his death soon. But on this night, he does not call for his disciples to die with him.

Or for him. He does not call on them to perform the signs and wonders of I am. He calls for them to eat with one another, to share with one another, to wash one another’s feet, to love. one another.

Remarkably, Jesus doesn’t even call for them to love him back. He calls for them to love each other. And this Jesus, who washed the feet of his disciples, is the Jesus we encounter today and this evening.

He was the host of the disciples, and tonight he is the host for us. And just as he washed his disciples’ feet, on that night, there is no reason to doubt that he would do the same this evening if he were here with us.