Do You Know What I Have Done to You?

Notes only, no video
13
Apr 2017, Community Maundy Thursday @ Presbyterian Church
John
13.1-17, 31b-35 (message)
Text:
Missing institution of the Lord’s Table
      John 6, feeding the multitude, bread from
heaven, Passover
      This is John’s story of the last night,
last teaching
      “Prologue to Passion” (F.D. Bruner)
Problem
addressed: How to relate to an absent Jesus
      Supper addresses absence
            Proclaim death until he comes, 1Co
11.26
      This Sermon (of Jesus) addresses absence
·       John
13:1
 Jesus knew that his
hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.
·       John
13:3
 knowing that the
Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and
was going to God
·       John
13:33
 Little children, I am
with you only a little longer.
·       John
13:33
 Where I am going, you
cannot come.

     This Sermon addresses absence in
sacramental terms

Pouring
and washing
      Table: “blood, poured out for the
forgiveness of sins”
                  Font
      This Sermon addresses absence in practical
terms:
·       John
13:8
 Unless I wash you,
you have no share with me.
·       Without permitting Jesus to wash, forgive, serve,
love … we miss out on Jesus entirely! And yet, we often obsess on our own
goodness. “Let not conscience make you linger/nor of fitness fondly dream”
(hymn lyric, cited by Bruner)
·       Most of the time when we think about submitting
ourselves to Jesus as Lord we focus on what we must do, how we must serve. That
is not the first thing. The first thing is that Jesus the Lord desires to serve
and love us.
John
13:12
 Do you know what I
have done to you?
      Washed
      Served
      Given you a share in myself
      Loved … to the end … even his enemy
(Judas!)
My
justification story – that I am loved by God, PERIOD
My
sanctification story – love as I have
loved you
      Platinum rule
Motivations
for obedience:
      Command, “you should do”
      Example, “I have given you an example”
      Love, “I have loved you”
Staying
connected to an absent Jesus
      Ethical component – serve, love, give
      Internal component – let Jesus love you

How?
Want it, bad, like Peter – more than your propriety or dignity