“On the night in which he
was betrayed…” These words mark the timing of the events we commemorate this
evening. This is indeed the final night Jesus spends with his disciples before
he is arrested, put on trial, and executed at mid-day tomorrow. But this is a
busy night for Jesus and his disciples. Much must take place before those
tragic and traumatic events, not the least of which is the institution of the
sacrament that we will share with Christ and each other in just a few short
minutes.
This meal is important to us
because it means so many different things. It is a sign of God’s grace to his
people, reminding us of his presence and his sacrifice for
our sake. But another meaning for it can be found within its very name:
Communion. Communion: the people coming together, in unity, to share, to
experience together, to be one. This very idea is reflected in the events of
this night, for after the meal the party departs for the garden and on the way,
Jesus shares with his disciples a prayer. A prayer for unity.
A prayer that asks that we “be one.”
The sacrament and that
prayer present to us a challenge, how do we manifest this unity? How do we
create it? How does it come about? These are questions that we have struggled
with for untold generations. What is the answer?
The Lenten worship services
this year, shared with our ecumenical brothers and sisters, tackled those very
questions. Our denomination has been tackling those very questions for a number
of years now, drafting agreements, having dialogue with our brothers and
sisters in Christ. We recently celebrated an interim agreement with the United
Methodists, bringing our two churches closer together than ever before.
This is great news and good
work. It should continue and we should pray for continued successes in the
years to come.
However, I’m not completely
convinced that Christ’s wishes and desires are limited only to the church.
Within his prayer, he asks for blessings not only on the church, on his
disciples and apostles, but also for all those who will come to believe because
of their work. That work is ongoing throughout the world, as the people of the
church continue to spread the Gospel through Word and deed. I believe that when
Christ prays that we be one, he prays for all of humanity.
Unfortunately, our efforts
to unify all of humanity have been less successful than our efforts to unify
the church. There have certainly been ambitious men, men of vision (even if a
twisted vision), who have sought to do so. Hitler’s Reich, Napoleon’s conquests,
the constant wars of the kings of medieval
More recent efforts have at
least been more bloodless, if not entirely more successful. The United Nation
is a noble experiment and I hope it evolves into more than that, but thus far
it has been somewhat disappointing, plagued by scandal and impotence.
The reasons for these
failures are numerous. One of the biggest is the simple fact that, like the 80s
pop song suggests, everybody wants to rule the world.
We want unity both within the church and without on our terms. We want everyone
to come to where we are, to believe what we believe, to espouse our political
ideas, to worship in our way, and so forth. That would be easy, wouldn’t it? If
we could just make everyone think and believe the way we do.
There is an
arrogance to this, a selfishness. And it is not the answer I believe
Christ had in mind when he prays that we be one. But what is the answer?
Perhaps it is found in the
simple story of this night, where at the conclusion of dinner, Jesus removes
his garments, takes a towel and a basin, and washes the dust from his
disciples’ feet. The church has instituted this very practice in its worship on
this night, but its popularity is mixed because we are so often uncomfortable
with such intimate touch. If we find it uncomfortable, then surely so must the
disciples, but for a different reason. Here was the one they called teacher and
master and lord doing the work of a slave, kneeling before them and performing
the most menial of labor.
But that’s who Jesus is. He
is king of kings and lord of lords. He is the new liberating prophet and
despite these accolades and titles, rightly his, he does not seek to rule the
world, he seeks to save it. And this simple act of footwashing
serves as a model for us, that true unity will not come through domination, but
through humble service, love, and sacrifice.
It is this same humble
service, love, and sacrifice that allows Christ to be taken into custody, put
on trial on false charges of insurrection and blasphemy, and then put to death.
Christ could, at any point, stopped this from
happening, but he chose not to. To save the world, to make it one at last,
required that he give his life and he gave it willingly.
And his sacrifice was not in
vain. John of Patmos received among all the other visions that he recorded in
the book of Revelation received one of a great multitude, so numerous that none
could count, from every tribe, nation, race, and language. That is the unity
that Christ prayed for. That is the unity that he won by his death and
resurrection. A unity bought by humility and service, love and sacrifice. One
day too we will see it. One day too we will indeed be one. Amen.