Sermon Audio

As we conclude another Holy Week, we find ourselves at Holy Thursday, the night on which Our Lord was betrayed and on which He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar—that foretaste of the feast to come. Traditionally, this day was given the name Maundy Thursday. It gets this name from another event that happened on this most holy night, which we heard in this evening’s Gospel lesson: “[M]andatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos ut et vos diligatis invicem;” or as our ears are accustomed to hearing: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Maundy is from the Latin mandare, or as we heard from verse 34 above, mandatum. We get the word mandate from this root. On this most holy night, Jesus gave His disciples a mandatum novum—a new commandment, a new mandate: love one another.

What is love? Just last week we heard a similar question from the mouth of Pontius Pilate: “Quid est veritas?” We’ll hear it again tomorrow night. What is truth? (cf. John 18:38) In order to understand this new mandate, we must understand what love is. We can answer with St. John who says, “God is love” (cf. 1 John 4:8), but that does us little beyond the rest of Scripture.

Dear listeners, we need not go far beyond our text tonight to see this love that Jesus commands His disciples to. Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.” As we heard several days ago, the Son of Man is glorified as He hangs from the cross, dying as reparation for the sin of the world. Jesus had also said in that text that He has come to serve, not to be served—a picture of which we see earlier in tonight’s text, as He washes His disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17)—and give His life a ransom for many. (cf Mark 10:45) Therefore, while Jesus reveals this love in verses 31 and 32 of tonight’s text, it culminates in what He says in verses 33 and 36: “Where I am going, you cannot come...Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”

The love of God is simply this: He gave His life for you. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15:13-14) Love is the hard work of service—self-sacrificing service. This is what I tell all couples seeking marriage as we study what it is to be married. Love is self-sacrificing service, so it is no wonder that Jesus, the Bridegroom, gave His life in service to His Bride, the church, of which you are a member, dear listeners.

Love means dying to self and living for others. So Jesus gave the new commandment to His disciples: love one another as I have loved you. Die to yourselves and live to each other. Serve one another. Wash each other’s feet. Give of yourselves for each other. Do not lord your positions of authority over each other, but use them in service to others. Dear listeners, this is love, that you serve your brothers and sisters in Christ without expecting anything in return, and do so at personal sacrifice. You are fellow members of the Bride of Christ; therefore, love one another as Christ as loved you.

Love is a good work. Right there, bells and whistles should be going off in your head. Because, if love is a good work, that means it is nothing that you do, O fallen man. No, it is something you do because it has been given to you, prepared in advance for you to do (cf. Ephesians 2:10) in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. (cf. FC SD II.65-66) Apart from Him, however, you are very much disposed against this good work (and all good works), even now as the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh continually assert.

• The devil is always a the ear whispering, “You’ll be like God.” (cf. Genesis 3:5) What does this mean? To Lucifer, it means receiving honor and worship and power and glory. There is no love for others there—no service to others. The temptation to be like God is to serve the self over and above others, and it is one that is always being leveled against us.
• The world, especially this western civilization, teaches that we are self-made individuals. Everything that we are and do is a result of personal achievement. The world will nod to the idea of nurture AND nature, but nature will always trump nurture as it espouses individualism. Oh sure, there is always room for a handout, because that helps us to remake ourselves, gives us a leg up, allows us to achieve personal greatness—receive help, okay, but don’t give any, at the very least not much—there’s little room for that in individualism. Little to no love for others there.
• Your sinful flesh is all about self-service. Old Adam always seeks what sates himself, over and above what is best for all. That which is of God is deadly to Him—He is to drown daily in your Baptismal life of repentance, confession, and absolution. Therefore, Old Adam will fight against the work of service to others in order to serve Himself.

This, dear hearers, is your daily battle, your daily struggle, the sign of your sin against this new mandate from Christ. You are predisposed to serve yourself and show no love for others. Lord, have mercy.

He has! Remember that out of love and service for you, Jesus gave His life as reparation for sin. Payment was demanded—always is—and it was made as nail and spear pierced Him through, as He bled and died. Remember that He had just said, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” You cannot and could not go where He went, because you would never come back, O fallen man. Death is the wages of sin—and so that you would not taste the death due sin, the Son of God took on flesh and blood in order that He would take your sins into His flesh and die your death.

He took on flesh and blood in order to be joined to you. He left His Father’s side and was joined to His Bride, and gave His life for Her “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26-27) For Her He died—dear listener, for you He died.

But, He was and is the perfect man—He was what Adam could not and would not be—He was and is for you, dear listener, which you by your sin, by your Old Adam, can never be this side of eternity. He was and is the only, true God. Therefore, the death due sin could not contain Him. On the third day, He rose again, and even this was done in service to you, and it is your hope. Once again, recall our Lord’s words: “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.” He has died and risen; it is now the “afterward” He is speaking of. Into His death and resurrection you have been baptized; therefore, even though death may claim these bodies, when the Christ returns in triumphant glory, the dead will be raised, and this mortal and corruptible flesh will put on the immortal and incorruptible flesh of Christ. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:53)

Yes, into Christ’s death and resurrection, into His perfect love and service to you you have been baptized. You have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you; the life which you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you. (cf. Galatians 2:20) In other words, you are set free, having been baptized into Christ, having put Him on. Yes, you have been forgiven for all sins, and set free to serve. You have the Holy Ghost, with whom you now cooperate to love and serve one another, to be of help and service to your neighbor. And all the while, you can say with St. Paul:

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (Romans 7:15, 17-20)

O fallen man, who will save you from this body of death? It is none other than Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who has. Therefore, as He has died your death for sin and risen again, your sin no longer condemns you, for it has condemned Him, and He has overcome this condemnation for you.

[H]e who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. (Romans 6:7-9)

Therefore, since you have died with Christ, and death no longer has dominion over Him, then death—nor sin, nor the devil—have dominion over you, who has been baptized into Christ! This is His loving, self-sacrificing service to you.

Furthermore, as we will celebrate again on this holy night, He still comes to you and for you to serve you. He gave His life—gave His body and shed His blood—for the forgiveness of your sins on the tree of the cross, and He comes now to give you His body to eat and blood to drink, that you may have forgiveness, life, and salvation, even as you have been hearing every Divine Service throughout this season of Lent: “This precious body and precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in the one true faith unto life everlasting.”

He does this for you now, even as He has gone to the Father, ascended and seated at His right hand. He is there to prepare a place for you. (cf. John 14:2-3) Where He is now, you will go; His ascension gives you this hope, because He has promised that you will rise bodily, and He has washed you with water and the Word and given you His body and blood to eat and to drink as a seal of this promise. Where He is now, you will go, because He has come where you now are, died in your place, and forgiven you for all of your sins.