By Revd George Mwaura

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 11: 23–25; Gospel: Matthew 26: 26–29

God on the knees!

Lord speak to us during these testing times by the power of your Spirit and bring consolation and hope in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Picture for a moment the scene is the upper room: Jesus and his twelve close followers are gathered for the last time. Only two of them know that fact. The meal begins. Small talk flows, but then the volume and intensity of feelings rise. John tells us that a dispute broke out among the disciples. Who is the greatest disciple? they asked. All claimed to be the greatest. Each extolled their virtues. Each, except one.

Slowly and silently Jesus stands to his feet. His face shows the pain he feels that even now the disciples do not understand. He deliberately steps away from the table. He loosens the belt which holds his robe and lays it aside. He picks up the towel lying there and wraps it around himself. He no longer looks like the Messiah; now, he looks like a slave. Perhaps it is Andrew who first notices what is happening, and he grows strangely quiet. One by one, each disciple is captured by quiet. Silence is all that can be heard. Each man hears his own heavy breathing caused by the electric-like awe which engulfs the room. The splashing of the water being poured in the basin sounds like a great rushing river. It is so quiet. Each disciple swallows hard and tries to get hold of himself. Jesus now comes to John and begins to wash his feet. John sits in a coma-like trance. This cannot be happening, he thinks to himself. But it is. And so it is on to Thomas, and Simon, and Philip. The reaction is always the same. Still no one can say a word. Now it’s Judas Iscariot’s turn. Jesus knows who Judas really is; he is not fooled. Maybe, just maybe, the die wasn’t cast yet.

Maybe Jesus could still reach through the false layer of shallow commitment and lay hold of that part of every person that longs to believe. Jesus kneels and begins to pour the water over the feet of Judas. With tender compassion, he bathes the feet of one set to destroy him. I was wrong about this man; Judas thinks to himself. He almost had me convinced that he was the Son of God, the Messiah: humph! But look at him! He looks like any slave which can be bought for 50 shekels down at the market place. Can this be the Son of God? Does the great God of the universe come down in such a humbled form as this, a foot washer? No! So, Judas sits there feeling good that he has finally seen through this act which Jesus has been putting on.

Judas is very much like most of us. We do not feel down deep that God really does do everything he can to win us, even if it means getting down on his knees. Jesus was not concerned with hygiene as much as with showing, in a dramatic but humble way, that God has always gone to the greatest length to save his people. Having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus now showed them the outer limits of his love.  You see, the hardest thing for us to accept is our acceptability before God. We might believe that God loves the great saints of the world, but deep inside, where belief really matters, we have not come to grips with the fact that God loves and accepts us just as we are- warts and all. But ours is a God who gets down on his knees before us to say in the most dynamic way he can: you are acceptable to me.

You see, God had concluded that the prophets and priests he had sent before could not get through to his people. So, he came in person. This very act of coming was so shockingly humble that many people missed it. As the world struggles with the corona pandemic, many will again miss seeing God in our suffering. Everywhere you turn, people in the secular world are  asking the same question: how could God allow this? Let me make it as clear as I can: God is not punishing us with Corona! COVID-19 is simply a manifestation of the evils of this world like cancer, AIDS, Ebola, and dementia. But God is active in the life of his people helping any which way he can. Some of us are too shocked to see God in action and we will miss him all together. But if you really cared to look you’ll see God in the actions of the doctors, the nurses, the pharmaceutical companies,  the virtual church and prayer groups, the first responders, the neighbourhood groups organising food distributions and millions of others working flat out to meet the needs of God’s people in this crisis!

It may sound strange, but many of us have the wrong perception of God. This perception says that God could not really love me, well at least not as I am! On the other hand, we have too low of a view of ourselves. We think I’m so messed up God could not love and accept me! Yet, here is God on his knees, saying: Yes, I do accept you – can you accept me? It is a wonderful thing for us at Cornerstone when we realise we do not have to clean up our lives before God accepts us. The Gospel comes to us as if God sent an invitation to each of us with the inscription; come as you are!

God has never been the old man upstairs ready to lash out at those who displease him with a dose of corona or Ebola. Oh, no! He is, instead, that great loving compassionate being who invites us to call him Father. Many of you hearing these words now are beginning to feel the truth of God’s love break in upon you. Having faith in God is primarily trusting in the trustworthiness of our Lord. He has done all that he can do to say: come and be mine. Can you refuse an invitation from a God who gets on his knees to show that he cares? Jesus now turns to his eleven disciples and commands them that they must love each other as he loves them. Already Judas had left and refused Jesus’ love. But Jesus’ love is an inclusive love. Skin colour, gender or nationality were not important. He loves everyone without discrimination, and this is the command he gives his disciples on this day when he instituted the Lord’s Meal: Love one another!

If you put a piece of iron in the presence of an electric field, that piece of iron itself will become electrified. And in the presence of that electrical field, it is changed into a magnet. If it remains in contact with that field of power, it will continue to attract other pieces to itself. We, my sisters and brothers, are like that piece of iron. In the presence of Christ, we experience his love and take on his likeness. We are changed, electrified by the Holy Spirit, to attract others to the same love of God that we experience. So, our task is simple: to be co-workers in Christ, loving as he loves and accepting those whom he accepts. It must be this way. If we say and claim that we love the Lord, then we must love others as he has loved us – that is a commandment.

Shalom!

Amen!