Maundy Thursday
March 28, 2002
Christ Church, Covington

“For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (Jo. 13:15)


Tonight we are about the business of commemoration, remembering together as a Church the events that 
concluded the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. We reenact these events, not to distance ourselves 
from them as something in the past, over and done with; nor do we remember them in order to preserve 
them under glass, as it were. We remember tonight in order to make present now, with power and 
immediacy, the mighty action of God. Jesus Christ gives us his example, that we might imitate it; as 
he says in the Gospel of John, so that we might do for others as he has done for us. The concluding 
hours of Jesus’ ministry sets down a pattern, a template, for our life together as a community. It’s 
for this reason that we remember.

Part of the pattern is the Eucharist that we celebrate tonight. As Paul reminds the Church of 
Corinth in our second reading, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the 
Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he 
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 
11:23-24). Christ gives the example, and the Church in faithful obedience continues to do this for 
his remembrance. Not to preserve his memory, but to make the living Jesus really present, here and 
now in our midst.

Another part of the pattern that we have from our Gospel reading tonight is the washing of the 
disciples’ feet. It is John’s Gospel alone that gives us this story from the night of Jesus’ Last 
Supper and his arrest. Again, Jesus invites the disciples to follow his example in washing others’ 
feet; an act of service and love that tells us quite a bit about the nature of ministry. Ministry 
takes us beyond ourselves so that we can serve others; ministry is intimate and personal, just as we 
might imagine the washing of feet to be. Jesus gives us the example which we are to follow, 
imitating him and in the process sharing in his life.

This Maundy Thursday I have in the forefront of my mind the Habitat House that our Christ Church 
parish community is engaged in building right now, because in some sense it is a highly visible way 
in which we are following Jesus’ example of loving service. We are reaching beyond ourselves, and in 
the process coming to know each other and the larger community better. In the shadow of the cross, 
Jesus can find no better lesson to teach us; the pattern of self offering that we see at the Supper 
and on the Cross is reflected as well in the washing of the feet. We continue to reflect the 
pattern, as well, as we follow Jesus’ example in our own service of others, in this project and in 
many others.

This is why we are gathered here tonight; to pause and remember and make present now the power of 
God. Jesus gives us the gift of this great sacrament of the altar, which is the gift of himself, to 
be the graceful means by which all our ministry is empowered. He gives us the pattern, which is 
meant to be lived out here and now in loving service of others.

The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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