Last Wednesday, we heard, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” Jesus has all things in His hands. He has our very lives in His hands.

Tonight, “the hour” has now come. John’s Gospel declares, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God.” Jesus knows that everything is in His hands. He knows that He’s the only Son from the Father. He knows that He’s fully God and fully man. He knows that He’s going back to the Father. He knows it all. He knows that He is about to be betrayed—the very night when He’s about to be delivered into the hands of sinful men.

So, what did Jesus do with His hands? Did He hold them up, saying, “Stop!” to halt everything about to happen? Did He clinch His fists, ready to fight for His own life? No. Jesus “rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.” Jesus’ hands are capable of great power. So, what does He do with those divine and holy hands of God? He dresses as a servant and goes about washing filthy, dirty feet.

Foot washing was an act of service for people who spent their days walking on dusty, dirty roads and paths. A slave typically did this job, because it was a job no one really wanted to do. Yet, our Lord does this task! He humbles Himself low, all the way to the ground. He takes those fatigued and filthy feet into His hands. All things have been given into His hands, even the feet of His disciples. And He washes them.

Jesus makes a point to say, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” His disciples are to model this way of life. Jesus has given us the model of what real love and service is.

Though washing feet had great cultural meaning for the disciples during that historical era, it doesn’t have the same cultural meaning today. Our feet usually aren’t as dirty. Jesus isn’t telling you that you have to actually wash people’s feet. Jesus didn’t wash feet to institute a sacrament that forgives sins. Rather, this act shows the Lord’s love and service to His people.

The Lord has given each one of you many gifts for the sake of serving your neighbors. Why has the Lord given you this or that talent, time, or treasure? So that it might be used for the sake of others! Such service to others doesn’t make you more or less worthy before God because of what you do or can do. It isn’t about you. It isn’t about your positions, money, status, or education. Nor ought we to think along the lines of “That form of service is below me. I’ll serve on my terms in the things that I like and want to do.” Your life as a disciple who follows Jesus is in loving one another. Period.

If anyone on this earth deserved to be served, it’s, of course, Jesus! “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.” But Jesus has done what only Jesus could do. He isn’t only our example. He is—above all else—our Savior! And what has He done? He went all the way to the cross! He gave His life for you! He suffered, He shed His blood, He died on the cross—all to forgive you. He carried our selfish, greedy, and arrogant sins (which deserve only eternal punishment) to the tree of death, where He defeated sin and death! He conquered them. By His death, He destroyed sin and death. Jesus “came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” He did it all for you. He did it out of love for you.

Paul reminds us that our Lord served His disciples in another way with His hands on Maundy Thursday. Writing to a divided people of God, who thought their purpose is to be served, Paul draws them back to the service of Jesus for them. This service is also for you. He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take, eat, this is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” Then, with those same hands, “He took the cup, after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” This is Jesus’ last will and testament before He dies. These words remain true forever. He served His disciples then. He serves you—His disciples—now.

This is the Sacrament of the Altar—instituted by Jesus, uniting Jesus’ words with the elements of bread and wine, and delivering the forgiveness of sins! This gift continues. This gift of the Lord’s service to you is being offered this night. Jesus is feeding you with His very body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. 

We simply take Jesus at His word. “This is My body” means “this is My body.” “This . . . is . . . My blood” means “this is My blood.” This meal isn’t about what we do. It’s about what Jesus does for us! He gives His body and blood in service to you. It’s His love to you. 

This love leads you out from the communion table to follow Jesus’ new commandment to love one another. Having been filled with Jesus, you will go out from here and love your neighbors—especially your brothers and sisters in the household of faith! Use your hands to serve them, love them, and bring Jesus to them. They need to hear what you know today. Jesus loves them. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Don’t forget. Your love for others isn’t about you. Having all things in His hand, Jesus served and loved you first. He serves and loves you still. His love never ends. Amen.