Maundy Thursday: The Gifts of the Upper Room

March 31, 1988

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Scripture: Mark 14:17, 22-25; John 13:4-7, 33-35

One of the most touching and unforgettable scenes in the whole passion narrative is the scene that unfolds in the Upper Room. You remember the story---It was a Thursday, the last evening, as it turned out, before Jesus’ death.

The hours, the minutes, the very seconds themselves were slowly slipping away.

The pressure was on, and Jesus wanted to spend some time with His friends before He had to leave. And so He procured a room, an upper room, in a typical Jewish 2 room house, which scholars say might well have belonged to the family of John Mark, who was later to write the Second Gospel.

I think Jesus must have been aware that He was approaching the climax of His life. I’m not sure He knew in detail all that was to happen, but certainly He knew that His life was in danger, and that in all likelihood separation was coming.

He’s spent 3 years with these men,. In 3 years, you can get to know somebody pretty well, especially if you’ve been with them all the time, traveling, eating, sharing experiences... it makes for a close bond.

Now He was leaving them. Now they were going to be on their own... without Him, without anybody, and there were some things He wasn’t sure they’d learned yet. HOW COULD HE POSSIBLY TEACH THEM ALL THEY NEEDED TO KNOW?

These were some of the things that must have been in the mind of Jesus as He approached the Last Supper. I’m sure He wanted it to be a time of fellowship as all meals were with Jesus, but more than that, HE WANTED TO GIVE THEM SOMETHING.... He wanted to demonstrate to them unforgettably something they could carry with them and fall back on when life got tough.

Let me suggest without a lot of elaboration that Jesus in the Upper Room that night gave His disciples at least 3 things.

1. First, He gave them a MEMORY. What a wonderful thing it is to have memories. All of us have them, even the very young.... They’re what tie us to the past, and root us in what has gone before. We are people, we have a history, because we can remember. I am what I am because I can recall certain things, certain events, which formed me.

It’s in the remembrance of those high moments of yesterday that I can be sustained today and tomorrow.

Jesus knew that. He knew perfectly well what these men were going to be facing. He knew they were going to need something to hang on to, that would stay alive forever in their minds and hearts. If they ever forgot, they’d be goners.... They needed a MEMORY, vivid enough to sustain them through anything.

So great a Storyteller that He was, Great Teacher, the Man who could make Truth leap to life by means of a parable.... He gave them an object lesson that they were never able to erase form their minds. It was so simple. He took some bread, and then He gave it to them and said, “This is my body which is about to be broken for you.” And then he passed around among them some wine in a cup, and said, “This represents my very life’s blood which is about to be shed for you and for many... Drink this in remembrance of me.”

The disciples never forgot that. How could they forget it? How could anybody forget it? It was so indelibly impressed upon them, and especially afterward in the light of what did happen, that is passed down through the centuries to become a part of the worship experience of the Church.

This is what we’re celebrating tonight, at least in part. The memory of Him, who He was, & what He did, continues through the ages to nourish His people. It’s one of the priceless legacies Jesus left us in the Upper Room.

2. But there’s more. Jesus that night in the Upper Room also gave His disciples a MISSION.

A memory, by itself, is not enough, because people don’t live exclusively in the past. People have to live in the PRESENT, in the here and now, and Christianity is a here and now religion. Jesus knew that. He had a mission for these men, something specific and concrete for them to do. He had a way of life for them to lead.

And just as He made vivid the memory He wanted them to hold, so He also spelled out dramatically the mission on which He was sending them. Our authority for this is the Gospel of John, the only one of the Gospels that tells this incident.

During the supper, Jesus stood up from the table, took a towel, and a basin of water, and then stooped down to wash the feet of the disciples.

How incredible.... The disciples were almost flabbergasted.... Simon Peter almost had apoplexy right there on the floor. Lord, what is this? What’s going on here? Why do YOU wash MY feet? It was incredible. Do you get the full impact of it?

Here was Jesus the Son of God, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, stooping down to wash the feet of ordinary, laboring human beings...performing the work of a menial servant. Here was the only begotten of the Father, scrubbing away like a slave... Here was Divinity, with a towel in its arm..... It’s enough to take your breath away.

But there was a reason. Jesus was giving them a mission, and He was telling them to that it was to be a mission of SERVICE. “The greatest of all is the servant of all”, He said....“I have given you an example, that you should do to others as I have done to you.” THE MISSION OF SERVICE.

Why are we so slow to catch on? When is the Church going to learn again, going to recover the insight that THIS IS THE NAME OF THE GAME? The Church sabotages its integrity; indeed, it FORFEITS ITS VERY IDENTITY when it thinks of itself as something put here for the purpose of building itself up.... the exact opposite is true.

The Church is not here to GET.... it’s here to GIVE. It’s not here for self-gratification.... it’s here for self-emptying. It’s not here for aesthetics... it’s here for utility.... OR IT HAS NO MEANING AT ALL. It’s not called into existence for its own sake, for its own glory, or even primarily to get members into it, It’s called into existence to spend itself in humble service...FOR the world.... PRECISELY TO WIPE THE FEET OF PEOPLE IN NEED. This is the mission of the Church,

the mission of service.

It’s a sobering thought we must deal with as we take this ritual nourishment into our bodies. Why are we being strengthened, For what purpose? What must we do with our renewed energy? How is God calling us to be more servant-like?

God grant that the modern Church might lay down its crying towel and take up its drying towel in faithful acceptance of its true mission, another of the inescapable gifts of the Upper Room.

3. Now, finally, in addition to a Memory and a Mission, let me suggest that Jesus in the Upper Room also gave His disciples a MINISTRY, a ministry of love.

Listen to these words: “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, so you, also, should love one another.” And then, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

A new commandment.... a ministry of love.... the Disciples never forgot that That gift revolutionized the Roman Empire....The early Christian Church displayed the most astounding example of genuine fellowship ever seen in the history of the world.....

They took care of each other. They fed and clothed those who needed it.... They gave assistance when there was trouble... THEY PRACTICED MINISTRY.

And it had a tremendous impact on outsiders. The Roman world saw how they acted, and they said, “Look at those Christians... See how they love one another.” And before 3 centuries had elapsed, they’d turned the world upside down.

In a world right now that’s torn apart by hatred, and division, and neglect, and callousness, what a need there is for the reconciling power of genuine ministry... What a need there is for people to see and experience the inclusiveness of love..... What a need there is for the Church to let that love flow through it and on out into the blackness beyond.

We are called to let that happen to us... We receive tonight these precious tokens of love, and as they heal us and unify us, we must let them also mold us into a healing influence, that the Word might be spread, that the world might see the love in action, and be moved by its incredible power.

In the Upper Room Jesus gave His disciples a Memory, a Mission, and a Ministry. He made the memory vivid by breaking the bread and passing the cup. He made the mission of service explicit by kneeling and wiping the feet of the 12... Divinity with a towel in its arm.

He made the ministry of love vivid and explicit, too, although it was not until the following day that He demonstrated it. On Thursday night He told His disciples, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” On Friday He acted out this saying by doing just that.

I wonder..... just suppose that each one of us had in our lives an active memory of Jesus,

an earnest enthusiasm for the mission of service, and a passionate commitment to the ministry of love.... I wonder if we, too, couldn’t turn the world upside down.