Thursday 2nd April – Maundy Thursday – Pastor Adrian Kitson

I have movie memories of English public school large ding halls with hundreds of boys sitting at tables eating their meagre food under the watchful eye of powerful teachers.

I remember scenes from movies set in a prison where the new guy has to negotiate where on earth he can sit as he tries to figure out who has the power and who does not, and who to stay close to and who stay away from to survive this meal.

I remember scenes of ancient and modern royalty hosting extravagant meals as signs of their power for all gathered and all the groups they represent.

In ancient Rome communal meals were tools of power too. Roman imperial private banquets were famous affairs with spectacular stunts, entertainment, décor and food, all intended to keep friends close and enemies closer.

As an example, apparently, Caesar Domitian, the imperial “Lord and God” who ruled when the Gospel of John was likely being composed, put a dark spin on having dinner in his infamous “Black Banquet.”¹

An ancient historian of Rome describes how the emperor cloaked the room and the servant-slaves in black and served black-dyed food you would normally eat at a funeral (curried egg sandwiches?).

The Emperor arranged his guests next to personalized tombstones while they nervously ate their ‘last supper’ waiting to be summoned to execution. It was all a prank, mind you, but the message was unmistakable. “I have the power”. We might call this ‘power dining’.

John tells us about this last supper of Jesus and his close friends and one enemy. It is clear. This is also a ‘power dining’ occasion.

Jesus has the power – ALL the power – more than any Domitian.

Jesus seems to know that he is reaching the fulfilment of his mission.

What would he do with this knowledge, this power? What message will he, the great King and Lord of all speak in this private royal banquet?

John knows what Jesus will do with power. John knows this rabbi is that ‘Servant’ of whom Isaiah spoke so long ago.

Words like these would be well known to John.

John wants us to be very, very clear on what Jesus the Servant of God does with his power. Like the others, he probably could not believe what he was seeing at the time!

Now, the only person low enough to wash guest’s feet upon their arrival was the household slave. No one else would touch smelly feet! You only did it because you were forced to.

Simply put, Jesus, the only one in the room who has all the power dresses like a slave, and then acts like one.

Even further. He makes this the main thing about this last supper.

Washing the guests’ feet, typically performed by a slave upon the arrival of guests to dinner, is in this banquet shifted to the middle of the meal in John’s account (13:4–5). That is the place of the ‘after dinner speaker’ we might call it – the ‘entertainment’ or the meeting or the main message moment of the dinner after the main meal and before sweets.

This power dining that turns all human vision and use of power upside down and places the highest and best use of power to serving is disturbing, as we see with Peter.

We might say similar:

I don’t need help. There is always someone worse off than me.

I don’t need forgiveness from God. I haven’t killed anyone.

I don’t need anyone to serve me. I am here to serve everyone all the time.

I don’t need a God who serves me. I need a God who makes we win, makes me rich, makes me great, makes me remembered.

But Peter

Why does Jesus serve? Why doesn’t he be like every other powerful ruler who dominates, rules with power, wields power, makes things happen by sheer force?

John knows.

Jesus serves because he loves. Jesus wields his power not with force of intellect or physical strength or political control. He wields his power by serving love.

Domitian’s power dining was all about fear. Jesus’ power dining is all about love.

Domitian’s power dining was all about control. Jesus’ power dining is all about serving.

So Peter. Don’t you want Jesus to wash you?

Do you want a part with Jesus in his serving of the world?

Do you want a God who serves and calls you to be the same as him?

Do you want to be a part of a God whose mission is to use power to love, not win, to often lose in order to love?

What you say next really matters.

“I want a part with you in this. Wash ‘em!” says Peter.

That’s it. That’s the good response for a Christian person baptised into this Servant’s death and new life. Jesus says exactly that:

And that is why tonight is called ‘Maundy Thursday’ – ‘Maundy’ from the Latin ‘mandatum’ or ‘command’ – command to love by serving not ruling over.

Friend, could you imagine Domitian or any other despotic power person washing the feet of his dinner guests, highlighting the ways in which Jesus’ movement threatens the nature of Roman imperial values and power. Not likely!

But can you imagine that same Jesus washing your feet thereby challenging your values and power in life? Hopefully. There is freedom, hope and joy in this washing.

Bible Study Reflection

John 13:2–17 – Power, Love, and the Way of Christ

1. Seeing Power Clearly (vv. 3–5)

John is very deliberate about what Jesus knows before he kneels.
Jesus knows:

• where he has come from,
• where he is going,
• and that all things are under his power.

This is not a loss of power, nor humility born of insecurity.
It is confidence without grasping, authority that does not need to prove itself.

Reflection:

• How do I usually experience power—something to protect, fear, seek, or avoid?
• Do I believe that true confidence in God frees me to kneel rather than dominate?

2. The Shock of Being Served (vv. 6–10)

Peter’s resistance is not false humility; it is the fear of vulnerability.
To let Jesus wash your feet is to admit need, dirt, dependence.

We often prefer:

• to serve rather than be served,
• to give rather than receive,
• to appear strong rather than be exposed.

But Jesus is clear: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

Reflection:

• Where do I resist God’s grace because it makes me feel weak, needy, or unworthy?
• What would it mean for me to let Christ serve me today?

3. Love That Goes to the End (v. 1)

John frames this whole action with one sentence:

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

The foot-washing is not a lesson about manners.
It is a sign of the cross in advance:

• lowering,
• self-giving,
• sacrificial love.

Jesus’ power is not used to control suffering, but to enter it for the sake of love.

Reflection:

• Do I believe that love sometimes means choosing loss rather than victory?
• How does this reshape my understanding of success, faithfulness, and leadership?

4. Example Before Command (vv. 12–15)

Jesus does not begin with a rule; he begins with an action.
Only after washing their feet does he say, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”

Christian service is never about proving goodness. It is participation in the life and way of Jesus.

Reflection:

• Where might Jesus be calling me not just to believe something, but to do something costly and concrete?
• Whose “feet” might I be sent to wash—figuratively or literally?

5. Blessed If You Do (v. 17)

The blessing Jesus promises is not for knowledge, but for practice.
Not admiration, but imitation.

This is Maundy Thursday:

• the command to love,
• the invitation to kneel,
• the freedom that comes from being washed.

Closing Prayer (optional):

Lord Jesus,
you kneel before us in love
and call us to live the same way.
Give us the grace to receive your service
and the courage to serve as you have served us.
Amen.

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