Our "Soles" in His Hands

I’d like to begin tonight by defining the word “Maundy” because it’s an old word that we don’t use anymore.  Knowing what the word Maundy means helps us have a better sense of what this night is all about.

The word Maundy comes from a Latin word that means “commandment” or “to command”. We can still see the remnants of the word in some modern words like Mandate and Mandatory.

And the reason today is called Maundy Thursday or Commandment Thursday, is because it was on this night that Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment “I give you a new commandment as I have loved you so you should love one another.”

That’s the commandment of Maundy Thursday Christ’s new commandment to love one another as he first loved us.

And so we’re here tonight as Christ’s disciples to receive that commandment again.

And in order to for us to love one another as Christ loved us we have to first understand how Christ loves us.  And so Jesus provides the disciples and us with the perfect visual metaphor to define his love; he washes the disciples’ feet.

He asks them to put their soles into his hands so that he can wash them clean.

And in doing so, he teaches us about his love for us a love that the bible describes this way:

As the bible says:

            “Even though he was in the form of God –

              “And equal with God –

             Jesus “emptied himself …

                 “And took on the form of a servant” –

            “He humbled himself,” the bible says –

                 “And became obedient to the point of death …

                        “Even death on a cross.”

And so, Jesus showed his love to the disciples by serving them by washing their soles. And in doing so, he shows us the true nature of his love which is shown in his act of becoming our servant in order to cleanse our souls through his death and resurrection.

And so just as he asked the disciples to put their soles into his hands.  So he asks us to put our souls into his hands so that he can wash us clean from sin.

And so here is the extent of the love Christ commanded ,“Love one another as I have loved you,” he tells us.”

And how does Jesus love us? By giving up everything he has, up to and including his life, in order to serve us and to save us and wash us clean.

We see his love displayed in this humble act of holding out his hands and asking us to bare our souls to him Both our soles and souls.

And just as Jesus’ foot washing is a perfect metaphor for his washing away our sin, so is Peter’s reaction a perfect metaphor for our reluctance to bare our souls to Jesus.

Admitting our deepest, darkest secrets is not something we readily do.  And so bearing out sinful souls to someone, even to Christ, requires a tremendous amount of courage and trust.

We have to trust that the person we tell will not think less of us or judge us or stop loving us.

And so tonight, as Christ once again invites us to bare our sinful souls to him, I would remind you that you can trust him as he tells us in John chapter 3:

            “I didn’t come to judge the world –

                        “I came to save it.”

And so there’s no amount of dirt on our souls or sin in our hearts that will ever change his love for us, or his intention to save us from it.

So let us let Christ love us by putting our souls into his hands, and let him wash us clean.