Summary: Exodus 12: 1-8,11-14 + Psalm 116 + 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 + John 13: 1-15 A powerful deed of love is set against a dreadful deed of betrayal.There is something horrible about being betrayed by one who has shared the food of the table. John’s description is simple and direct. At the very moment Jesus extends his love and friendship to Judas, Satan takes over his heart. Judas does not leave until after the washing of his feet. Notice that point.It is one who has received the food of that table;one who has been loved, washed, served, and saved that betrays.This is the great sadness and tragedy in this story.It is not an enemy.It is not someone who is threatened by the teachings of this “just man.”It is not some foreignor or angry terrorist who commits this deed.It is one who is loved; who was privileged to see what others had not seen;who was a blessed companion of the Son of Man. Evil is alive and active in the most intimate relationships.John sets before us tonight a pair of realities:the foot washing on one hand and the betrayal on the other.They capture the meaning of Jesus: divine love expressed concretely and vividlyanswered by the reality of human evil. In the face of it, the other disciples remain totally naive,and so there is yet a second tragic sadness.They don’t get it, and so they do nothing to stop it.Their failure to grasp the reality of divine love in Jesus,the truth of a humble God who would serve rather than be servedcalling them to imitate that divine loving service is just beyond them. It is a twisted tragedy that continues to be lived and suffered in every generation.Children who grow up in loving homes betray, abandon, and refuse the faith and tradition of parents who have clothed, fed, nursed, washed, and given them life itself in suffering and pain. They simply walk away from the beliefs and customs most treasured by their parents like the child of the prodigal father.It is always those who are close who hurt us the most.And so it is with God. This is the story of this night.We have taken from this table what has been given to us,while remaining naive about what it means and what happens to us here.The greatest sadness of sin is that chosen, holy, and believing people remain sinful.The tragedy here is that a broken divided people remain sowhile sharing in the very food that should make us one.The shame is that we take for granted and then only when convenientthis gift of life, peace, and reconciliation. This is a night to ponder an ironic reality.We began in joyful song with bells ringing,and we conclude in a different mood cast by the reality of love betrayed.We came in here talking and laughing, full of smiles and good cheer.We will leave in a different way: in silence and recollection about what is to come.As we reach out our hand to receive a “morsel” we must face and acknowledge the power of evil within us all - within the chosen, loved disciples. We must rise above the ignorance and naivete that excuses our failure to grasp, to live, and to preserve what we have been given.We must rise above the complacency that ever allows us to take this gift of love in sacrament for granted; walking up these aisles as though we were approaching the checkout at the grocery, reaching and grabbing, quick to leave for something more important.We must rise above the laziness and ingratitude that ever allows us to think of missing one opporunity, one Sunday, one Holy Day when we might let the Lord come under our roof to speak the word of healing and peace. We are Judas and we are Peter.We are sinful and naive.We can do something about naivete and its consequences.God can do something about sin and its conseqences.The next two days will resolve what happens when love is betrayed by a loved one.The rest of our lives will reveal what happens when the glory of truth removes the shallow and empty ignorance and naivete that keeps us from becoming what we were made to be and remembering what a price was paid by God for us all.When that day comes, we’ll all be on the floor with a towel and water.
