Easier Said Than Done with Ben Carruthers

Well, good evening.

I practice that all day, so it's normally a good morning, so I've been practicing.

Thanks for worshiping with us tonight.

My name is Ben Carruthers, I'm the Director of Student and Family Ministry here and I there's this Maundy Thursday service as a special place in my heart because many, many years ago it was one of the first services I had the opportunity to preach at and bring the message at.

Ago, it was one of the first services I had the opportunity to preach at and bring the message at, and the first five minutes of my message tonight was all about the history of Maundy Thursday.

What does it mean?

I want to really share with you how I know this Latin word, and Ryan ruined that for me, so, but the sermon's five minutes shorter because of it as well.

So, but yeah, this thing called Maundy Thursday it's.

You know I'm not like.

Years ago I had the opportunity to preach and teach on it, and if you are here tonight and if you thought that you were coming to a Maundy Thursday service, you're in good company, because the first time I got up to preach, my notes at the top said Maundy Thursday service.

I had grown up in a Lutheran church.

I had really never attended a Maundy Thursday service and no one in my family could tell me what it was, so I thought it was Monday, thursday.

I'm in seminary now and I am very glad that I figured that out before I got there.

That could be a big, they would have kicked me out.

But this is that's a special place in my heart, this idea of Jesus gathering with his closest friends to share in this meal together, moments before he's arrested and beaten and crucified the Easter story that we talk about.

Moments he's with his friends and he gives them this new commandment to love one another as I have loved you.

So simple.

We say, we say it every week at church and we think, yeah, to love one another as Christ loved us.

No problem, this is not the easiest thing to do.

It's much easier said than done.

A few weeks ago, I have four kids, my two youngest boys, ezra's five and Arlo is seven.

They were in the backseat of the car and doing what young boys do.

They were, you know, fighting and yelling and you crossed the line.

No, you crossed the line, that whole thing.

And instead of being my normal stop it, knock it off and pulling the car around.

I'm like you know what, guys, why don't you just love one another?

Okay, just love one another, you know.

And they're like and then it was really quiet and I'm like all right, that worked.

That was great Parenting 101.

The next thing I know some guy cuts me off and I turn into just the Hulk man driving.

It's bad.

Somebody cuts me off and I get real mad and I yell schmohawk, that's the word I use.

I don't know why I yell that, that's just the word.

And my seven-year-old son, arlo, in the back, he's like hey, dad, love one another.

Easier said than done, son.

This commandment is easier said than done, son.

This commandment is easier said than done.

And so tonight what I want to look at is what does it mean when he says to love others as he has loved us?

What does that love look like?

And the second thing I want to look at is why.

Why, in his last moments with his close friends, is this the commandment he gives?

That's got to be pretty important.

He's knowing the road that is ahead of him and this is what he leaves with his disciples and close friends, and this is what he leaves with us.

So what exactly does this look like and why?

Let's pray, heavenly Father, lord, we give you thanks and praise for an opportunity to gather and to dive into this story, a story that sets up the rest of the story this week.

And so, lord, help us to dig into this story, whether we know it or not, whether this is the first time we're hearing it or the hundredth or whatever time, let us hear it with open heart and open eyes, open ears.

Let it be a story not just of words being said, but of transformation for each and every single one of us in this room.

It's in your name.

We pray, amen.

So this is not necessarily a new commandment.

I know we say this is a new commandment, I leave with you.

But that first part where Jesus says to love one another these guys in the room would have heard that before.

They would have tried to live by this before.

This is straight out of Leviticus, an Old Testament book where these guys would have known this passage of scripture and lived by it.

Leviticus 19.18 says love your neighbor as yourself.

So they're sitting here.

It says a new commandment I leave with you to love one another.

Disciples are like yeah, we know that, we got that.

That's old school Leviticus.

We understand.

But this second piece, as I have loved you.

Sometimes, when we have a piece of scripture, I like to look at a bunch of different translations, right?

Because sometimes one translation might look at a different Greek or Hebrew word and the whole verse transforms and takes on a new life.

And so with this one, I went through all these different passages and the message is clear.

Right, they're all pretty much the same right To love one another as I have loved you.

Just as I have loved you, you should love one another, even the message.

Let me give you a new command love one another in the same way that, in the same way, loved you, you love one another.

They are very, very similar, even the Gen Z translation, which is a real translation spread love, fam.

Treat others the way I've treated you.

Gotta show love to one another.

Now, if you don't know what that means, the Peterson boys in the front row here could probably translate for you after the sermon.

This is a very clear to love one another as I have loved you.

So what does this love look like?

What does this love look like?

And in this passage.

If you want to to follow along, you can open up your Bibles to page 876.

In the Gospel of John, before even he comes to this new commandment, moments before Jesus is showing them what he means.

In the stories leading up to this moment where he gives the new commandment, he is showing his disciples exactly what he means, and it's not a definition of love that he's interested in here.

This is not a 1 Corinthians 13.

If you want to know what the definition of love is, go to any wedding.

Love is patient, love is kind.

This is not what Jesus is talking about here.

This is the verb.

This is the love as an action.

What does it look like?

And moments before he gives us this final commandment, he is living it out in their very eyes, in this very room.

Jesus is showing them what it looks like.

So what I want to do is I want to start there.

I want to look at John 13, starting at verse 1, where Jesus gets down on his hands and knees and washes his disciples' feet.

That's how this night starts off by getting into this room and Jesus, their rabbi, their teacher, someone who would never do this, never get down on their hands and feet and wash their feet.

This is something that was done all the time in their custom.

Right.

People walked everywhere where they went, and they didn't have fancy shoes, they had sandals and they had dirt roads, so their feet were very dirty.

And so when they entered someone's home, there would be a servant or a slave with a water basin that would wash their feet before they entered into a home, but never someone of Jesus' stature, never a rabbi or a teacher.

As a matter of fact, some of the disciples are like no, jesus, you cannot do this, get up.

And in this moment he is showing them what love looks like.

What does it look like To lower yourself to this place to wash someone's feet?

So maybe, possibly, love looks like servanthood.

Maybe love looks like something that stretches you and makes you feel uncomfortable.

Raise your hand if you've ever washed someone's feet before.

Raise your hand if you're glad you've never washed someone's feet before.

My very first mission trip I led was to Thunder Bay, canada, and I had a group of 18 high school students and I went to this company called YouthWorks, excuse me and during the week we did all this amazing serving work and the very last night, unbeknownst to me, I had no idea is there's a big foot washing ceremony and I had no idea.

That morning we woke up and the leader said hey, by the way, tonight's our foot washing.

And I was like, say what?

What's that?

What's that all about?

I've never done that.

I'm like, oh, it's going to be great.

You're going to get in a big circle with your students no-transcript your feet.

And that week these students went to pretty horrible places.

They served in some pretty scary places.

They met what they would call pretty scary people, but nothing brought a look of horror on their face when they had to wash someone else's feet.

And I watched as they went around to the next person, to the next person, their eyes bulging, just I can't believe this is happening.

And then this poor sweet girl, who was unfortunately sitting next to me, had to wash my feet and I was known to have what the students in my youth group called turtle shell feet Because I didn't wear shoes or socks at all ever, and they were just hard as rock.

And I looked at her and I'm like I'm sorry, right, and she had to wash my feet.

But what I loved about that is because it stretched them.

It was something they didn't want to do.

Sometimes this act of love takes us out of our comfort zone.

Sometimes it means loving people that we don't think we can love.

Sometimes it means doing something like washing someone's feet or going and Pastor Ryan says it all the time if you want to see where Jesus is, go to the soup kitchens, go to the youth drop-in centers, and maybe that makes us really uncomfortable and we don't want to do that.

We'd just rather, maybe write a check and they need that too.

That's awesome, but maybe that's the part that stretches us and maybe that's what love looks like.

Maybe that's what Jesus is laying out right in front of the disciples' eyes that night when he says to love each other as I have loved you.

Think about five minutes ago when I knelt down and washed your feet.

Maybe that's what love looks like.

Maybe that's what love looks like If we go to the very next part of John 13,.

We read the story of Jesus telling the group that one of them will betray them, that one of them at that table is going to betray Jesus, to be handed over, to be arrested, and so this whole night's kind of ups and downs.

Right, they're gathering for this Passover meal and all of a sudden Jesus is washing feet, feet, which kind of changes the mood dramatically.

And then he's at the table.

He says one of you will betray me.

And they're all up in arms, like what are you talking about?

This will never happen.

And they say who is going to do this?

And the scriptures it says the one who I dip this bread in this cup and give it to is my betrayer.

What a weird way to identify someone.

If you're at that table and you're like man, someone's going to betray me.

And they're like who?

It's the guy in the hat, it's Judas.

In the back row.

It'll be a lot easier than saying the guy who I dip this bread and give this bread to is my betrayer.

Well, that's a really important sign here.

It's a really important symbol bread to is my betrayer.

Well, that's a really important sign here.

It's a really important symbol because in the day, in the context, that act of giving someone food was an act of friendship.

And so by doing that, by offering Judas this bread dipped in oil, it's an act of friendship To his betrayer, to the one who will turn him in to be arrested and beaten and led to the cross.

Jesus offers friendship.

And if we read in the book of Matthew, when he is arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane and Judas goes and kisses him on the cheek.

Jesus calls him something, he calls him friend.

Maybe love is being stretched to a place where we don't want to go to offer friendship, to offer forgiveness.

These two acts happen in the moments leading up to Jesus giving us this commandment.

And I say maybe.

I say maybe this is what love looks like, maybe this is it, maybe this is it, could this be it, maybe this is an example of it, because this third piece that Jesus says, I think, sums it up perfectly.

And so I've done the Monday Thursday message this will be my fourth one here and I've done numerous at a different church and let me tell you, it gets harder and harder to find new material right.

And so I went back and looked and I'm like man, I love this story.

I love this story.

So I went back and kept reading the Scriptures and reading the Scriptures and one piece caught my eye, and I've read this story numerous times and finally I'm like what is this all about?

Jesus calls his disciples something.

He calls them little children.

Jesus says little children I'm about to leave you.

Why does he call them little children?

In the Greek there are two words for little children, and they're right here.

And the first one is paedia.

Everyone say paedia, all right.

Then everyone say technion, all right.

Now, you don't know Greek because I'm sure I said it wrong, so don't.

The first one, paedia, is one used almost everywhere else in the New Testament for little children, and it's used in a way where it's a teacher and student relationship.

But here in John's writing and in the other books written by John, he uses this other word, technion, nine times to use the word little children, and every single time he does it to adults, and this word is the relationship between a parent and a child.

So why, in a room full of grown men, would Jesus use the word little children as a parent-daughter-son relationship?

I think he's telling them what it means to love like he loves.

I think it means to love as a parent loves a child.

Why?

Because they are children of God.

Because that person in the pew with you, that neighbor that maybe you can't stand, or that co-worker that gets under your skin, is a child of God.

I have four kids and I love them all equally, right, no matter what they say and might think.

I love them all equally.

But as a parent, you have to know you love them equally, but in different ways.

You have to know you love them equally, but in different ways.

So just the other day, a couple days ago, my youngest, ezra, woke up and then like crying.

And so when he cries, you know he's like daddy, daddy.

And so the first thing I do is I say hey, honey, the kid wants you.

You know, she's like he's yelling for you.

So I get up and I go and I'm like buddy, what's the matter?

He's like I had a nightmare.

I'm like all right, bud, you matter?

He's like I had a nightmare.

I'm like all right, bud, you want, you want to come lay with dad, yeah, yeah.

So we grab his blankies and we go into our bed and he snuggles in and I hold him tight because he's really upset, he's crying.

I said, buddy, what was your nightmare about?

And he's holding back tears and he's like I had a dream that you ate the last donut, like what I did.

But dream that you ate the last donut, I'm like what I did.

But that's beside the facts.

I'm like, buddy, it's okay, we'll get a donut for you.

And so I let him sleep in that bed and he fell right asleep.

But for my five-year-old Ezra, whose emotions were thrown out of whack because he thought the last donut was gone.

The way that I, his father, needed to show love to him was to pull him in my bed and hold him tight and say it's going to be okay.

Now, when my 15-year-old son, 9th grade son Isaiah, has a nightmare, I don't go downstairs, lift that giant boy up in my arms and bring him to my bed and hold him close and say it's going to be okay, because that'd be really weird, because that's not how he needs to be loved.

In that moment, when my older kids come home and they're dealing with relationships in school and struggles in school, they need to be loved a different way than my five-year-old, than my seven-year-old.

Because here's the thing, what does love look like?

It looks different, and I think that's the most important piece of this Jesus saying little children, because you love children in a different way.

You love them equally.

They have your love, but you love them in unique and different ways, and that changes from circumstance to circumstance.

And that's how Jesus, that's how God loves you, because sometimes you need to be wrapped in his arms and hear the words it's going to be okay.

Other times you need to hear, man.

Maybe what you're doing isn't right.

See, not just these few moments leading up to this is Jesus giving the example.

The whole gospel is littered with stories of him showing how to love in unique and different ways.

Matthew the tax collector he calls him when no one else would give him the time of day to come and follow him, doubting Thomas.

He's the one that needed to see the holes in the hands and feet of Jesus to believe and he shows up.

He shows up in front of Thomas to show him because that's how Thomas needed to be loved the woman caught in adultery.

He stands up for justice and says whoever has, whoever's without sin, throw the stone.

And they all drop their stones and they leave.

He had to show love by standing up for justice, but he also said go and sin no more.

You see, the way that Jesus loves us is the way that he loves children, the way that we love children, because love is a verb, it's an action, it's a doing thing and it looks different.

Sometimes it's going to look getting down on your hands and knees and being a servant.

Sometimes it's going to be offering that piece of bread in forgiveness and friendship.

So this little children piece is the transformation piece.

So this little children piece is the transformation piece when he says to love each other as I have loved you.

We love because everyone is a child of God.

What does that look like?

Maybe this idea of loving as God loves us, as all we are all children of God, maybe means a family member that you need to forgive, a friend, you need to ask forgiveness for A co-worker who makes your blood boil, the neighbor who has opposing politician signs in their yard, or maybe some guy who cuts you off on the highway.

It's going to look different, but all those people are children of the living God.

I want to leave you with this.

Tonight, here at Central, ryan and Sonia closed the service with a benediction and we don't have that tonight.

But I want to close this message with a benediction, and in the benediction they say the line that you may know that you are a beloved child of God, and it's absolutely true and we need to know that as truth.

But tonight I want to leave you the benediction that reminds us that the people in the pews, the people you get in the car with, the people on the road, the people at your office your neighbors.

They too are children of God and we are called to love them.

And maybe that love is going to stretch you, maybe that love is going to bring you to a place that you never thought you would be able to go.

But this is his last command to us to love each other as we are all children of God.

To us to love each other as we are all children of God.

So receive this benediction.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord look upon you in favor and may you know in the deepest parts of your soul that you are a beloved child of God.

And may you see others in the same light and love them as children of the living God.

Amen.