Sermons 2025

SERMON OUTLINE
Jesus has everything in His hands
What Jesus did not do
All things are in His hands, even the disciples’ feet
Our Teacher and Lord, who serves
The Hand of the Lord serves not only as a model but, above all, as our Savior
Jesus feeds with His body and blood
Jesus continues to hand us His good gifts
We love because He first loved us

SERMON

Let us pray: O Lord, may the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in Your sight our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. 

If you will remember from last week, we heard that Father gave all things into Jesus’ hand. He has the whole world in His hand. He has our very lives in His hands.

Tonight, the hour has now come for the Son of Man to be glorified. For everything the Father wills to be completed. As we heard in our Gospel, John writes, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God” (John 13:3). 

Jesus knew that He was the only Son from the Father, fully God and fully man. Jesus was given authority to lay down His life and take it up again. Jesus knew that Judas was about to betray Him. Jesus knew that on this very night He was about to be delivered into the hands of sinful men.

On this night, what did Jesus do with His hands? Did He hold them up, saying, “Stop, stop!” and put a halt to everything? Did He clinch His fists, put up His dukes, ready to fight for His own life? No. Jesus “rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him” (John 13:4–5).

Jesus’ hands were capable of great power, capable of miracles upon miracles. He used the divine and holy hands of God to serve others. He dressed as a servant and went about washing filthy, dirty feet. Foot washing was an act of service for people who spend their days walking on dusty and dirty roads and paths. The person who typically did this job was a slave. It was the job that no one really wanted to do. Yet our Lord took up this task! He brought Himself low, all the way to the ground, literally. He took those fatigued and filthy feet into His hands. All things have been given into His hands, even the feet of His disciples. And He lovingly washes them.

When Peter exclaims that Jesus should wash more than his feet, Jesus makes a point to say, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:14–15). The lives of His disciples are to model this way of service for others. We model Jesus, as He has given, and shown, us what real love and service is.

Though washing feet had great cultural meaning for the disciples during that time, it does not carry the same kind of weight for us today. 

Jesus is not telling you today that you literally have to wash people’s feet. Jesus did not wash feet to institute a sacrament that forgives sins. 

However, this act shows the Lord’s heart for and service to His people. The Lord has given each of us many gifts for the sake of serving our neighbors. Why has the Lord given you this or that talent, time, or treasure? To use it for the sake of others! 

This act of service is not what makes you worthy before God. It is not about us. It is not about our positions, money, status, or education. Nor should we fall into the sin of pride and think along the lines of “That form of service is below me. I’ll serve on my terms in the things that I like and want to do.” Your life is that of a disciple who follows Jesus. Those that follow Jesus do so by showing a servant kind of love towards one another.

If there was ever anyone on this earth who deserved to be served, it is Jesus! He is indeed “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made” (Nicene Creed)! But He has done what only He could do, for He is more than a Teacher or an example for us to follow. He is above all our Savior! 

And how has He saved you? Jesus went all the way to the cross! He gave His very life for you! He shed His blood. He died on that cross. All to forgive you of your sins. He carried our selfish, greedy, and arrogant sin, which deserves only eternal punishment, to the tree of death, where He by dying defeated death! By His death, He destroyed death. Jesus “came not to be served but to serve and give His life for the ransom of many” (Mark 10:45; see also Matthew 20:28). He did it all for you. He did it out of love for you.

As Saint Paul reminds us, our Lord served His disciples in another way with His hands on Holy Thursday. Saint Paul is speaking to a divided people of God who thought their purpose was to be served. He draws them back to the service of Jesus for them. It is the service of Jesus that is also for us. He gave thanks, took bread into His hands, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take, eat, this is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me” (see 1 Corinthians 11:24). And then with those same hands, “He took the cup, after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (v. 25). This is Jesus’ last will and testament before His death. These words remain true forever. He served His disciples then. He serves His disciples today.

Now this is the blessed Sacrament. Instituted by Jesus, uniting Jesus’ words with the elements of bread and wine and delivering this forgiveness of sins! This gift continues even to this day. This is the gift of the Lord’s service to you that is being offered this night. Jesus feeds you with His very body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. 

We trust our Lord and take Jesus at His word. That same creative authoritative word that spoke all things into existence at Creation, breaks forth into our present reality. “This IS My body” means “this IS My body.” “This . . . IS . . . My blood” means “this IS My blood.” This meal is not about what we are doing, but about what Jesus is doing for us! His body and His blood being handed to you that you receive with your lips is His service to you. 

We can think of it this way. Husbands, wives, how often do you say I love you? Was it only on your wedding day and that was it? Hopefully not! That is what Jesus is saying every time we celebrate the blessed Sacrament. Jesus feeds us His body and blood saying, Sinner, Dear beloved child, I love you. I love you. Every single week. 

This love leads you out from this table to follow Jesus’ new commandment to love one another. Having been filled with Jesus, you will go out from here and love your neighbors, especially the household of faith. Use your hands to serve them, to love them, to bring Jesus to them. They need to hear what you know today. Jesus loves them as well. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10–11). 

Your love for others is not about you. Having all things in His hand, Jesus served and loved you first. He serves and loves you still. His love never ends. He continues to give you His very body and blood for your forgiveness in the blessed Sacrament.

In Jesus Name. Amen.