1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“The Good News Is…Even Judas Got His Feet Washed”
Preached Thursday, April 2, 2026 (Maundy Thursday)
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
This is the Good News of this night - a night of love. A night of service. A night of water and towels. A night of bread and wine. A night of Good News.
And the part of the Good News we are focusing on tonight in our Maundy Thursday meditation, is that Jesus’s love, Jesus’s service of foot washing, and Jesus’s invitation to the first Lord’s Supper - included Judas. He was present for the foot washing. He was present for the institution of Holy Communion. And he was one of Jesus’s own - loved until the end.
Yes, even Judas. And that also allows us to say, “Yes, even him.” “Yes, even her.” “Yes, even the one I despise.” And, perhaps, “Yes, even me.”
I think, at our core, as humans, all we ever really want to know is that we are loved. Loved by the people who gave birth to us. Loved by our caretakers. Loved by friends. Loved by significant others. Loved by God. For most people, there is never enough assurance that we are loved enough. We are always seeking love and seeking proof and assurance of the love we have.
And the world warps our own self-image as one created in the image of God and called “very good” by that God, to a mess. To someone full of faults and mistakes. Even when we say, “I’m only human” - this is what we mean. We are sinful people prone to follow our worst natures, inklings, and desires. Even if we “aren’t that bad” - even if we are generally good people, we can still have low self-esteem, be our own worst critics, and see only the bad parts when we look at ourselves.
In the Poem, “Even Now,” The Rev. Sarah Speed, gets to the gist of this human desire to know we are loved:
We ask the question a million different times
over the course of lives.
Do you love me even now?
As children we ask this question
with eyes the size of saucers
and a quivering bottom lip.
In our teenage years,
we ask the question by pushing people away
and paying attention to who comes back.
As adults we ask the question by
extending the first invitation
and seeing who returns the kindness.
Over and over again we ask the world,
Do you love me even now?
The thing I’ve learned about God
is that, no matter what comes before “even now,”
the answer will always be yes.
End quote.
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
Judas betrayed Jesus, ultimately setting up the dominoes to fall - for his death to his resurrection. In the Gospel tellings of this last night with his disciples, we see Jesus address Judas’s betrayal in various ways - and yet, he doesn’t say “this is my body, broken for you. My blood, shed for you. Except for you, Judas, you are beyond the pale - not worthy of grace and forgiveness.” And even as Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean” in tonight’s reading from John - Jesus had not yet named Judas a betrayer. He got down on his hands and knees before Judas, washed his feet, and showed him a service of love - yes, even him.
Ultimately, it was up to Judas as to whether he would accept the love, grace, forgiveness that Jesus was offering him. After all, Peter betrayed Jesus that very night as well. Denying him three times. - and yet, after his resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the beach and allows him to accept forgiveness of himself, asking him three times, “Do you love me?” and allowing Peter to answer three times, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Three declarations of love to counter act three denials of Jesus - opening room in Peter’s heart to accept the love and forgiveness that Jesus was offering him.
If we used our Biblical imaginations, we might imagine a future where, after his death and resurrection, Jesus met Judas and offered him the chance to repent. What would it have looked like to repent for Judas?
Unfortunately, we don’t know because Judas could not accept God’s forgiveness for him in this life. Perhaps, his thoughts mirror our thoughts in our darkest moment: “I am not worthy of love. I am not worthy of forgiveness.”
But. And. The Good News of the Gospel is that…Jesus was still offering that grace and forgiveness to Judas. He was offering him love and service through the washing of feet. He was offering him a place of belonging and participation in the salvific act of forgiveness through Holy Communion. It is as we say in our Communion liturgy, “When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.”
Jesus’s love for Judas was steadfast. God’s love for you is steadfast.
And the part of the Good News we are focusing on tonight in our Maundy Thursday meditation, is that Jesus’s love, Jesus’s service of foot washing, and Jesus’s invitation to the first Lord’s Supper - included Judas. He was present for the foot washing. He was present for the institution of Holy Communion. And he was one of Jesus’s own - loved until the end.
Yes, even Judas. And that also allows us to say, “Yes, even him.” “Yes, even her.” “Yes, even the one I despise.” And, perhaps, “Yes, even me.”
I think, at our core, as humans, all we ever really want to know is that we are loved. Loved by the people who gave birth to us. Loved by our caretakers. Loved by friends. Loved by significant others. Loved by God. For most people, there is never enough assurance that we are loved enough. We are always seeking love and seeking proof and assurance of the love we have.
And the world warps our own self-image as one created in the image of God and called “very good” by that God, to a mess. To someone full of faults and mistakes. Even when we say, “I’m only human” - this is what we mean. We are sinful people prone to follow our worst natures, inklings, and desires. Even if we “aren’t that bad” - even if we are generally good people, we can still have low self-esteem, be our own worst critics, and see only the bad parts when we look at ourselves.
In the Poem, “Even Now,” The Rev. Sarah Speed, gets to the gist of this human desire to know we are loved:
We ask the question a million different times
over the course of lives.
Do you love me even now?
As children we ask this question
with eyes the size of saucers
and a quivering bottom lip.
In our teenage years,
we ask the question by pushing people away
and paying attention to who comes back.
As adults we ask the question by
extending the first invitation
and seeing who returns the kindness.
Over and over again we ask the world,
Do you love me even now?
The thing I’ve learned about God
is that, no matter what comes before “even now,”
the answer will always be yes.
End quote.
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
Judas betrayed Jesus, ultimately setting up the dominoes to fall - for his death to his resurrection. In the Gospel tellings of this last night with his disciples, we see Jesus address Judas’s betrayal in various ways - and yet, he doesn’t say “this is my body, broken for you. My blood, shed for you. Except for you, Judas, you are beyond the pale - not worthy of grace and forgiveness.” And even as Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean” in tonight’s reading from John - Jesus had not yet named Judas a betrayer. He got down on his hands and knees before Judas, washed his feet, and showed him a service of love - yes, even him.
Ultimately, it was up to Judas as to whether he would accept the love, grace, forgiveness that Jesus was offering him. After all, Peter betrayed Jesus that very night as well. Denying him three times. - and yet, after his resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the beach and allows him to accept forgiveness of himself, asking him three times, “Do you love me?” and allowing Peter to answer three times, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Three declarations of love to counter act three denials of Jesus - opening room in Peter’s heart to accept the love and forgiveness that Jesus was offering him.
If we used our Biblical imaginations, we might imagine a future where, after his death and resurrection, Jesus met Judas and offered him the chance to repent. What would it have looked like to repent for Judas?
Unfortunately, we don’t know because Judas could not accept God’s forgiveness for him in this life. Perhaps, his thoughts mirror our thoughts in our darkest moment: “I am not worthy of love. I am not worthy of forgiveness.”
But. And. The Good News of the Gospel is that…Jesus was still offering that grace and forgiveness to Judas. He was offering him love and service through the washing of feet. He was offering him a place of belonging and participation in the salvific act of forgiveness through Holy Communion. It is as we say in our Communion liturgy, “When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.”
Jesus’s love for Judas was steadfast. God’s love for you is steadfast.
There is nothing you can do to change God’s invitation to you to come to Jesus, to accept grace and love, and to be forgiven. The only thing keeping us from God’s love is ourselves. It is as CS Lewis said, the gates of hell are locked from the inside - or even that there are no gates, the only thing that could ever keep us from God is just…ourselves.
And this is hard news. For us. And it is also very very Good News for us. The invitation is here to accept God’s love. It’s wide open. It always will be - tonight and for forever.
I am going to end with one more poem by the Rev. Sarah Speed because it’s so good. It’s called “If You Hear Nothing Else, Then Hear This.”
You can make a fool of yourself.
You can bet on the wrong thing,
lose it all, unravel people’s trust.
You can laugh at a funeral,
curse in a church, say the wrong thing
at the wrong time, every time.
You can lose yourself in a bottle,
a relationship, a false sense of security.
You can uncover prejudice
and wrestle with the shame of it all.
You can withhold an apology,
blame it on someone else,
tell yourself it’s not your fault.
You can trade in love
for a bag of coins.
And even then,
even still,
even now,
Jesus will love you enough to
wash your feet.
If you hear nothing else in the gospel,
hear this.
End quote.
If you hear nothing else in the Gospel tonight hear this Good News: God’s love for you is steadfast.
And this is hard news. For us. And it is also very very Good News for us. The invitation is here to accept God’s love. It’s wide open. It always will be - tonight and for forever.
I am going to end with one more poem by the Rev. Sarah Speed because it’s so good. It’s called “If You Hear Nothing Else, Then Hear This.”
You can make a fool of yourself.
You can bet on the wrong thing,
lose it all, unravel people’s trust.
You can laugh at a funeral,
curse in a church, say the wrong thing
at the wrong time, every time.
You can lose yourself in a bottle,
a relationship, a false sense of security.
You can uncover prejudice
and wrestle with the shame of it all.
You can withhold an apology,
blame it on someone else,
tell yourself it’s not your fault.
You can trade in love
for a bag of coins.
And even then,
even still,
even now,
Jesus will love you enough to
wash your feet.
If you hear nothing else in the gospel,
hear this.
End quote.
If you hear nothing else in the Gospel tonight hear this Good News: God’s love for you is steadfast.
Amen.
