The Triduum with Jeremy Taylor (Caian, 1613-1667)

THE TRIDUUM WITH JEREMY TAYLOR (CAIAN, 1613-1667)

Revd Dr Cally Hammond, Dean of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfil the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.  20 Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.” 21 After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23 One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; 24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.  27 After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival”; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

31   When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.

Jeremy Taylor, The Great Exemplar: ‘The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet by Jesus, and his Sermon of Humility’

Coming to Salisbury feels like a Passiontide pilgrimage; coming to a city where my father was, for a little while, at the cathedral school; coming to the cathedral which my old friend, Jeremy Davies, served so well for so long as Precentor.

Visitors should bring gifts, a thank-you for their invitation and welcome. I bring a gift of words, from a man who was a Fellow of my College in the 17C; who was also the kindest spiritual writer in the English language – Jeremy Taylor.

Tonight I bring words about Maundy Thursday; to help us experience the events of this evening. Perhaps that upper room in Jerusalem, those gathered disciples, can become as real to us here, now, as this building and the people around us.

Two of Jeremy Taylor’s best-loved spiritual guide-books are called Holy Living and Holy Dying. If Holy Dying speaks to Good Friday, Holy Living speaks to Maundy Thursday. On this day, we are being given a new commandment, an actual addition to the original 10 given to Moses – think of that! That commandment is to love one another.

Both days teach us something about love – Good Friday will be the love that lays down its life; Maundy Thursday the love that lives on in communion.

For Jeremy Taylor, the heart of holy living is holy communion. Every time we take communion, we can see ourselves as part of that first Last Supper. If you want to, now, you can close your eyes; awaken your imagination; picture yourself in that upper room in Jerusalem. Who are you, among the 12? If you are as courageous as Jeremy Taylor, you will go, in your imagination, where we all most fear to go: to find ourselves in Judas.

Every one of us betrays our Lord. There are many ways to do it. It is so easy. Wilfully ignore the teaching of the gospel, in pursuit of some inferior desire. Fail to do good: not speaking up when others are bullied or belittled, even abused. Resist, deep-down, the truth of God, crushing the inner voice of conscience.

In private, secret ways, we are all Judas. Tonight is the night for facing that fact. But not as an exercise in self-disgust, because Judas is not all that we are. Sometimes we are Peter, sometimes John, the beloved disciple. Sometimes one of the women, excluded, perhaps we are listening outside the door.

Jeremy Taylor gives us a prayer for after we take communion. It reminds us that Judas ate of the bread of that first holy communion; Judas had his feet washed, by his Lord and God. So Taylor prays, Let not my sins crucify the Lord of life again: let it never be said concerning me, “The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on this table.”

All of us can pray for courage to do and be what is right:

• do not let my sins crucify Christ again;
• do not let me offer my hand or kiss in fake friendship;
• do not let me offer the Lord less than his love for me deserves.

That is a good beginning: every true penitent is sorry for sin, resolves not to sin again. But Christ asks more of us than that. There must be a positive as well as a negative; a someone that we become, not just a someone that we stop being.

In Taylor’s life of Christ, The Great Exemplar, he wrote this: Christ…undertook the condition of a servant, and a life of poverty, and a death of disgrace; and washed the feet of his disciples, and even of Judas himself, that his action might be turned into a sermon to preach this duty, and to make it as eternal as his own story.

Christian discipleship is not primarily about don’t, it’s about do: Paul put it perfectly in 2 Cor 1.19: Jesus Christ is not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.”
For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.”

A Hebrew professor once pointed out to me that in Eden, God did all the work while Adam and Eve lazed about. Here and now, Jesus renews his Father’s example by washing the feet of his disciples. As we should have known he would, because he told us, I am among you as one who serves (Luke 22.27). All through Lent we have received a blessing with words that say we are to deny ourselves, take up our Cross, and follow him. Now we must be like Jesus – by being among others as those who serve. We are to be as active in serving God by serving other people, as we are in praising him in here.

I have heard it said that “Christ is crucified every day”: that the once-for-all of Good Friday is reborn in every act of injustice, betrayal, collusion, denial. Jeremy Taylor did not teach or believe “cheap grace.” When he says, Let not my sins crucify the Lord of life again, he means it.

Because the Maundy Thursday Gospel reading is so long, parts have been omitted. Understandable, necessary: but it’s a pity. It leaves a Judas-shaped hole in the story. But somehow, the more we leave him out, the more aware we are of his presence.

On Maundy Thursday we cannot escape Judas. Jeremy Taylor looks at Judas and sees himself: as Judas ate of Christ’s bread, and still betrayed him, so Taylor fears to do likewise. We can dare to pray as Jeremy Taylor prayed, because we believe and trust that through grace, God’s undeserved forgiveness, our every sin or failure can be washed clean. When Christ washes his disciples’ feet
—all his disciples’ feet— Jeremy Taylor calls his doing so a sermon: it teaches us; teaches us the real meaning of grace.

Christ accepted a life of poverty, and a death of disgrace, because of his great love. There is no love greater—he told us so himself. He did not treat the disciples differently, that Passover night, based on who he knew would betray him (Judas), or would deny him (Peter), or who would run away and abandon him (all of them; all of us).

Jesus turned his humility into a sermon: knowing that the power of example is far greater than any speech, however wise. Don’t just listen to his words, look at his actions.

Here is the message of hope for all the years to come: every time we practise Christlike, self-forgetting, love, our action is a sermon, preaching the love of God in Christ to others, realising that love of God for ourselves.