Wash Your
Hands Before You Eat
Read:
John 13:2-8, Luke 22:14-23
My
Mom tells the story of when she and her sisters were staying with
their Aunt Maxine and Uncle Harold. One of the girls asked, “Uncle
Harold, why did you wash your hands before breakfast?”
“Well,”
answered Uncle Harold, “I don’t know where they might have been.”
We’ve
all been told to wash our hands before we eat, and we all pretty much
understand why. Just as Uncle Harold said, who knows where those
hands have been? We’d best make sure they’re clean so we don’t
get anything in our food.
I
was thinking about that the first Sunday of a recent month – one
when we had a baptism in addition to Communion – and I realized
that’s what we have as our only two sacraments in the United
Methodist Church. We wash (Baptism) before we eat (Communion), and
it’s for almost the same reason. The big difference is that we
really do know where we’ve been. We’ve been out in this fallen
world; and it’s even more important that we clean that from
ourselves before we come to God’s table than that we clean the dirt
off our hands before we eat our sandwich at lunch. (After all, a
little bit of dirt in your food isn’t going to kill you.)
Of
course the other big difference with baptism is that it’s a once
for all kind of washing. Really, it’s not the baptism that’s the
washing, baptism is just a sign to everyone that we’ve been made
clean by accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, and once He’s
washed us, we’re clean. (As he said to Peter, “The one who has
bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely
clean.” John 13:10a.) It’s His blood that washes us, not the
water in the font.
You
know, these two sacraments keep getting closer: “This is My blood
of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the
forgiveness of sins.”
Prayer:
Jesus, thank You for washing us clean so that we may eat at Your
table. Help us to remember that we’re to be doing Your work with
our clean hands.
Thought
for the day: Where have my hands been? What have I been doing with
them?
Charlie
van Becelaere
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