Reading 43
He washed their feet
The reading
John 13:1-17
Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God, arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "You don't know what I am doing now, but you will understand later." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I don't wash you, you have no part with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you." For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, "You are not all clean."
So when he had washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me, 'Teacher' and 'Lord.' You say so correctly, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the 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 as I have done to you. Most certainly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."
The companions
Psalm 133
See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, that ran down on the beard, even Aaron's beard; that came down on the edge of his robes; like the dew of Hermon, that comes down on the hills of Zion: for there the LORD gives the blessing, even life forever more.
Isaiah 52:13-15
Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him: for they will see that which had not been told them; and they will understand that which they had not heard.
A word for the week
If you wanted to know what God is like, where would you look? We imagine we would find the answer in power, in the making of galaxies, in thunder and majesty. Jesus gives a different answer on the last night of his life, and it is so strange that Peter tried to stop him. On the night before he died, knowing exactly who he was and exactly what was coming, Jesus got up from the table, wrapped a towel around his waist like a servant, knelt down, and washed his friends' feet. If you want to know what God is like, John is telling us, look here. Look at God on his knees with a towel, washing the dirt off the feet of men who were about to fail him.
You have to understand what foot-washing was to feel this. Roads were dirt, footwear was sandals, and feet were filthy at the end of a day. Washing them was the lowest job in the house, the one given to the least important servant. It was beneath everyone at that table, and they all knew it, which is why the basin sat there untouched while they reclined. And then the one person present who was truly above it, the teacher, the Lord, the one John has just told us knew that the Father had put all things into his hands, is the one who ties on the towel and does the lowest job himself.
Peter cannot bear it. You will never wash my feet, he says, and you can feel why; it is unbearable to watch someone you revere kneel at your dirty feet. But Jesus says something that should stop us too: if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. There it is. You do not get to keep Jesus at a respectful distance, admired and up on a pedestal. To be with him, you have to let him kneel in front of you and wash you, which means you have to be willing to be served by God, to receive a love you did not earn and cannot repay. For a lot of us that is harder than serving. It is easier to be useful than to be loved.
Then Jesus turns it into a command, and it is one of the plainest he ever gave. I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you an example. He is talking about far more than feet: a whole way of living in which the greatest one kneels, in which rank is something you spend on others rather than something you hold over them. In his kingdom the ladder runs the other way. The top is the towel and the basin. The greatest is the one on the floor.
And note the very last line, because it is aimed straight at us: if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Not if you know them. If you do them. Admiring the scene is the easy half, and he asked for the other half. He knelt so that we would kneel. The whole thing collapses into sentiment unless it sends you to the actual feet in your actual life: the person at your table who needs the low, unglamorous, unthanked service that nobody else will stoop to. That is where God is. Down there, with the towel. He showed us, so that we would go and do the same.
At the table
Whose feet is yours to wash this week, the low and unthanked service no one else will stoop to? And can you let yourself be served, too, receiving a love you did not earn?
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered "the LORD" in the Psalm.