Services

Servers

Occasional offices

Music

Other

LSM homepage

MAUNDY THURSDAY, Year A: March 20 2008

The Foot Washing

He had said that He had 'power to lay down His life and power to take it again', and so it was that until He was ready, and freely allowed it, no-one could act against Him. And now the hour had come, the hour for which He had waited: His hour. 'And it was night'. And because He chose it to be so, allowed it to be so, it was also their 'hour, and the power of darkness'.

St John's Gospel does not recount for us the Passover meal which at the Last Supper with His friends Jesus celebrated in bread and wine as the sign of his death for us, and of the new Covenant which that death would inaugurate. Rather, the Evangelist gives us a different scene from the same occasion — Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.

'[...] Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands'; knowing also that it was in 'the heart of Judas Iscariot [...] to betray Him [...] Jesus rose from supper, laid aside His garments, and girded Himself with a towel. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.'

He undertook the task which might have been done by one or other of them, but which they had either failed to notice had not been done, or were not prepared to do anything about themselves.

In their excitement and their ambitious fantasies about what they hoped to get out of the Kingdom (which they believed was imminent) they overlooked the fact, or forgot that something needed to be done. So He did it.

It was more than Simon Peter could bear, and he protested vigorously, being once again the spokesman for the rest of them. They could not cope with this kind of Messiah; they could not tolerate a King who would demean Himself so far as to do what was normally left for the lowest slave in the household to do. They could only cope with a Christ who behaved in ways which they thought appropriate and fitting. They could only cope with a GOD who remained GOD in the way they wanted GOD to be, and not with a subversive GOD, an outrageous and scandalous GOD, who 'emptied Himself taking the form of a servant'. But, says Jesus to Peter, 'Unless I wash you, you have no share in me'.

If you do not allow me to care for you, to do what needs to be done for you, to be a GOD who stoops down to serve you, then you can have no part with me, 'no share in me'. There is no other way of my being man for you and GOD for you except by washing your feet, with you prepared to have them washed by me.

It is only as we are prepared to be humble enough to recognise our need and allow Jesus to minister to us that we can have part with Him. And so it is that the foot-washing is all of a piece with our sacramental life in Christ. It was at the font — where Jesus was waiting for us, as He waited for the Woman of Samaria at Jacob's well — that we were served by Him, washed by Him and made clean from sin, and so were given part with Him, made sharers of His life — He in us; we in Him — children of GOD by adoption and grace.

And that is how it is with all the covenants of grace. In all the Sacraments Christ is present in order to come to us, to meet us and to serve us in our need. The Sacraments are there for us, they are for our sake, for the building up of the body of the Church and of the human family. In them Christ is present — whether to reconcile us to the Father and to one another; whether to equip us for ministry and service, or for the commitments and responsibilities of marriage; whether to heal us and strengthen us in sickness and frailty.

And it is in the Eucharist above all that He puts Himself without reservation at our disposal, places Himself without safeguard into our hands. Here most clearly and unambiguously Love bids us welcome and insists that, as His guests, we sit and eat the food of His providing.

In whatever way we choose to think of GOD and of the ways in which He relates to us — whether as Creator or Lawgiver or Judge — the fact is that in Jesus He has shown that He wants to be with us and for us, washing our feet and serving our need.

And Faith means (among other things) our being prepared to let Him serve us with His love and forgiveness. It means, on our part, being prepared to acknowledge our need, and accept that in Jesus GOD comes to us, welcomes us, giving us part and share with His Son, as beloved sons and daughters.