Excerpted from the NC Council of Churches Lenten Guide, “Journey to Justice.” Reflection written by Sabrina Rosario, NC Interfaith Power & Light intern.
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. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 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.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 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? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
John 13:1-17
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Oh how full of meaning and wonder and pain and love this passage is . . .
We have come to the final days of the Lenten season, thinking about Jesus’ journey here on Earth. The passage grounds us in a specific time, “just before the Passover Festival,” when the Jews celebrate the amazing deliverance and faithfulness God had shown by “passing over” the doors marked by lamb’s blood during Israel’s escape from Egypt. If they only knew the way God used “power” to bring them out of slavery was an illustration of what is about to happen to “The Lamb of God” (John 1:29).
The hour had come. We remember Jesus telling his mother Mary at the wedding at Cana that his “hour had not yet come” and saying it again to the Samaritan woman at the well, and he mentioned it to the disciples on more than one occasion. Now he knows it is time. In this moment, he loved to the end, choosing to be with the ones he loved the most, his disciples.
This meal shared with the disciples becomes the Eucharist we share today, a meal of thanksgiving and remembrance, shaping us into a cruciform people who can also place love at the forefront of our actions.
The meal is followed by an act that puts into motion the kind of love Jesus images we will enact in his name. By washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus offers a tangible example of the divine understanding that makes incarnation possible. One could imagine that in the communion of the Trinity, the “{Second Person] got up” from the throne, “took off his outer clothing” leaving royalty behind, “wrapped a towel around his waist,” wrapping himself with humanity and “poured water” as he was about to pour out his own life . . . and “began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”
The love of a servant, the love of a savior. His human journey ending in the sacrifice that washes us from our sins. We can imagine the towel getting dirtier and dirtier as he went from one disciple to another, until finally coming to Peter who initially resisted the act of love until Jesus explained the need for inclusion. We have part with Jesus when we let him wash us from the wrongdoings of our walk in life.
As Jesus returns to his seat at the table and prepares to leave the room, he also prepares to return to his royal place in eternity—seated at the “right hand of God.” Because Jesus walked our human life, we will walk in eternity.
Eternity can begin for us even in this earthly life. Just as Jesus forgave, we must also forgive. Just as Jesus served, we must also serve. Just as Jesus loved, we must also love. We do so by standing in confidence of how God sees us, already forgiven, ready and willing to serve and love others.
Prayer: Lord, receive my dirty feet.
Help me to serve and love others to the end, like Jesus. Amen.
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