by the Rev. Judy DesHarnais
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Lord, teach us to love one another as you have loved us. Amen.
As we enter into the whirlwind of emotion that marks Holy Week, today we are encouraged to draw closer to Jesus and one another. In the Gospel of John, Jesus has led the disciples back to Judea, a place where people had previously tried to stone Jesus (John 11:7-8). Lazarus has been raised from the dead (11:17-44), and his sister Mary has anointed the feet of Jesus (12:3). Last Sunday we remembered how Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cries of a great crowd shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel” (v. 13)! In John 12:28 a voice from heaven has proclaimed that Jesus has glorified the Father. Tonight, we sit with Jesus at an intimate supper with his disciples (13:2).
This is the last supper that Jesus will share with the disciples before his death. Jesus knows this already: “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father” (13:1). “The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray [Jesus]” (v. 2). The twelve are gathered for a meal together. Jesus, secure in the knowledge 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” (vv. 3-4), and Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. Later, we will have the opportunity to get up from our pews and let someone wash our feet.
Jesus teaches us that love includes accepting the loving service of others. In the lesson about raising Lazarus, we heard that his sister “Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair” (11:2). Mary had anointed Jesus’ feet with precious nard. Her extravagant act of love and devotion demonstrated authentic discipleship.[1] And Jesus received her unconventional act of devotion. He was not embarrassed, he did not discourage her, he accepted her act of love.
In the time of Jesus, people’s feet were covered with dust every day. They walked along unpaved paths. Paths with free-roaming chickens, paths where shepherds lead their flocks. They walked through cities and towns without sewage systems.
While serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa, I sometimes rode in the tarp-covered truck beds of bush taxis. There were wooden benches along the sides of the truck bed where we sat crammed closely together. (Cramming us close together was actually a safety feature as we bounced along the rough roads without seatbelts or handles.) Riding with strangers, I looked down. I saw feet scarred from injuries and disease, marks of the hard lives of people without cars or running water. Like the disciples, we walked in sandals down dust-covered streets through towns with no sewage systems and no trash collection. I fondly remember the pleasure of washing my dust-covered feet in a bidet when visiting the capital, as I came in from the dirty streets wearing sandals.
In the time of Jesus, it was customary for hosts to offer guests water to wash their own feet prior to sharing a meal. Wealthier hosts would have slaves wash the feet of guests. In taking off his outer robe and tying on a towel, Jesus “transitions in appearance from that of an honourable male to that of a slave.”[2] Foot washing “literally entailed washing off the human and animal waste collected on people’s feet.”[3]
Teachers did not wash the feet of their followers. Jesus challenges a system that says some people are less than others. The Roman system required free men to demonstrate their superiority through speech and action. “In the act of washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus very deliberately and profoundly transgresses gender expectations.”[4] Jesus upended the hierarchical system. “The foot washing … indicates that members of the community should be willing to perform acts of service for one another.”[5] Status was no longer the criterion for who washed whose feet.
It is not surprising Peter was uncomfortable having his Lord wash his feet. “The foot washing was an exemplary act of humility.”[6] Feet of a working man, feet showing scars from fishing injuries and from long walks in sandals over rough terrain. Feet with calluses and blisters. Feet dirty from traversing the unpaved city of Jerusalem. Feet that reveal so much of who Peter is and how he has been injured. Jesus insists, “Unless I wash you, you can have no part with me” (13:8).
And I ask, are you willing to let Jesus see your brokenness and wash you?
Biblical scholar Mary Coloe connects the foot washing to Jesus death and resurrection; “Laying aside his clothes and girding himself with a towel, [Jesus] washes the feet of the disciples; and the description of his “laying aside” and later “taking up” his garments recalls the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, who is able to “lay aside” (10:11, 15, 17, 18) and “take up’ his life (10:17, 18).”[7] Foot washing is an invitation to become participants with Jesus in his ‘hour’.”[8] The hour that has now come.
Jesus shows us that there should be no hierarchy at the Lord’s table or in the church. As Jesus has loved us, we must love one another. The love Jesus teaches is a love that shows itself in action. Before giving the disciples the new commandment, “that you love one another” (13:33), Jesus demonstrates it.
So, on this night when Jesus knew his hour had come (13:1), Jesus shared his last meal with his disciples. Satan was already prompting Judas to betray Jesus (v. 2). Jesus took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet (vv. 3-4).
Jesus washes the feet of Peter. He loves Peter. A man who does not want his teacher, his Lord, humbling himself to serve him. Jesus washes the feet of Peter. Though Jesus knows that Peter will deny him three times that very night. Jesus loves him.
Jesus washes the feet of Judas. He loves Judas. Jesus knows Judas will betray him. And yet Jesus loves him.
Jesus washed the feet of the beloved disciple, knowing that John would later stand with his mother Mary at the foot of the cross. Jesus loves John. And Jesus loves Mary.
So will you allow someone to wash your feet as a reminder that Jesus loves you? And are you willing to show that love to another and remind them that they are loved? There is no litmus test for who deserves Jesus’ love.[9]
Love of God and of one another is a mark of discipleship: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (13:34-35).
Today as we wash one another’s feet, we commit ourselves to one another. The act of receiving and of giving should form a model for our Christian life. A love not tied to hierarchy, a love not contingent on worthiness, a sacrificial love that invites others fully into community.
Lord Jesus, help us to receive and give loving service. Teach us to love one another as you have loved us. Amen.
[1] Colleen Conway, “Gender Matters in John,” in A Feminist Companion to John, Vol II, ed. Amy-Jill Levine, (Sheffield Academic Press, 2003), 91 EBSCOHost.
[2] Nina Muller van Velden, “When Gender Performance Is Not Straightforward: Feet, Masculinity and Power in John 13:1-11,” Neotestamentica 53, no. 2 (2019): 297, EBSCOHost.
[3] Van Velden, “When Gender,” 299.
[4] Brandon Medley, “Macho, Macho Jesus: Masculinity in the Gospel of John,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 45, no. 3 (2023): 324.
[5] Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford University Press, 2011), 184.
[6] Levine, The Jewish Annotated, 184.
[7] Mary L. Coloe, “Welcome into the Household of God: The Foot Washing in John 13,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 66, no. 3 (2004): 407, EBSCOHost.
[8] Coloe, “Welcome,” 409.
[9] Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity during This Crisis (and the next) / Dean Spade (Verso, 2020) 21. The writing in Mutual Aid emphasized the difference from charity and government programs of not judging the worthiness of those that benefit, connects with Jesus washing the feet of one who would betray him.
