April 17 2024 Maunday Thursday

Exodus 12.1-4, 11-14 Psalm 116.1-2, 11-18 1 Corinthians 11.23-26 John 13.1-17, 31b-35

Roman imperial banquets were famous affairs, they displayed calculated spectacles of extreme wealth and power and were filled with exotic food, spectacular tableware and impressive entertainment, and were designed to keep friend close and enemies closer.

This meal described for us by John is very different.  Unlike the Synoptics, John does not have this as a Passover meal, so we need to see it through a different lens.  The first-century audience for whom this was written would have understood the references to Jesus ‘rising up’, and the disciples ‘reclining’ during the meal and it suggests a banquet room and U-shaped table around which guests reclined on couches.

During the meal, Jesus ties a towel around his waist, fills a bowl and goes to wash the feet of those around the table.  This is normally a job for a slave, and it is something that is done when you first arrive at a residence, not in the middle of the meal, the place typically reserved for entertainment or discussion.  Thus, this foot washing becomes ‘the main event’.

And Jesus then uses this act as a teaching tool.  ‘So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet’.  Essentially, Jesus exemplifies his ‘Lordship’ through humble acts of loving devotion.  And that loving devotion extends to Judas who will soon betray him, and Peter who will deny him.  Jesus is all too aware of what is in his future, nonetheless he washes the feet of all the disciples, and exhorts them to exercise the same love and attention.  He exhorts them to love one another as he has loved them.

And the challenge for us today, and every day is, how are we known.  Are we known by our love for one another, even those who disparage or ridicule us.  What would it look like if we, like Jesus, were so buried in God as our origin and destiny that we were able to show and use our love to empower and liberate one another.

When you look around you today, and tomorrow, and all the days after that, whose feet and lives could benefit from some hands-on love and tenderness.