I just wanted to say a few words tonight about the rite of the washing of the feet – this rite we have the opportunity to practice only once a year on Maundy Thursday. I know we don’t always like it. And I think it’s only fair to acknowledge that it’s a bit awkward. But maybe it would help if we understood it a bit better.
First of all, we need to know that this is a rite that wasn’t a rite to start with. Jesus didn’t decide out of the blue that he needed to wash his disciples’ feet. Washing feet in public was part of everyday life in Jesus’s time. Imagine if you had to walk barefoot or in sandals on dusty roads all day… you would wash you feet before entering somebody’s house, and you would especially want to wash them before “reclining” at table (and if you didn’t do it for yourself, you’d do it for others!)
So indeed at the time, you would wash your feet as we wash our hands. Or as we take off our shoes when we enter somebody’s house. Now it’s really not that easy to wash one’s feet, especially when you get older, so the Jews had servants to do that for the guests.
Tonight though, Jesus decides to do it as an act of service, he insists that it is what it’s about. I also like to see it as an act of thanksgiving for the disciples who “followed”, walked with him. Now, it’s the end of the road. Jesus thanks them and says good bye by washing their feet. More deeply, it’s also as an act of forgiveness: Jesus makes that clear as well when he explains what he does to Peter. It is gesture he does to help them understand the cross: Jesus lays down his life for them, he is the servant who washes their feet before they can enter the Father’s house and recline for the banquet of eternal life.
For all those reasons, it is certainly an important sign – one of the last things Jesus did on earth. To John, it is as important as the institution of the Eucharist [ex: Although John’s Gospel often mentions Jesus being the bread of life, John does not mention the institution of the Eucharist itself, he chooses to mention the washing of the feet instead]. So if you don’t like it…Imagine we could have had the washing of the feet every Sunday instead of the Eucharist! But maybe we would get used to it, so it wouldn’t be awkward anymore and maybe it is supposed to be awkward. Maybe it is not supposed to be comfortable. Maybe, if it feels uncomfortable it does what it is supposed to do.
Peter certainly was not comfortable. Not because it was not something people did, but because it embarrassed him that Jesus did it, it embarrassed him for Jesus. Jesus humbles himself but it humbles Peter, and it humbles us. I think the thing is it makes us feel vulnerable. And maybe we need more of that though in our world: a little less power, a little more good will: To be ready to serve one another, to take care of one another, to acknowledge our wrongs in front of others, to receive their forgiveness. So it’s just a rite, but it reminds us of so many important things in our state of brokenness.
As I was thinking of Maundy Thursday, I had this image in mind that wouldn’t go away: World leaders gathered in circle and washing each other’s feet – wondering how the world would be. Netanyahu, Poutine, Biden, Trump, Zelenskyy…Can you imagine? If we could all remember that we are here to give and not to take, to humble ourselves and not to be glorified, to help and not to exploit, to listen, and not to be right, to serve and not to be served? [ex: It’s about serving each other, not a justification of servanthood or slavery].
I wish I lived in that perfect world but Jesus reminds us that it starts with us, his followers: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples...Think about it: Jesus dies on the cross but he only asks us to wash each other’s feet. Jesus does not asks us to do hard things, impossible things, he just asks us to be good to one another, to practice small acts of service everyday, make them part of our daily routine. It may seem laughable in front of the grief, the pain and the violence of the world and yet we see that the washing of the feet is Jesus’s response to the world’s hatred and to his condemnation, moreover it is his legacy to those who followed him, and we can only admit that if we’d all really obey that commandment of humble service, nothing would be the same in our world anymore. So my thought is that maybe we can do it, even if it’s a bit awkward. Because if we his followers don’t do it, then who will?