A Reflection on Maundy Thursday All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C March 28,
2013 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector
In the Gospel of John, Jesus begins and ends his ministry
with his disciples by turning the world upside down with the use of water. You
remember the first miracle at the wedding of Cana in Galilee. The way people
ate at the table was to recline on a couch which would be placed around tables
of food like spokes around the hub of a wheel, with their feet facing outward.
Resting on the left arm, the guests would reach in with their right hand to get
food out of the common bowls. Roads were
primitive and most were not paved because roads were also used as receptacles
for household garbage and chamber pots. Feet were filthy, and there were large pots of
water there in which guests would wash their feet. The regular people would
wash their own feet, and honored guests would have their feet washed by the
servants. Only on rare occasions would the really important guests have their
feet washed by the host, and that was usually a political act to show how
important the guests was, like a King or a creditor who held the mortgage.
Washing feet was not something people really wanted to do;
in fact, servants could not be forced to do it since it could be humiliating, but
with the state of the roads, it was something that needed to be done. Feet were
also intimate. When the authors of the Bible wanted to use a circumlocution for
“genitals”, they would use the word “feet”. In Exodus when Moses is on the road to go back
to Egypt, Moses’s wife circumcises their child with a flint and touches the
foreskin to Moses’s “feet”. In Ruth when Naomi sends Ruth to seduce the
sleeping Boaz, she instructs her to “uncover Boaz’ feet”. When the angels
appear to Isaiah in the Temple, their six wings were two to fly, two to cover
eyes, and two to cover “feet”. In the comedies
in the early Greek theatre, the main comic characters always wore exaggerated
codpieces and, as the comedies became less risqué by the Roman Censors and
later by the Christian moralists, these were later replaced with oversized
shoes, which we still see with modern circus clowns. Even today when the
newlyweds drive away after the wedding, shoes are often tied to the getaway
car.
The water for the washing of the feet was considered beneath
notice, but Jesus uses that water and turns it into wine, the wine that was
proclaimed as the best wine of the feast. The message is that God uses that
which is lowly and overlooked to do God’s work. Jesus sets the tone for a ministry of humility.
At the end of his earthly ministry with his disciples, Jesus
has supper with them. Chances are that the disciples had already washed their
own feet as they came into the house, before they reclined down to supper.
Jesus interrupts the meal by getting up and taking off his clothes. I don’t
know about you, but if my host starts to take off his clothes, I start looking
for an exit. Jesus then takes a towel
and wraps it about him and offers to wash their feet. Remember the feet are
already washed; there is no need for this activity unless Jesus is trying to
make a point.
It seems to me that there are two main points he wants to
make. I think that Jesus is acting out a metaphor of his ministry. Jesus, who
was part of God in heaven, empties himself to become human and then returns to
heaven after his work is done. At supper Jesus leaves his place of honor and,
after emptying himself out to be a servant, he resumes his place of honor when
his work is done. Jesus invites people
to follow his example and become vulnerable with each other. I think the second
point is about how we are to deal with our enemies. Jesus will wash the feet of
the one who will betray him. He could have stopped Judas, but he chose to love
him instead.
Feet are how we stand on the earth, our connection and
orientation to the reality of life. Karl Jung said, “When you walk with naked
feet, how can you ever forget the earth.” In the same way, when your naked feet
are washed in love as a remembrance of Jesus’ love, how can you ever forget
that you did not earn that love you are given?
The church continues this ritual of emptying out oneself for
the neighbor and the enemy. The new Pope will wash the feet of youth in prison
as an outward and visible sign of his ministry. I invite you to this metaphor
of Grace. All may- some should- none must.
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