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An Orthodox icon of Jesus washing the disciples' feet
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© Seth Olson 2019
April 18, 2019—Maundy Thursday
I remember running to the side chapel and being stopped in my tracks as I pulled open the door. Expecting to see smiling, happy faces and a well-lit sanctuary like usual, instead I saw something I had never before seen at church. In the bleak candlelight, I beheld tear-soaked cheeks and solemn faces of the devoutly anguished parishioners who were inside the unlit, cavernous space. And, as we walked from the darkness of the church into the darkness of the night, I tried to comfort my mom. Although, I was confused about the reason for her sadness. So I said, “Don’t worry mom, the ninja turtles will be back someday and you can go see them.” I had missed the point entirely. Like the disciples of old, I couldn’t comprehend what was happening around me that night. I later wondered more earnestly, “What were they doing at church?” I still think that’s a helpful question: What are we doing here tonight?
In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians we just heard words so familiar that they may not have even registered in our minds, let alone our hearts. “Do this… in remembrance of me.” Even if these words did not arrest us such that they impacted us deep in our souls, we are familiar with them and to where they point us. The bread and the wine when we gather to remember Christ become His Body and His Blood. We eat and drink them to become the Body ourselves in this sacred, sacramental mystery. This is the most fitting night of the Church year to take part in Holy Communion, and yet our Gospel lesson does not mention bread or wine at all. Again, what are we doing here tonight?
This night is not simply a night when we remember the Institution of Holy Communion during the Lord's Last Supper, it is also a night when we hear Jesus give us a new commandment. This is why, as you may know, we call this night Maundy Thursday. Maundy from the Latin word mandatum meaning commandment. What was Jesus’ New Command?
“Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another.” What does this love look like? As we search through John’s telling of the Good News, we do not find Jesus sealing this commandment “to love” with bread and wine, but rather with a towel and a basin. As we imagine the teacher kneeling to wash his disciples’ feet, we can hardly comprehend just how strange this act truly was.
Foot washing is odd. It’s just plain weird. We do not normally wash each other’s feet. Sure, occasionally some of us may get a pedicure, but we do not then reciprocate the action of the pedicurist. Other than on Maundy Thursday, have you ever washed another person’s feet or had your feet washed? It is a rare act. And while the altar guild, acolytes, clergy, and congregation, all of us, have prepared for the logistics of this unique night, none of us can fully prepare for how intimate, humbling, and even embarrassing foot washing truly is. This is what we are doing this night, we are remembering Christ’s commandment to love by doing what he did to show this love. We are taking part in the self-giving love that Christ Jesus showed his disciples—the same self-emptying love that God has for each one of us and for all of humanity.
Of course, this almost practical question of “What are we doing?” is not the only one worth pondering this night. Jesus himself made another inquiry. After washing his followers’ feet, he quizzed, “Do you know what I have done for you?” The disciples wisely remained quiet. Even with 2,000 years we still have a hard time comprehending fully what it was Jesus did for us.
John’s Gospel account described Jesus as “the Good Shepherd,” “the Light of the World,” “the Resurrection and the Life,” “the Vine,” and “the One through whom all things were made,” and this one, the Christ, the Messiah, God Incarnate stooped down to rinse off the grim from his friends’ feet. To wipe away the filth caked between their toes remains a subservient act so profound that we mostly come up short in our grasping for modern analogies. Cleaning out a loved one’s bedpan? Bathing a dying parent’s body? Kneeling to wipe vomit from a sick child’s face? These and others come close, but none completely unlock just how powerful Jesus’ loving example was. But, during the next three days, the holiest ones in our common life, we won't just strive to understand foot washing, but all of what Christ Jesus has done for us. What has God done for us through Christ?
Even if we cannot unlock these sacred mysteries, we are called to experience the completeness of Christ Jesus’ saving work. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are not about understanding with our minds, but allowing our souls to gaze upon the loving acts of God. These three days we see most clearly how far, how deep, and how wide God’s love is. The acts of Christ Jesus clarified once and for all that nothing separates us from the redeeming love of God.
As the Anglican Divine Jeremy Taylor put it, “Thus God lays everything aside, that he may serve his servants; heaven stoops to earth, and one abyss calls [to] another, and the miseries of humanity, which were next to infinite, are excelled by a mercy equal to the immensity of God.” [1] What has God done for us? God has laid everything aside, crossed the abyss, and loved us. What is more, God has commanded us to love one another.
Thus we bring out bowls and pitchers, we partake in bread and wine, Christ’s Body and Blood, and we leave this church in darkness. We recall in prayer Jesus’ birth, his baptism, his teachings, his healings, and his life. And, we walk with Jesus this night to the garden and tomorrow to Golgatha, to Calvary, and to the Cross. The totality of what God has done we may never comprehend. We may only understand this mystery through a glass dimly, as St. Paul put it. So instead may we, like God, lay everything aside, may we take part in these holy mysteries, and may we love one another as Christ has loved us.
[1] Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667, Reginald
Heber, and Charles Page Eden. The Whole
Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor.
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1847-1856, Volume 2:628-629, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3944186;view=1up;seq=649.
Accessed April 18, 2019.
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