"Unless I wash you": Maundy Thursday Meditation 2019

Foot-Washing Reflection: Maundy Thursday 2019

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem

English-German-Arabic joint worship

The Rev. Carrie Ballenger

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I was nearly forty years old the first time I had a pedicure at a beauty salon. It may never have happened at all, except that it was my dearest friend’s birthday, and that was what she wanted: an entire day at the salon. Fingernails, facials, a massage—these things were also new to me—and of course, feet.

I remember that I took my shoes off shyly and dipped my feet into the warm water. That felt good, I decided. But when the woman whose job it was to care for my feet knelt in front of me and grasped my heel in her hand, she turned it this way and that way. She felt the roughness of my skin and noticed my ragged nails.

Then she looked me right in the eye and asked, “Ma’am, how long since anyone has cared for your feet?”

“Um, never,” I replied. “Exactly never.”

She might have stood and run away at that point! But instead, she sighed deeply, placed my heel on her knee, and got to work. I decided she deserved a large tip that day.

Not everyone cares to have their feet touched or cared for in such a way. It’s far more comfortable to hide feet inside shoes, inside boots. It’s far easier (and cheaper) to do some minimal foot care at home during sandal season.

Also, the truth is that not everyone wants to get so vulnerable with another person, least of all with a stranger. Certainly, not everyone at the table with Jesus wanted their feet touched and washed. Peter notably did not! “You will never wash my feet!” he said.

I imagine Judas also didn’t relish the thought of revealing any part of himself to Jesus.

It’s not that washing feet was vanity or mere pleasure in Jesus’ time—in fact, it was a common way for a host to warmly welcome guests, to offer them a place to wash the dust of the road from their tired feet.

But this wasn’t just any dinner host. This was Jesus, their Teacher and Lord.

It’s one thing to follow your Teacher, to walk in His path, to feel that you are contributing to a grand cause, the cause of bringing a message of love, mercy, and justice to the world.

It’s another thing entirely to stop walking,

To put your feet up,

And to allow Jesus,

your Teacher and Lord,

to see what’s hiding inside those sandals.

To put it another way:

It’s one thing to be a disciple

who’s learning to do something:

Learning to love others,

Learning to welcome sinners,

Learning to be unafraid of their dust and their mess.

It’s quite another thing to let Jesus do something.

To let Him see,

And touch

And wash

Our own dust

Our own mess

Our own sins

Our own hearts.

For this reason, I say that Holy Thursday is not only about Jesus’ command to put love into action, although He says it quite clearly:

 “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

And again:

“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.”

Today is about that new commandment, to love one another as we have been loved. Today is about the requirement that disciples put love into action.

And…

Today is also about the vulnerability that is required for those who wish to follow Jesus.

“Unless I wash you,” Jesus says, “you have no share with me.”

Unless I wash you

Unless I see those dusty feet

Unless you bare the mess you hide within those fancy sandals

and cloak in accomplishments,

and wrap in a carefully curated social media profile,

always disguised behind a smile,

Unless you let me love you,

All of you,

You have no share with me.

“Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”

Dear siblings in Christ, I don’t believe this means Jesus is leaving anyone behind if they refuse a Holy Pedicure!

However, on this night, we are invited to remember that if we cannot comprehend Jesus wrapped in a towel and kneeling by a washbasin at our feet, then we certainly cannot comprehend what is to come tomorrow.

Washing feet may seem scandalous now,

But tomorrow comes the scandal of the cross.

Tonight, Jesus empties a basin of warm water on our aching, dusty, unattractive feet.

Tomorrow, he empties his entire self:

For the sake of the faithless and the lost,

For the sake of the occupied and the oppressed,

For the sake of the occupier and the oppressor,

For the sake of the world’s dust and mess,

For the sake of your dust and mess,

And for mine.

So take a minute, says Jesus.

Take off your sandals.

Sit down. Be still.

Just let me do this for you.

Let me love you. All of you.

And then, together, we will love the world.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.