The Washing of Feet
Holy Thursday-Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper
John 13:1-15
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040226-Supper.cfm
“Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus uses this phrase with the breaking of bread and raising of the cup, but not with washing of the feet. Those six words, in a way, separate what we made into a sacrament and what we did not. The washing of feet is not a sacrament, but numerous churches do this as part of their Maundy Thursday celebration. It is even something that the Pope does in memory of what Jesus did.
The first thing that Jesus says in the passage, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Jesus is stressing the importance of servant leadership. We are called to take care of each other in community. We shouldn’t be separated by class or authority.
When Peter pushes back and says that Jesus will never wash his feet, Jesus responds, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” As he does in the gospel of John, Jesus moves from speaking practically to speaking about spiritual matters. In this sense, he’s expressing that he has the ability to cleanse us. Jesus is the means to salvation. I think there is something more literal here as well. Jesus was showing Peter the example of how he should act and how he should be by washing his feet. The inheritance that Jesus was speaking about was the act of taking care of others. Building upon the servant leader theme, Jesus is saying, I must do this for you so you do it for others. It’s not enough for Jesus to tell them what to do, he must be the example. Jesus was one to call his followers, not just in words, but in his example. The teacher must humbly take care of the student.
Peter then reacts and tells Jesus to wash all of him. Jesus responds, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” Jesus was expressing the practicality in all of this. There wasn’t the need for a full bath because the act itself is what needed to be taken on. Bathing wasn’t the delivery of inheritance, it was the act of humbly taking care of the needs of others. As the gospel writer expresses, not all of them will understand it or get it because Judas has other intentions and wasn’t fully present to receive the lesson.
Jesus then concludes, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
We are to take care of one another. In one of Jesus’s last actions with his disciples, he wanted to send the message home. No one is above one another. We all must take care of each other as equals. We must even lower ourselves in our societal positions to be servants to one another. It’s the legacy that Jesus wanted carried on after him. To love God and love your neighbor is to take care of one another.
