Today begins the Triduum, the three days leading up to the Sunday of the Resurrection. The Triduum begins with Maundy Thursday.
The Gospel reading and a reflection:
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSV)
“Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 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. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 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’s and yesterday’s readings do an odd thing: yesterdays reading was taken right out of the middle of today’s. It can make it feel like two separate events, when in fact it was only one. Taking the story of the betrayal of Judas out as a single event does make a certain narrative sense, making it stand out as the heinous act it was. But it loses something, too, of the impact because it is easy to forget that he left just before Jesus washes his disciples feet, as he does in today’s reading.
The scene is very intimate. It is also filled with irony. Only Jesus and Judas know what will happen next: the arrest and trial of Jesus. The eleven are still basking in the hazy reverie of men thinking that they are soon to become powerful figures in the coming kingdom. And they are, just not in the manner they imagine. They will begin to become great in the kingdom over the following decades as they themselves learn to carry their own crosses as missionaries of the Gospel, heralds of the coming of the Kinfdom of God, witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus, with each of them dying as a martyr, just as Jesus died.
Though they still do not understand the importance of it, Jesus is preparing his followers for his death by equipping them with the one tool, the one attitude, the one spiritual path that will enable them to endure what is to come: a spirit of loving humility, of emptying oneself for the sake of others. It took the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit before any of them began to understand. The same is true for us, as well.
In that culture, servants usually washed the feet of guests before a meal; but here, it is Jesus, the Son of God, who does so and he does it “during supper”. Peter is scandalized by it. How could the man about to lead an armed revolt and be declared king act like a servant or slave!?! Peter remonstrates him.
Imagine that, telling the Lord of creation that he’s doing it all wrong! How often do we do that, my friends, telling God who he must be rather than listening for God to tell us who we are? Jesus answers: only if I wash your feet can you “share” with me in the Kingdom. Still thinking in earthly terms, Peter wants more than a little bit of the kingdom! “If washing my feet means I get a little, wash my whole body because I want it all!” Back in Matthew 20:21-23, Jesus asked if his disciples could drink from his cup in much the same manner, and they pridefully boast “Yes!” because they think of earthly power and glory. And they will all of them eventually drink from his cup, the cup he himself asks his Father to remove.
With Jesus, we must always answer “Yet not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus attempts again to explain. As he, “Lord and Teacher” has been a servant to them, so each one of the disciples is to be a servant to every one; they are to follow his “example”. God is glorified by the revelation of His own nature in Jesus of the meaning of love: emptying oneself for the sake of another, a loving form of servanthood and humility.
Jesus is now on the path to the cross. He gives them “a new commandment” (from which is derived the word Maundy – short for commandment): Jesus is his follower’s example of how to love. This mutual love will show who truly are his disciples. May his love so dwell in us that others might see Jesus.
It is in this context this that Jesus institutes the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood, and his Holy Priesthood. Jesus, our Servant Savior, gives us his all, his everything, his flesh and blood, even as he washes our feet. Without the Spirit of Jesus, all that we do as Christians is hollow. Filled with his love, all the we do in his name he prospers.
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
