This isn’t really from the appointed readings for Morning Prayer, but it’s Maundy Thursday, so I’m thinking about Maundy Thursday. A lot.
I have the honor of preaching tonight at a lovely parish in Portland, so I’ve been reading, thinking, writing and praying about tonight’s readings. They’re all about Jesus’ last night – how he washed the feet of his disciples and then held his ‘last supper’, and instituted what we now celebrate as Eucharist.
During his time, foot washing was a thing. People wore sandals, and slogged through nastiness in the streets, with trash, mud and open sewers. This is reason enough to wash feet. But then they ate lounging on the floor, which puts the mouth-food duo too close to the muck-foot duo. But that job was reserved for the slaves of the household, or at the very least, the lowest on the social scale. Jesus shocked them when he got up from the low table, and washed the feet of his disciples. Like the time where he turned over the tables in the temple with the money-changers, Jesus turned over the tables by again breaking a social norm.
This morning I’m thinking about how he washed their feet. How awkward that would have been for them, even though it was a custom of their time. I’m thinking about Peter, who was so shocked that he asked Jesus to wash not only his feet but all of him. Peter, who less than 24 hours later, said he didn’t even know Jesus. I’m thinking about Judas. Judas who would bring the authorities to arrest, torture and execute Jesus less than 24 hours later. Was Judas thinking about that when Jesus washed his feet? Was Jesus thinking about that?
And still, Jesus washed their feet. More shocking still, he turned and commanded them to do the same thing. You break the social norms. You serve the doubters, the betrayers. Continuing the verse at the beginning,
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