Start:Stop – Lord, do you wash my feet?

Sadao Watanabe - Washing the Disciples Feet, 1988

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection here. During Lent at our informal discussion group, we are exploring the Gospel of John - do join us via Zoom on Thursdays at 7.30pm if you can.

This week we arrived at the start of what many see as the second half of John’s Gospel - the ‘Book of Glory’ or the Book of the Passion. Here, the pace of events slows and the focus changes. John has spent the first part of his Gospel describing, through signs and teaching , Jesus’ love for the world. Now he focuses on Jesus’ love for his followers. For the next five chapters, John describes Jesus speaking only to the disciples; teaching them - and us - how to follow him in faith after his death and resurrection. His first lesson takes place during the Last Supper.

Bible Reading – John 13.1-11

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not 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, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”


Reflection

What a powerful lesson to start with - and a practical demonstration at that! Just like the disciples, perhaps we too can most fully understand the love of Jesus not only by reading or hearing about it - but by witnessing it, experiencing it for ourselves.

When did you last see God’s love at work?

The examples that come to my mind are small acts of kindness. Perhaps that’s not surprising when Jesus himself demonstrates that this most significant of gifts can be revealed in the most insignificant of acts?

How much more powerful are these acts of love when we remember their source! St Augustine, in his commentary on this passage, highlights what we might call its divine topography; noticing that before Jesus goes ‘back to God’ as John puts it, he comes down - to the soles of our feet - another example of the whole of Jesus’ ministry encapsulated in a single act.

Small wonder then that Peter is so amazed; highlighting how inappropriate it is for Jesus to take on the work of a slave. The American theologian Dale Bruner has found that amongst all the surviving texts from this time, there exists no other account of a person in a position of authority performing such an action - John’s account - perhaps like the act itself - is unique.

The exchange between Jesus and Peter reveals what it means to be a disciple; which involves not only serving but also being served; the two cannot exist independently; “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” Jesus tells Peter.

When was the last time you let Jesus serve you?

On the face of it a harder proposition to contend with - but perhaps one closely linked to the first question we asked? We can only witness the acts of kindness and loving service between each other because of the love we have received from Jesus, whose life and ministry, as we have noticed, is so powerfully revealed to us in those moments. We allow Jesus to serve us when we participate in his love, through acts of prayer and service. The true life of the disciple.

This year, because of the pandemic, churches are unlikely to re-enact the washing of the disciples’ feet on Maundy Thursday - which will be the day our church reopens for public worship. But that does not mean we cannot follow Jesus by turning this passage into a practical demonstration of God’s love.

Many commentators see echoes of the footwashing of the disciples in the sacrament of the Eucharist itself -  a celebration and remembrance of the fact that Jesus poured out his life for us, like the water over the feet of the disciples; cleansing and forgiving our sins; strengthening us through prayer and teaching in our lives as disciples of Christ. 

As we take part in the service this year, either at home or in church, will we allow Jesus to serve us? To cleanse us of our sins? To accept His absolution in its wholeness. Will we allow ourselves to be bathed in His grace, truth and love? Will we reveal this great gift by sharing it with others?


Prayer

A prayer attributed to Origen of Alexandria, a third century scholar and theologian.

 

Jesus, my feet are dirty.

Come even as a slave to me,

pour water into your bowl,

come and wash my feet.

In asking such a thing I know I am overbold,

but I dread what was threatened when you said to me,

“If I do not wash your feet I have no fellowship with you”.

Wash my feet then, because I long for your companionship.

Amen

 

 

Thank you for listening. We hope to reopen the church for worship in Holy Week, with a Sung Eucharist on Maundy Thursday 1st April at 12.45pm. but other services and events will continue online for the time being by telephone and zoom. Please look at our website www.ststephenwalbrook.net for details. Do join us for our informal study group on Thursday evening if you can when we will be exploring the next few chapters of the Gospel of John. We’ll be back with another Start Stop reflection next week.

Links

Footwashing Prayer attributed to Origen of Alexandria

 

Image : Sadao Watanabe - Washing the Disciples Feet, 1988