It’s interesting, don’t you think,
that the Gospel we read tonight is the sharing of a very specific dinner party
where Jesus is surrounded by his closest followers, who, on this night, he identifies
as his friends for the first time.
This dinner party would be their last,
but it would also mark the first.
The last time they would break bread
and drink wine together, would become the first example of what we call Holy
Eucharist.
This dinner party would be set apart
by Jesus, who would kneel before his friends and do one of the most radical
acts of all his ministry: he would wash
their feet.
What makes this radical is that it
encompasses all the ways Jesus expressed compassion throughout his ministry.
He would wash the feet of his betrayer,
the feet of his denier, the feet of all those who, in the next hours would
abandon him.
Through this seemingly odd, radical gesture,
Jesus would exemplify it all: we are called
to serve one another, to serve the other, no matter what. Jesus, for goodness sake, knew that these men,
his closest companions, his friends, were going to abandon him, deny him and
betray him, and he still washed their feet and had a meal with them.
Can you imagine him, kneeling at the
feet of his friends, taking their dirty feet into his hands, pouring out water—pouring
out himself—caressing and massaging those feet as he prayed for each and every
one of them? The intimacy of touch. The image of dirty feet becoming clean. The power of prayer.
The time this took must have felt
long. The individual time Jesus spent on
his knees, praying and washing in a rhythm for each of these men, and maybe
even some of the women. It wasn’t
rushed. Each was given appropriate time
to deeply experience the care and compassion of their teacher, their friend.
This individualized radical gesture
was the culmination of all his ministry.
In one evening, Jesus gave of himself to all his followers, no matter
what they were going to do.
With the water, Jesus poured a bit of
himself onto the feet of each.
And then, he told them that these
intimate moments were the ultimate expression of the newest commandment: to love one another just as Jesus has loved
each of them.
He loved each one of them. His betrayer, his denier, and all who would
abandon him. And he expected each one of
them to continue in that love. To love
all.
We are about to express this kind of
love to one another as we kneel at one another’s feet or sit across from one
another at a bowl and take a few minutes to hold pieces of one another that
represent our place in the world, our way in the world, our abilities in the
world.
What we can do with our hands and our
feet—the work, the journeys, the experiences we have had are told in them. Youthful hands that transform with the coming
of age spots and arthritis. Feet that
have held our weight as we have walked our own paths.
We are about to take a moment with another person in our
midst to recognize the holiness, the gifts and the agape love in one another. We are going to acknowledge in one another
the love Jesus has for them and the love we have for one another.
Tonight, we know Jesus in one another. It is through that knowledge and love that we
can walk out into the world and share that radical love.
Let us pray these words from Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but
yours,
No hands, no feet on earth
but yours,
Yours are the eyes with
which he looks
compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with
which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which
he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours
are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you
are his body.
Christ has no body now but
yours,
No hands, no feet on earth
but yours,
Yours are the eyes with
which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on
earth but yours.
May it be so.
Amen.