Triduum Meditation: Holy Thursday Washing of the Feet

So we come to the Paschal Triduum—the three days that leads to the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  I’m not going to have a meditation for every day of the Triduum in one year, but I thought I could do one of the days every year for the next three years.  I’ll do them in order, so today, this year, I will provide a meditation on Holy Thursday.

Holy Thursday—also called Maundy Thursday—commemorates the Last Supper but we celebrate it in a liturgy composed from Gospel of John’s version of the Last Supper.  More specifically we highlight Jesus’s washing of the Apostles’ feet.  The Gospel reading describes the action.

 

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come

to pass from this world to the Father.

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.

So, during supper,

fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power

and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.

He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin

and began to wash the disciples’ feet

and dry them with the towel around his waist.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered and said to him,

“What I am doing, you do not understand now,

but you will understand later.”

Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered him,

“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Simon Peter said to him,

“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

Jesus said to him,

“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.”

For he knew who would betray him;

for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

 

So when he had washed their feet

and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,

he said to them, “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.”

~Jn 13:1-15

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant explains the historical and Biblical contexts of Maundy Thursday. 

 

There is one interesting fact that Fr. Geoffrey cites that was startling to me.  He cites Fleming Rutledge’s observation (starting at the 27:00 min mark) that Christ washing his feet in His loin cloth is a corresponding image to Christ in His loin cloth on the cross.  This is not just a foreshadowing but an amplification of the action Christ’s self-sacrificing love teaches from the cross.  I also love the quote Fr. Geoffrey takes from Pope Benedict XVI, from I think Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week.  Speaking of the foot washing, Pope BXVI says,

 

Jesus represents the whole of his saving ministry in one symbolic act.  He divests himself of his divine splendor; he, as it were, kneels down before us; he washes and dries our soiled feet, in order to make us fit at the table for God’s wedding feast.

There is one observation on the washing of feet that no one in any of the homilies I sampled across the internet makes, and so this perhaps is a peculiar observation to me.  So if I’m wrong, you can blame me.  So the connection to the washing of feet, or more specifically the lowering of a king to a servant for the sake of his subject can be found with King Rehoboam in First Kings, Chapter 12.  King Rehoboam is the son of King Solomon and the successor to the throne, but King Rehoboam faces a crises.  Jeroboam from the northern Israel is threatening to divide the kingdom by rebelling Israel against Judah.  Why, Jeroboam asks, should Israel subject herself to his authority when Rehoboam and his father have been so tyrannical over Israel?  King Rehoboam seeked advice for an answer.  Jeroboam, confronts him.

(4) “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.”

(5) He [King Rehoboam] answered them, “Come back to me in three days,” and the people went away.

(6) King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”

(7) They replied, “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever.”

(8) But he ignored the advice the elders had given him, and asked advice of the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.

(9) He said to them, “What answer do you advise that we should give this people, who have told me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed on us’?”

(10) The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is what you must say to this people who have told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; you lighten it for us.’ You must say, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.

(11) My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.’”

(12) Jeroboam and the whole people came back to King Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had instructed them: “Come back to me in three days.”

(13) Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave the people a harsh answer.

(14) He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.”

(15) The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD: he fulfilled the word the LORD had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat.

(16) When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king:

“What share have we in David?*

We have no heritage in the son of Jesse.

To your tents, Israel!

Now look to your own house, David.”

 

So Israel went off to their tents. (1 Kings 12:4-16)

Notice the King Rehoboam’s receives two sets of advice.  From the elders he is advised: “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever” (7).  He is first advised to be a servant king.  Who today on Maundy Thursday do we celebrate in a liturgy replicating His actions as a servant King?  Jesus Christ in the washing of the feet.  Does King Rehoboam take this advice to be a servant king?  No as we see in the very next line (8).  He goes on to ask advice from his childhood buddies, and they advise him to put on an even heavier yoke than the heavy yoke his father had put on Israel (10-11).  And this is what he tells Jeroboam (14) and Jeroboam and Israel break away and divide the kingdom (16).  So King Rehoboam is an anti-archetype to King Jesus, negatively foreshadowing Christ’s foot washing.  Notice to the language of “heavy yoke” Rehoboam uses.  Notice how that contrasts with Jesus speaking about His yoke in Matthew eleven:

o

(28) “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,* and I will give you rest.

(29) Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.

(30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11:28-30)

 

Meditation: “Do you realize what I have done for you?”

 

Gospel of John, Part 4

Part 1 on this series on John’s Gospel is here.  

Part 2 is here. 

Part 3 is here.  

With the closing of chapter 12, we have come to the end of Jesus’ ministry and we come to what amounts for the last supper in John’s Gospel.  John doesn’t narrate the institution of the Eucharist as the other Gospel’s do at the last supper, but he does narrate two striking scenes.  Let’s look at the second scene first.  I find interesting that we see Jesus handing bread out in John’s last supper, only the bread is not His body and He hands it only to Judas Iscariot.  When Jesus announces that one of the disciples will betray Him, and they ask Him who it is, Jesus uses bread signify the guilty one.

“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and [took it and] handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.  After he took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”  (John 13:26-27)

What to make of it?  Perhaps if you approach the Eucharist with an unworthy heart, it actually becomes the inverse of the body of Christ.

Any thoughts on why John doesn’t narrate the institution of the Eucharist?  Obviously he knew about it.  The fact that there’s a last supper, that he goes to great length in chapter 6 on eating the  body of Christ, and this “inverse” morsel of bread He gives to Judas shows John’s knowledge of it.  My hunch is John doesn’t narrate it because it’s been done already.  He seems to go to great length not to repeat the other Gospels, and I think he doesn’t feel the need to repeat the institution narrative.

The other striking scene is the foot washing scene. 

So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”  (John 13:3-7)

Later Jesus explains the significance.

So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “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.  Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.  (John 13:12-18)

He calls Himself “teacher” and “lord” but that doesn’t quite do it justice.  He is King of the universe, God Himself who will come to judge the living and the dead, and He lowers Himself to do the lowest menial task, the washing of people’s feet.  And He says, this is the model we are to follow.  To follow Jesus then is to be servant to each other, to find dignity in what appears to be undignified.

This is another example of Jesus inverting the norm.  The poor become exalted, a slave becomes king, love becomes power, the dead come to life.

Every parish recreates the foot washing scene every Holy Thursday.  Have any of you had the honor of being selected to be one whose feet get washed?  I was selected a few years ago.  It was a great moment. 

###

All the narrative scenes and the chapters of the signs in John’s Gospel are memorable, from chapters one through thirteen, and then the passion narrative of chapters eighteen and nineteen are extremely engaging as are the resurrection scenes of twenty and twenty-one.  But the chapters in between the signs and passion narrative, fourteen through seventeen, become a blur.  They are filled with discourse and Jesus’ prayer, and so I think become indistinguishable.  At least for me.  As a unit, it is referred to as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse.  I put together this little table to capture the gist and highlights of those four chapters in the hopes of them being more distinct in the mind.

Chapter 14:

Themes:

(1) Jesus as the way

(2) The Holy Spirit as the Advocate and Spirit of Truth

Key Sayings:

(1) No one comes to the Father except through me

(2) Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do

(3) If you love me, you will keep my commandments

(4) I am the way and the truth and the life.

Chapter 15:

Themes:

(1) Discourse on the vine and the fruit

(2) Discourse on being hated on account of Jesus

Key Sayings:

(1) I am the vine, you are the branches. 

(2) Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Chapter 16:

Themes:

(1) Discourse on the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth

(2) Discourse on Jesus Going and Returning

Key Sayings:

(1) I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

(2) I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.

Chapter 17:

Themes:

(1) Prayer that His disciples may know the Father

(2) Prayer that His followers may be one

Key Sayings:

(1) Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.

(2) I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you

I have found that chapter 17 to come up in debates.  Jesus prays that His Church be one.  All those who have splintered off from the original Church are really in violation of Jesus’ wish. 

I hope this summary helps as the readings from these chapters come up at Mass.

###

Two scenes have always caught my interest in John’s passion account.  First is the scene when the soldiers come for Jesus.

So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.  Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”  They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”  He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them.  When he said to them, “I AM,” they turned away and fell to the ground.  So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”  Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”  (John 18:3-8)

I always get a kick out of the way the soldiers fall to the ground when Jesus says the divine name, “I AM.”  It’s a little slapstick moment.  It shows that Jesus has the power to walk away from this if He so wished.  He is in control.  He commands the situation: “Who are you looking for?”  “That’s me.”  “Let these men go.” 

This recalls a moment earlier in John’s Gospel in chapter ten.  After the Good Shepherd discourse, Jesus says, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (John 10:18).  He has the power.  His life is not taken from Him.  He freely allows them to take it.  So when they come to arrest Him, the soldiers falling down to the force of His words, it is a manifestation of His power.

The other scene that captures my imagination is the interrogation scene before Pilate. 

So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?”  Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”  So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  (John 18:33-38)

Here’s a bit of a confession.  Pontius Pilate is the person in the New Testament with who I most identified.  Pilate here is the model of efficiency.  Get to the facts.  Understand the situation, and come to a decision.  “What have you done?”  “Then you are a King?”  What is truth?”  He is a Roman officer ready to administrate.  Pilate is me in charge of an engineering project.  Figure it out, get the facts, find the truth, and make it work. 

But Pilate is baffled.  This criminal before him doesn’t behave like a criminal.  There is something mystical here.  He is trying to understand Jesus.  He can’t penetrate the situation.  He’s trying to calculate.  I’ve had that so many times in trying to figure what physics are doing in a design.  Why isn’t it working?  The design is talking back to me.  “There is a truth.”  And I say, “What is truth?  Truth is what works.”  That is the life of an efficient engineer.  But at least there isn’t a moral problem with what I’m doing.  It’s only an inanimate design, mere metal, electrical, or chemical parts.  Pilate has before him a human being.  He wants to do what’s moral.  But when the situation gets close to a riot, then the calculation becomes what’s moral is to keep stability.  And so Jesus has to die.  Efficiency finds an answer.

They changed the words a bit, but Rod Steiger plays a great Pontius Pilate in Jesus of Nazareth.  Here’s that scene.

Always good to see that movie. 

Kerstin Replied:

I find it interesting that you identify with Pilate, Manny. I suppose as a German I fall into this category too ;-) I like efficiency. Right now I am thinking of re-arranging some stuff in my kitchen because the way I organized it doesn't quite fit the work flow...

Looking at your argument of efficiency, we do get carried away and push God out of the way. Pilate rightly calculates that a riot is never good, but he misses that by doing so he pushes God out of the way. How many times - despite the niggling feeling to the contrary - do we push God out of the way? Probably more often than we care to admit.

My Reply:

Haha, Germans have made some very good engineers over the last few centuries.

If I were in Pilate's shoes with Pilate's knowledge, I doubt I would have followed a different course of action. Pilate tries to get Jesus off, but it just got out of control. If I were to do something different, I guess I could have let Jesus go and lock down Jerusalem. But in all likelihood, the Romans would not have had enough soldiers to restrain the mob.