JOHN 13: 1-1
7; 31B - 35
The Fourth Gospel mentions no Holy Communion on the night before Jesus'
death. Instead, John's Gospel records that Jesus rises in the middle of supper,
trades his robe for a knotted towel, and washes his disciples' feet. This sacrament
involves no bread, no wine, just feet-twenty-four of them at least, with ruined
toenails, burst blisters, yellow corns where the hand-me-down sandals rub and
thick calluses underneath. When Jesus finishes washing them, he leans close to
dry them since his only towel is around his waist. Trust me, that towel is not
something you want near your food when the foot washing is over.
On the next to last day of his life, Jesus gives his disciples this
example to follow once he is gone, the lesson that he hopes will continue to
teach them forever. This lesson is not in words either. It is a lesson in
bodies, which the church has always cut a wide swath around. On the whole, we
prefer sacraments with inanimate objects: a nice loaf of bread that does not
move, a cup of wine or grape juice that will not talk back. These things are
much easier to spiritualize than a bunch of smelly feet, each one attached to a
singular human being with real warmth, real dirt, real faith, real doubts.
Jesus understood how it worked. You cannot take a foot in your hands without
getting really close to another person; once that happens God's word becomes
flesh.
Whether or
not we celebrate this sacrament on a regular basis, it is there to remind us
that Jesus does not live inside a cross, an altar, a loaf, or a cup. Until we
recognize him in one another, he is not here. Once we meet him in one another,
there is no place he is not.
Risen Lord, be known to us
in the washing of the feet. Amen.
--Barbara
Brown Taylor, Embark
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