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At the Last Supper Jesus
is a dead man. His betrayer is at hand, the trap set for
him is about to be sprung. The words and actions of a
dying man have a peculiar intensity and meaning.
Usually, the dying begin a process of taking leave
before the moment of their death. Slowly but surely they
start to slip away from us, they begin a process of
detachment in preparation for that last journey which we
must all make alone.
On the night of his agony
Jesus is not detached; he is intensely present. It is
rather his disciples who are absent, not there. They
cannot fathom what he is doing: he slowly and
deliberately washes their feet. Peter is puzzled; he
asks Jesus to wash all of him, not just to stop at his
feet. So, why was Jesus so particularly careful to wash
the feet of his disciples?
There are plenty of poems
and songs about eyes, hair, lips and other parts of the
anatomy in our romantic literature, but not many about
feet. Some years ago, I saw a film about a man who had
fallen for a young girl. He managed to get possession of
a piece of her hair ribbon and wore it over his heart as
a kind of love token. I doubt if he would have done the
same with an old sock or a stocking. Feet do not really
feature in this highly symbolic language at all, and yet
for Jesus this action is highly symbolic.
When Jesus washes the feet
of his disciples he acts out a kind of prophetic sign or
sacrament of his whole life and mission. It is a
sacrament in that God shows what he does and does what
he shows us. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God. On the
night he was betrayed, he tells his disciples that he
has come to lay down his life. He invites his disciples
to follow him in that way of sacrifice, showing that he
who loses his life will save it; the ultimate Christian
paradox.
The washing of the feet is
often seen as a rite of preparation. By it the disciples
are prepared to eat at the table of the Lord. Through it
the disciples are received by Christ into an intimacy of
communion with him that is expressed fully in the
Eucharist. Normally feet were washed by servants in the
time of Jesus, but there was one exception to this rule,
a wife could wash her husband's feet. A rabbi would not
let his disciples wash his feet, but he would let his
wife, not because she was a servant, but because they
were one body. There is a story dating from this time
about a Jewish couple called Joseph and Asenath. Asenath
is Joseph's bride and she will not let anyone else touch
his feet, she says to him: 'Your hands are my hands and
your feet are my feet and I will wash them, and no one
else will touch them.' Throughout the Middle East the
washing of the feet is part of betrothal and marriage
ceremonies. At the Last Supper, Jesus, washes the feet
of his bride the Church symbolized by the disciples.
The washing of the feet is
not primarily about service, self-giving love which
expresses the unity of communion. In the Eucharist our
being 'one body with Christ' is enacted in a sacramental
drama. As St Augustine says: 'I am your food, but
instead of my being transformed into you, it is you who
shall be transformed into me.' In the Eucharist Christ
gives us himself not as an object but as a gift that
transforms. In the Eucharist Christ gathers his own to
himself. The Good Shepherd gathers his sheep into the
sheepfold of communion. When St John describes Jesus
'laying aside' or 'laying down his garments' before
washing his disciples feet he uses the same word he has
used earlier to describe the Good Shepherd laying down
his life for his sheep. At the Last Supper the Good
Shepherd leads his sheep to the pasture of the Cross.
The Eucharist is the start
and finish of our journey. It is the place to which we
draw people and the centre from which we are sent out to
bring Christ to the world. The call to the Eucharist,
the call to mission is the call to getting your feet
dirty. We should not be afraid of getting our feet dirty
then, we are soiling them for Christ. There is no other
way of preaching the Gospel to the multitudes than by
passing through the dust and mess of the world in which
they are; you cannot love and keep your feet clean. You
cannot love and save your life. Sacrifice and
fruitfulness are bound up together; they cannot be
separated at any stage.
The washing of the feet is
not the prelude to the Eucharist, it is the Eucharist.
'The seed does not die and then produce fruit; it is in
the dying that it gives life. It is one and the same
process that is both death and fruitful growth.' Those
who lose their lives will save them for eternal life. |
