Reflection on John 13:1-17, 31b-35

 

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSVue)

¹ Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ² The devil had already decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. And during supper ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴ got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸ Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
  ¹² After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Very truly, I tell you, slaves are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

  ^31b “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³² If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³ Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ ³⁴ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Reflection

In the 1905 painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jesus is entirely in the shadows.  As he washes the disciple’s feet, the light shines from behind Jesus, casting him in silhouette, placing him in the shadows and illuminating the disciples.  It is a striking image that highlights the ones being served.  It draws our attention to the ones being washed.  At the same time, it intentionally makes Jesus, the Lord, the rabbi, the master, into a side character in the story.  He serves in the shadows where so many slaves and servants have served for years and years, always quietly present but never the center of attention.

“For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). 

Love looks like lifting people up and at the same time drawing little attention to yourself.  Love looks like a master rabbi washing his learner’s feet.  Love looks like serving in the shadows so that those who normally dwell in the shadows can live in the glory of Christ’s light.

That reminds me of a pastor that I heard preaching a few years ago.  I remember the sermon clearly.  He described staying in a hotel in the big city for a few days and day after day he would pass by a couple of street workers in front of the hotel as he came and went.  The two appeared to be much, much too young to be working in the way that they were.  This was the in the 1980s, before the “me too” movement.  They were pretty girls that should have been watching Disney movies, eating popcorn, and gossiping about boys.  Instead, they were stuck in a life of serving rich and powerful men who frequented the hotel. 

As he passed by the girls again and again as he left and came back to the hotel, each time the Lord was pressing on his heart to do something for these girls.  The Lord kept whispering into his ear the words of John the Baptist found in John 3:30: “He must increase; I must decrease.”  “In order for the Lord and his ways to be more, I must be less,” he kept thinking to himself.  He must follow the Lord and serve in the shadows so that these girls can fully stand in the light rather than on the street corners in the darkness.

Recklessly, yet faithfully, the pastor finally bought the girls for the night.  He told them right away that he wanted nothing from them.  Instead, he took them to the video store and told them to pick out a couple of movies.  And as he stepped into the hallway, closing the door to his hotel room that night, seeing the two girls giggling as they sat on the floor and watched Disney movies, ate ice cream, and wore brand new soft pajamas with feet, he thought to himself, “It does not solve their problem, but at least for one night they get to enjoy the world like any other child.”  Of course, he was obligated to get another hotel room for himself that night as he stepped away into the shadows.  He spent way too much money to give those girls a night of simple joy, and it was worth every cent.

“He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

“For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). 

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

Serving each other is not some sort of symbolic, religious act for Jesus.  It is not a way to look good in front of others.  It is nothing less than heading into the shadows to fulfill a need for another person.  Jesus washed the disciple’s feet because their feet needed washed.  When washing his feet, Simon Peter objected: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:8).  Peter wanted it to be more than what it was.  But it was not a symbolic act.  It did teach a lesson, yes, it was a sign that preached a word to the disciples, but the washing of feet was not for the sake of show.  ”Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean’” (John 13:10).  Jesus washed feet because the disciple’s feet were dirty.  The pastor gave those two girls a glimpse of childhood because they needed a childhood.  And Jesus goes to the cross to save us because we need saved from sin and death.  “Not all of you are clean” Jesus says about the one who is trapped in sin and who will betray him (John 13:11).  The cross is not for show.  Loving service is done because we need to be loved and saved.

We have crosses that are lit and placed in central locations in our worship spaces, as if the cross were a great and glorious royal throne.  But notice that the actual cross of Christ was lit by God with darkness.  “From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:45-46). In the shadow, Jesus comes to serve.  In the shadow Jesus comes to save.  Love looks like serving from the shadows to save another person and allow them to step into the light.  Love looks like Jesus going to the cross to die in the shadows so that you can live in the light.

So, we stare at the painting of Jesus serving entirely in the shadows.  As he washes the disciple’s feet, out of the light, out of a place of servanthood, we know what love truly looks like.