John 13:1-8, 12-15, 34-35: 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. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” . . . After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. . . .I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
It’s about love. It’s all about love. Not surprising, really, since “maundy” and in “Maundy Thursday” means “commandment,” referring to Jesus’ commandment: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” But as I was preparing for today, Maundy Thursday, it was what is commonly called Jesus’ “Great Commandment” that kept coming to me, and particularly the last part: “love your neighbor as yourself.” And I thought about how that may be the hardest part of the commandment to do – to love ourselves. And yet if we don’t love ourselves, as Jesus commands us, are we really then able to love others – love our neighbor?
Researcher and writer Brene Brown has said that if we cannot accept help from someone else without judgment, then we cannot give help to others without judgment. This makes sense when you think about it – but it really floored me when I first heard it. Often underlying our unwillingness to let others help us is a self-judgment that this means we are deficient in some way if we need help. That means we attach judgment to the act of helping. So if we help someone else, at some level we are judging them deficient because they need our help.
Maybe this insight says something about Jesus’ act of washing his disciples’ feet. Peter won’t let Jesus wash his feet. But Jesus tells him, “’Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’” By washing their feet, Jesus was showing love to them, and showing them how much he loved them, as well as modeling what they should do for each other. But what if Peter took it the other way – as a sign that he was deficient. Maybe Peter was one of those, like so many of us, who can give help, but cannot accept it from others. But, says Jesus, if you cannot let me help you in this way, then you cannot help others – because instead of an act of love, giving help will become an act of judgment. And that is not the way of Jesus.
In order to be the disciples we are born to be, we have to come to really believe that we are beloved, imperfect children of God. So we can accept the help that comes our way, by those who are the hands of Christ to us, washing our feet, feeding us bread for our hunger and wine for our thirst – with gratitude. Then we can love our neighbor, love one another, as Jesus loves us.
It’s all about love.
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