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.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 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.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 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. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
(John 13:2-17)
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I doubt that there's a parent anywhere who dreams about their child growing up to be a servant. That's no one's dream. I don't wake up in the morning and look at Hannah and think, "Wow. I sure hope she spends her life waiting on tables." There's nothing wrong with waiting on tables, of course. We have a nephew who does that. But nobody dreams about being a waiter or a servant. It's no one's life goal. Let's face it - if you watch Batman then sure, Alfred the butler is a nice guy but it's Bruce Wayne you're interested in. He's the man! You'd rather be the millionaire than the butler. Or, as Satan says in John Milton's Paradise Lost, "Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven." And to be honest that's probably not far off how most people think. No one dreams of being a servant. No one wants their children to grow up to be servants. I don't want Hannah to be a servant. Truth be told - on that night in Bethlehem, Mary didn't dream of Jesus growing up to be a servant. That's one of the reasons that the Gospel Jesus preached can be a tough sell - because it calls us to service. And not just to any service - it calls us to the lowliest service, and to the service of the lowliest of the low. It's the nature of the Gospel.
In some ways, that seems to be a contradiction. The scene we read from John 13 happens right after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem that we reflected on at our Palm Sunday service. It's not the night that Mary dreamed dreams about her baby boy; it's now the night that will quickly become a nightmare for all concerned. This is one of the traditional passages read on Maundy Thursday. Some people miss the point of it. Those who focus on it tend to get fixated on the foot-washing, so that foot-washing becomes the point of the story and foot-washing starts to get ritualistically re-created as if it's a sacrament of some sort that Jesus commanded of his disciples. It is true that Jesus said "... 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." But what this really is is a call to lowly service, and lowly service is contextual. In Jesus' day, foot-washing was a very lowly form of service. All you have to remember is that people wore sandals if they had the money and went barefoot if they didn't, and the streets were full of animals, and the animals did what animals do. In other words, foot washing was a dirty, smelly and unpleasant job in Jesus' day. Jesus isn't really calling on his disciples of all generations for the rest of human history to wash each other's feet. He's calling them to perform lowly acts of service for each other; acts of service that some disciples of Jesus might even feel are beneath their dignity - and Jesus sets the example for them. Jesus is calling on his disciples not to worry about whether they think the service they're performing is beneath them or undignified. Jesus instead is calling on them to simply be a community of self sacrificing love who surrender even their own dignity for the sake of serving those who need to be served.
As I said on Palm Sunday, one of the challenges of Holy Week is the abrupt emotional movements from the ecstatic welcome of Jesus as a king to Jerusalem, to the humble service of a lowly figure, to the gruesome death of a rejected figure. In each case, Jesus is "Lord" - as we regularly proclaim in church. But what does that mean? Centuries ago, when the Bible first started to be translated into English, they had to make a choice between two words to refer to Jesus. One was the Latin word "dominus." "Dominus" means to dominate, to control or to subjugate. It implies a forceful authority who gets his way. But interestingly enough the Celtic monks who first evangelized Britain chose not to refer to Jesus as "Dominus." Instead, they chose an Old English word - "lhoaverd" - which, of course, eventually evolved into "Lord." And what does "lhoaverd" mean? Its a combination of the Old English words for "loaf" and "warden." It refers to the person who makes sure that everyone in the household receives their daily bread. It refers not to the one who dominates, but to the one who serves. That's Jesus. That's what we mean when we say that "Jesus is Lord." It's referring to Jesus as the servant who takes care of the household.
"You also should do as I have done to you." Those were Jesus' words. That's how we should treat everyone. If you read on in John 13, you find that as he washed the feet of his disciples he would have washed the feet of Judas, who he knew would betray him, and of Peter, who he knew would deny him. But he still washed their feet. He still served them. As disciples of Jesus, we can't decide or make judgements about who we will or will not be willing to serve. We simply serve, because Jesus served. We serve the person in the pew beisde us, our spouses, our children, our next door neighbours, the shop clerks and bank tellers and waiters we deal with, the telemarketers who irritate us at dinner time, and the lowliest and dirtiest homeless person we'll ever meet. We are called to serve them all, because that was Jesus' example, and that's what Jesus calls us to. Later, Peter who would deny him and Judas who would betray him were welcome at the table with him. The table of the Lord is a special place. In the early church, it was a real meal, in which people set aside their social differences and simply sat and broke bread together. And they served one another. They weren't poor or rich, they were fellow disciples. They weren't masters and servants, they were all children of God - reflecting the new reality that Jesus called into being. As we approach the table tonight, may we remember that Jesus is our Lord and that Jesus is our host - but that Jesus is also our servant. May we also be servants of one another.
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