Today’s Gospel from John begins as Jesus had just finished washing the feet of his disciples. Jesus then said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him” (Jn 13:16). Jesus not only taught the truth that God the Father sent his Son to serve and not be served, he modeled this practice consistently.
From his conception, gestation, and birth, the Son of God developed as a human being in the very simplest of conditions and endured the hardships of those on the margins. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were political refugees very soon after his birth. The young family was forced to flee from Bethlehem to Egypt. When Herod the Great died they returned to Nazareth, and other than the incident when he remained in the Temple while Jospeh and Mary left him, we hear nothing about the life of Jesus until he begins his public ministry. The most likely reason for this was that there was nothing to tell. Jesus most likely apprenticed with Joseph, in the trade of a simple tektōn, a woodworker, which was pretty low on the rung of the social ladder.
Through the short time of his ministry, Jesus modeled for his disciples what a follower of his entailed and what it meant to be one of his successors. To follow in his footsteps they would need to participate in servant leadership. He not only taught them but lived and modeled that there is no task too menial that we can’t roll up our sleeves and dive in to help. There is no person too other that we can’t assist when they are in a need.
In this act of washing the feet, Jesus is also revealing something deeper. The depth of his love for the apostles and each of us. The Son was willing to come close, to become one with us in our humanity, to be in solidarity with us even in our sin, so that he could take the sin of the world upon himself first at his baptism and then upon the cross. In the washing of the feet, he is also showing the depth of his love in caring for them in such a menial way, that is another foreshadowing of the depths of his love in his willingness to give his life in a humiliating and horrific way for all of humanity.
Jesus, as fully divine, did not grasp at his divinity or lord it over anyone. He was willing to be baptized even though he is free of sin, to wash the feet of his apostles in the most menial of tasks even as master and teacher, and was willing to experience crucifixion and death as the Messiah. In each of these acts, Jesus reveals the full giving of himself and holding nothing back of himself from us. Jesus is encouraging his apostles and us with every breath, thought, word, and action to love each other as he has loved us.
A good prayer and meditation for us today is to ask Jesus to reveal for us how we have resisted his urgings in the past regarding serving and loving others as well as when we have refused to interact or treat someone with anything less than the basic human dignity which they deserved which is to love each other, to will each other’s good. Have we ever thought that what he was asking of us was beneath us? Have there been people we have kept at arm’s length or refused to reach out to? For those ways in which we have withdrawn within ourselves and refused to be of help may we ask for his forgiveness.
Being willing to allow Jesus to shed some light on our lack of embracing opportunities to be loved and to love in return is a good place to begin. Then renewed with his forgiveness, mercy, healing touch, and having been loved, may we be more willing to be bearers of the love, mercy, and understanding that we have received. May we be more open to each of the people and/or tasks that God will place before us, the discernment to know his will, and the clarity and courage to act as his servant with humility, with love, and without hesitation.
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Photo: Are we willing to reveal our needs to Jesus, to allow him wash our feet, to allow him to address our needs, and then be willing to serve the needs of others?
Spiritual Stepping Stones 