by Pastor Isaac
Welcome everyone to the most uncomfortable worship service of the year. Yes, that’s right, this is the most uncomfortable service of the year. In just a few minutes, we are going to come forward, take off our socks and shoes, and wash someone else’s feet and let that person wash our feet. Part of what the Gospel lesson is trying to teach us tonight is that Jesus’ act of washing his disciples feet is scandalous. Only a servant would wash the feet of a guest. Jesus isn’t a servant, he’s the master, he’s the teacher of these disciples. He shouldn’t be washing their feet! If anything, they should be washing his. This is the scandal of Maundy Thursday, and there’s no better way for us to feel that scandal than to have to show other people our feet. I don’t even really have to preach. Everyone here already gets it because we hate it when people see our feet. We find feet gross. We find them ugly. We hide them whenever possible. We certainly don’t take them out in church and let other people touch them. It’s just NOT done! Except…. Jesus tells us that we should wash each other’s feet. It’s a good reminder that the middle class culture of respectability that churches adopted in the 20th century has taken away the scandal of our faith. In the years of the early church, people thought Christians were a bunch of weirdos and criminals. If you associated with them, you were an outcast in Roman society. We don’t have that reputation anymore. I desperately wish we could get it back.
We need to recover the scandal of our faith because the scandal of the moment is what makes people draw near. Did anyone invite a friend tonight to come with them to church? You better all raise your hands! If so, did you tell them that foot washing was a part of the service? If you didn’t then tonight is the ultimate bait and switch. If you did, how did they respond? When I told the worship committee that we were going to do a footwashing, someone who shall remain nameless instantly shouted, Not my feet! The person went full Peter! You never go full Peter! When Jesus moves to wash Peter’s feet, he says, “Lord, you will never wash my feet!” In Greek he uses a grammatical construction that basically means, You will never wash my feet even into eternity! It’s like the To Infinity and Beyond of refusals. Jesus responds, If you don’t let me wash your feet then you have no part in me. The scandal of this moment goes deeper than the shock of bare feet being touched by Jesus. The scandal is that in order to be a disciple of Jesus, in order to serve Jesus, we must allow him to serve us.
By washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus debases himself and takes the place of a servant, which means that the disciples assume the place of authority that Jesus vacates. As he makes his way around the room, he exalts each one of the disciples by his act of service and love. Here there is also scandal because Jesus does not leave any of the disciples’ feet unwashed, not even Judas Iscariot, the one who will betray Jesus. He washes Judas’ feet. He exalts Judas. He shares bread with Judas. He feeds Judas as one of his sheep. Judas responds to these acts of love by handing Jesus over to the Romans. He turns his back on the light of Christ and walks out of the room, and in an incredibly dramatic moment, John writes, “It was night.” Judas, like all of us, loves darkness more than light. Yet, Jesus doesn’t exclude him from his act of love and service. Jesus washes the feet of his betrayer, then tells us that we should do what he does. Could Jesus possibly mean that we should also wash the feet of those who betray us? Here is scandal once again. Scandal that invites us into the mystery of God’s reckless love for creation.
It is easy to focus on Judas in this story, but after the Supper, all of the disciples will abandon Jesus, except John. Peter will deny that he is a disciple three times. The others will flee so that they are not arrested or crucified with Jesus. The love and fellowship that they have at this supper breaks as soon as it is tested. What are we to make of the weakness of the disciples when Jesus is in need of them? What are we to make of the response of betrayal displayed by Judas? Is Jesus’ ministry a failure because his disciples abandon him? Is the church a failure because we consistently betray Jesus and his message?
At the beginning of Lent, I said that this season is not about what we will do to change the world. Holy Week is about what God has done, is doing, will do to change the world. What we see tonight and tomorrow is that God’s will cannot be undone by betrayal. God’s power is mighty enough to work through betrayal. Jesus faces down the Roman Empire, and is not overcome. John writes that Satan enters into Judas. Jesus is not just facing human opponents in his final days but the very powers of evil, as well. Satan has its way with Judas, and yet, not even evil is enough to stop God’s Son from accomplishing his task. The scandal of our story is that Jesus accomplishes these things alone. We are called to imitate Christ, in washing feet, in taking up our crosses, but there’s a difference between the way we do these things and the way that Jesus does them. We cannot work for a good end despite betrayal, we are undone by betrayal. When we wash feet here tonight, those feet will become unclean and need to be washed again next year. When we are tested by persecution, we deny Christ as Peter did. What is the difference between our work and the work of Jesus?
The scandal and mystery of faith is that when Jesus performs the work of the next three days, he does so as both God and Human. He acts as creature and Creator. In the difference between us and Jesus, we see the scandalous power of divine love unveiled before our eyes. May we not look away, and may we expose ourselves to the showering waters of grace. Amen.