Today’s reading from our Lenten devotional booklet is John 13:13-17
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.
Frances Wattman Rosenau, who writes the reflection in today’s devotional booklet, says,
“Foot washing makes us feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. Perhaps that’s why we
need it. We need to spend more time precisely with our discomfort and vulnerability in
these hours before the cross. Jesus’ last days are all about his body: his arrest, beating,
execution, death and burial. It’s no mistake that the two traditions connected with
Maundy Thursday—the washing of feet and then the breaking of the bread—are
connected to Christ’s body.”
I wonder if our usual discomfort and vulnerability when it comes to the “bodily” feels
different this year when we all grieve the loss of physical contact…hugs and
handshakes and shared meals and sitting next to one another in pews. How might the
future opportunity to wash one another’s feet be newly offered and received as a gift?
What are ways that you can envision yourself as embodied love for our neighbors both
now and in the future—following the example of Jesus?
Let us join together in the prayer from our devotional booklet:
“Jesus, we have been walking with you this season of Lent. This day, the journey
becomes uniquely yours. If the story of Maundy Thursday is familiar to us, give us a
new insight we need to hear. And if it is new for us, fill us with awe at how you chose to
live and die. In your precious name we pray. Amen.”
Pastor Kate