The Table and Basin - John 13: 1-17, 31-35

The preacher sat a large gift wrapped box on the table. As she pulled off the lid, careful not to jostle the bow resting on top, she explained that God has given us gifts, way to grow closer in our relationship with God. These gifts are means of grace. As objects appeared from the box, there were some that we recognized, a loaf of bread and cup, a baptism shell, but there were many others that we had not considered before as ways to grow in our relationship with God. Among those unconsidered items were a basin, towel, and bowl. 

There is just something about this foot washing story of Jesus that makes us feel uncomfortable. There is something just too intimate about the thought of someone else touching our feet. Revealing this part of ourselves that is often hidden under stockings, socks, and shoes. To have someone else wash our feet just seems to cross an unspoken boundary. Even for the disciples. For as Jesus kneels down, pours the water into the bowl, and moves from one disciple to the next, Peter objects. He knows that it is not the master’s job to wash feet. In fact, it wasn’t even a Jewish slave’s job. It was left for the bottom of all slaves. So Peter objects, “you will never wash my feet”.

But Jesus replies, “Unless I wash you, you have no share of me.” Jesus doesn’t have time for Peter’s objection. Perhaps he is thinking back to the argument among the disciples about who would be the greatest. Or if he simply sighs, wondering when the disciples will learn that they are called to be servants, just as he is being a servant to them. 

There are different stories about foot washing that have come to my mind as I’ve studied this text and I would like to share a few with you this evening. The first is the story of a dear friend. My friend  struggles with the ability to walk. On good days she can use a cane, but at one point and time the good days were far between and she was mostly confined to a bed. Yet, she felt called to go with a mission team from our church to Africa. By the grace of God she was able to go. She wasn’t sure why she was being called to go, for surely she couldn’t do the same physical labor as everyone else. But one night during worship she knew. She managed to situate herself on the floor at the front of the sanctuary during worship and slowly wash people’s feet. She washed our African brothers and sister’s feet. She washed the team members feet. She realized that she was there to humbly serve and give of herself, and she was there exactly for this moment.

When my best friend got married, it was a beautiful ceremony. He and his wife thought out each moment of it - what they wanted to communicate to each other and those surrounding them in love. At one point we began to sing the servant song. You may know it as we have sang it here a few times. “Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you? Pray that I may have the grace to let me be your servant too.” As the congregation sang, the couple took turns washing each others feet - a sign of humility and grace and commitment to each other. A covenant that they would serve each other in their marriage. 

Jesus modeled a new commandment for us. A new way of living that asks us be in a covenant of service and committed to looking after the needs of others. A way of living marked by humility and the grace of God. After he was finished, silence echoing in the air, he asked, “Do you know what I have done to you? As I have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.” A commission was given.

Part of the ordination process is a time of retreat with the bishop after you pass your first set of interviews and again before you are ordained. As a closing act of worship at my first retreat, Bishop Middleton knelt down on the floor before a chair and invited us to come one at a time to have our feet washed. While the Bishop is not Jesus, I kept thinking of this story in John’s gospel and wondering if this is how the disciples felt. To have their feet washed by the one who was their teacher, their leader. To have their feet washed when really they should be the one’s doing the washing. 

The disciples may not have grasped the holiness of that moment, caught up in their own discomfort. They may not have realized just what Jesus was teaching them. In some ways this sums up Jesus entire being and ministry. Jesus set aside the glory of Heaven to come and walk as a servant among us. They may not have even been able to see the act as being pastoral. They may simply been caught up in how personal it was for them. Yet, we too get caught up in the discomfort instead of seeing the gift that Jesus has given us in the basin and the table. Jesus took the earthy things of this world: food, foot washing, farewells, and loving friends, and used them to speak of the things to come: suffering, death, and resurrection. Like the table he set to communicate a new commandment, a new covenant, Jesus used this act of foot washing to communicate a new way of living marked by humility and servanthood.

Many of us think that we are good at being servants. We try to look out for others who are in need. But how many of us struggle with humility? Struggle with accepting the gifts of service that others offer to us? How many of us would rather be the ones washing the feet then the one’s having our feet washed? 

At annual conference two years ago there was a foot washing. One of the ministers retiring from service stooped down with a basin and towel and washed the feet of one of the one’s being ordained. With this act of love the one washing the feet communicated a passing of the mantle, that just as this generation of pastors has served in humbling ways, so those being ordained are now being called to such service. 

Brothers and sisters, just as Jesus taught us about the new meaning of the bread  and the cup that evening, so he taught us about the new meaning of servanthood. The type of servanthood that lays down one’s life for others. And laying down one’s life is not glamorous. And it often makes other people feel uncomfortable. It is humbling for the one doing and it is humbling for the one receiving. But this is the type of servanthood that Jesus modeled for us and calls us to. Friends, where are you being called to go with this type of service? Where are you to go and carefully, methodically care for the damaged and dirty places in the world? How are you to reach out with this humbling love? 

Friends, part of our communion liturgy that we will take part in tonight says that we feast at the table to become the body of Christ redeemed by his blood and sent into the world. The table tells us what our message is. The basin tells us how we are to lovingly communicate it in a way that brings healing and wholeness. We cannot have one without the other, that is the heart of tonight’s gospel lesson. We need both to feed us and teach us how to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Amen.