Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 20 Jan 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay
The weather has been strange here lately: Snowy and then –20 and then Sunny and +2 or +3. With all this snowing and melting, there have been some days when it has been pretty icy the last couple of weeks. I admit that more than once I even accidentally did a 180-degree turn, put my car into a spin, and wound up facing the other direction in the other lane. This makes for a bit of a different winter experience than I was accustomed to when and where I grew up.
I remember once when I was teenager; there was ice on the roads. I know that’s not too memorable around these parts but on the Island that was a big deal. Alex, a friend of mine, showed up at my house in the middle of the night once when we were teenagers and the two of us took our cars to the university parking lot where he would show me one way teenage boys could have fun in the icy weather: he would drive quickly on the iced-over parking lot and then slam on the breaks put his car into a spin. I sat and watched in my car. He then came over to my car and showed me how to do the same thing. He had a 1975 Chevy Nova and I had a 1974 Pontiac Ventura at this point. These were basically the same car and we often used the parts from one car to repair the other because it was rare when we could actually both afford to have a car on the road at the same time. So now we were having a great time just racing and spinning our cars around and round in circles in the parking lot – seeing who can get their car to spin around the most times. We then naturally become braver and braver even if we don’t get brighter and brighter as we go along. We begin to drive towards each other at faster and faster speeds and slam on the breaks and spin every which way and we are having a lot of fun and getting pretty good at this when Billy shows up in his little Honda Civic. He is watching us and he tries to join in but for some reason his car won’t spin so I think that I will help Bill the way that Alex helped me. I get out of my car and go over to his car. He tells me to be careful. I tell him not to worry. We have been doing this for about an hour now - driving our cars full speed at each other and spinning in circles - and we are okay. Billy says ‘be careful I just got this car’.
I tell him not to worry. ‘I have a whole hour’s worth of experience driving on the ice. What can go wrong? If you can’t make you car spin, you probably just aren’t driving fast enough’, I say.
‘Be careful’, he says. I then race as fast as I can across the parking lot in his car. At the last possible moment with the concrete barrier before us – Bill exclaims ‘be careful!’
I say, ‘don’t worry about it’ – as we are going straight towards the concrete at a good clip, I slam on the breaks and… guess what happens? Apparently not all cars will turn 180-degrees on command. I turn the steering wheel, I slam on the breaks: that does absolutely nothing. We slide into the barricade. We are fine and his car isn’t hurt enough to worry about it so I immediately jump out of Bill’s car and run towards mine. Because I got his car that he wanted me to be so careful with into this accident, he revs his engine pretending that he is going to try to run me over. So as I am running away I call out, ‘be careful, you don’t want to hurt your car. Be careful.’
That night was the beginning of the end of my winter driving experience before moving to the prairies a couple of decades later. It was certainly the end of automotive horseplay on ice.
In our Biblical story today, it is the beginning of the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth before his crucifixion. This is his final dinner with his twelve chosen disciples with whom he has spent every possible moment of the last one to three years. They are really close. They are his devoted followers. Jesus knows that his hour has come to depart from this world (Verse 1). Jesus knows that one of his twelve closest followers is going to betray him (Verse 2). Jesus knows that the one who is going to betray him is the only one who is from a different region of the country. Jesus knows that the one who is going to betray him is one that he has trusted to look after the money for the group here (Verse 19). Jesus knows all this and he knows that – Verse 3 – God has put all things into Jesus’ hands, that he has come from God and that he is about to return to God. Jesus knows all this and this is his last supper before all of this takes place. Our pericope today records what Jesus does at his last supper on his last night with his friends (John 13:1-27 and all of John 13:1-17:26).
What would you do on your last night with your friends at your last supper? Growing up on the Island, I remember going to at least one party the before friends and acquaintances shipped out on a naval mission. I remember going to more than one dinner party, as a friend was about to move to the mainland or another part of the world. I have been involved in more than one supper and bachelor party as friends were about to move from one lifestyle into the next.
Here, in John Chapter 13, we have not just a friend eating his last meal with his friends but we have a teacher having his last meal with his students that he loves. He is having this last meal before he is handed over to the courts to be tried and convicted and then handed over to the soldiers to be mocked and tormented and then handed over to the executioner to be hanged on a cross and executed. This is the context. Think about it. You are looking at your friends, students, and loved ones one last time before you know that you are going die and that you know you are going to die a violent death and then you know, your friends, your pupils, they are going to be on their own. This dinner is Jesus’ last supper with his disciples and over these next 5 chapters of John (John 13-17), Jesus is preparing them for what is about to come.
It is in this context that our story today unfolds. The twelve are all at this dinner. Now it was common in those days for servants –like a waiter or a busboy or a coat-check girl- to wash people’s feet. Then and there people wore sandals all the time and they walked all the time, everywhere they went, so there would often be a servant to wash people’s feat. Today in our text, today is different. Jesus, Verses 4-5:
… got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he [Jesus] poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Picture this with me. Jesus knows this is the beginning of the end. Pretend that you are one of his disciples with Jesus now. This is another dinner together with your boss, your teacher, your leader whom you love and for whom you are literally and really prepared to die. You are his servant. You are his student. You are his disciple and all of a sudden he is taking off his clothes and washing your feet like he is your servant. This would be like if you were invited to a fancy dinner with the Queen of Canada and – you’re all dressed up in your fanciest clothes and everything - then the Queen shows up as the valet to park your car. Or there is a big celebrity dinner for charity – think of your favourite actor or singer - and before they are supposed to go on and make their key note address, you walk past the kitchen and see them washing dishes by hand. This is the idea here. This is over the top. This is one reason why this story is remembered all these generations later. Who of us wouldn’t react with Peter? Verses 6-10:
He [Jesus] came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”
So here we have Peter. He has experienced one or two little quizzes and challenges from Christ over the past one to three years. Peter is the volunteer in another object lesson from his teacher now and he is determined to get the answer right this time. If this was a multiple-choice quiz, the question before Peter would look like this: God, the Son of God, the Christ is standing there and he is about to wash your feet, do you…
A) Say, “No, you are Lord! I should wash your feet. You are the master; I am the servant; I should serve you.”
B) Say, “Yes, Lord wash my feet and I love you so much Lord that if you say you want to wash my feet, then go ahead wash anything of me you want: not just my feet, wash all of me.”
C) None of the above.
D) All of the above.
What would you do? What would you answer? This is Peter’s predicament and Peter, he goes through all the answers before he finally gets to ‘C’ and finally just submits to Christ’s will for his life and then things get really interesting.
After Jesus washes all his disciples’ feet, after Jesus has this little exchange with Peter, after all this, after Jesus gets dressed again and after Jesus is sitting at his spot at the table, he asks them, Verse 12, “do you know what I have done for you?” So this is interesting. Jesus goes through the process of washing these 12 men’s feet. No doubt they are all thinking the same things as Peter. They are wondering what Jesus is doing. Peter has this little exchange and it is only after Jesus is dressed and it is only after they are all seated back down at the table that Jesus finally rhetorically asks them “do you know what I have done for you?” As he proceeds to explain it to them, Jesus knows that this is his last supper. Jesus knows he is about to be betrayed. This foot washing is an object lesson that he wants his disciples to remember as they eat and drink tonight for tomorrow he dies. “Do you know what I have done for you?” Jesus asks.
Here today, do we know what Jesus is doing for his disciples? Do we know, through this, what he has done for us? Do we know what Jesus is doing for us? Why is he doing this? These questions arise, of course. So then, what now is the author of the Gospel of John leading to in this story? What is the text doing? And more importantly: what is God doing here in the story and today in our lives?
I have another story for us. This one is from one of the periodicals to which I subscribe: The Expository Times. This is from an article by Reverend Dr. Darren J.N. Middleton where he relates this Ghanaian parable:
Once Kwaku Anansie lived in a town filled with wicked [selfish] people. They were always fighting, backbiting … [gossiping, and just being selfish]. Finally Kwaku decides to teach the people a lesson. He tells his wife to prepare a large banquet. Then he invites everyone in the town on one condition, that they have to eat with the spoons that are provided. As the guests arrive Kwaku hands each guest a spoon with a very [very] long handle. The guests then begin to eat the delicious food set before them. But since they are sitting close together they begin to disturb each other with their long spoons. In a short time all the guests are pushing, shouting, and fighting with one another. Kwaku [then] stands on a chair and calls for order. ‘I have invited you to a banquet and you have turned it into a battleground. Why are you doing this?’ One of the guests then raises his spoon and shouts, ‘Kwaku Anansie, you have [betrayed and] deceived us and made us look foolish! Nobody can eat with these long spoons you have given us! Kwaku responds, ‘no, it is not that I have made you look foolish but rather your own selfishness has betrayed you.’ Then he calls one of the guests to sit across the table from him. ‘This is the way to use these spoons’, he says as he dips his long spoon into the soup and feeds the person across from him.
Kwaku fed his guest personally, everyone at the banquet needed to do the same in order to enjoy the meal. Jesus washed his disciples feet and every one of us who has been cleansed by Jesus needs to do likewise at the eschatological banquet as we inherit everlasting life. Jesus says, Verses 13-17:
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Now that we know these things, we will be blessed if we do them. This is important. There is no room for selfishness at the everlasting banquet. There is no room for thinking we are above helping others and serving them as a servant would serve a friend of his master. This is the only way we can truly enjoy our place at the eternal feast with Christ.
Nowadays, sadly, Canadians seems to be serving one another less and less and our culture and our country is seemingly becoming less and less helpful as it is seemingly becoming more and more selfish and less and less Christ-like everyday. And as less and less of us seem to be accepting Jesus’ cleansing, likewise less and less of us seem to be washing others’ feet. Some examples: There are people –even people who got to church services – who don’t declare money on their taxes and see no problem with that. There are people leave work early but write the full hours on their timesheet and see no problem with that. People tell what they call ‘white lies’ because that is easier than gently handling the truth in a situation. Some people refuse to tithe because they think of their own needs before God and the needs of others. Some people in this very country and this very community even regularly lie, cheat, steal, gossip, and act as badly as a contestant on a reality TV show or a guest at Kwanu’s banquet, putting themselves first – refusing to serve each other and refusing to wash each others’ feet. But we know that as Christians, as we each grow in Christ, we will begin to put Jesus first, we will begin to put others second, and we will begin to put ourselves last. Then, as we wash each one another’s feet in this way we will indeed enjoy our time at the eschatological banquet for evermore with our Lord and saviour.
I know that there are many people indeed who are doing this kind of Christ-like foot washing in our congregation. I have seen people here symbolically washing others feet by giving then a ride where they need to go and asking nothing in return. I have seen people here who make a meal for people in need. I have seen people slip children or others something who otherwise might not have anything that they could worship the Lord by placing in the offering plate. I have seen people who have gone through the Alpha course 3, 4, or 5 times before still invite their friends who have never experienced it and enjoy it anew all over again. I have seen people offer an encouraging word and a word of prayer to those in need. I have seen people who are here in this place, come alongside one another and encourage them, walk alongside them, and love them. I have seen you folks do all of this! And if even I have seen these things among us here, then how much more has our Father in heaven seen us worshipping Him by washing each other’s feet in these and other ways. For all of you that do this selfless Christian service to God and your neighbour today, I would like to say thank you and praise the Lord for your acts of selflessness. For as we each grow in Christ we will put Jesus first, we will put others second, and we will put ourselves last. And then, as we all continue to wash each other’s feet in this way we will all indeed enjoy our time at the eschatological banquet of eternal life with our Lord and saviour.
Let us pray.
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Cf. Colin G. Kruse: John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 275
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