John 13:1-20
Dear RTB’ers,
Back to John’s gospel for the next few weeks. By way of reminder, John 11 was Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead, then John 12 was Palm Sunday. Now we are in chapter 13, clearly in the last few days before Jesus’ Crucifixion.
Now before the Feast of the Passover… (v. 13:1a). Scholars argue whether today’s reading was the beginning of the Last Supper or just another meal with Jesus and His disciples. It’s a good question. A few verses further we have Jesus leaving: So after receiving the morsel of bread, He immediately went out. And it was night. (v. 30) Then the next verse has Jesus speaking again with His disciples, and His speaking continues through chapter 17. These chapters could be the Last Supper. I’m going to go with today’s reading being the “other meal” argument, but it’s not an important issue. John does not have Jesus explicitly instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper as do the Synoptics. See Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, and Luke 22:19-20. That’s the issue for us!
Jesus does His foot-washing in today’s reading. Two verses stand out for me. The first, Jesus speaking, If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me (v. 8b) We read this verse today and internalize it as Jesus washing away our sins – a good take-away from a simple conversation between Jesus and Peter. The second verse, Jesus again speaking, If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. (v. 14) Although Jesus was likely speaking of our Christian duty to serve wherever and whenever we are called, it’s also a common practice in liturgical churches to follow Jesus’ example and have a foot-washing at Holy Thursday services. Those are often moving, emotional times for many people. I can recall a few that have been more personal for me. My feeling is that it’s nice to have that service once in a while, but not every year. And you? Let’s chat about that on Sunday.
Blessings!
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