April 17, Maundy Thursday (John 13:1-17, 31b-35)
We need to find a way to wash each other’s feet, even when waging war feels better.
Three years ago, the Lawrence Journal-World ran a story about a young woman who fell into the Wakarusa River while visiting the Baker Wetlands in Lawrence, Kansas. The swift current carried her five miles downstream. She described making several attempts to fight the current, to no avail—and then realizing that she would die if she continued. She decided to allow her body to go limp, and she believes that choice is what ended up saving her life.
The story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet on the final night of his life offers another kind of glimpse into what it means to allow softness to guide us.
John 13 brings both the close of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the beginning of his final night with his disciples. For the next several chapters, Jesus spends that final night before his arrest preparing his disciples for his death and for what life will be like without him. John’s is the only gospel in which Jesus does not break bread with his disciples to institute the Last Supper that final night but washes their feet instead.
