NOTES for Joh 13:5-6

Today's reading presents an episode well known to every reader of the Gospel: Jesus washing His disciples' feet. It should be noted that washing the feet of guests entering a house was common practice in the ancient East. This is hardly surprising: footwear in warm countries was usually open, and in those days people did not sit at table but lay or reclined on a special kind of couch. Washing one's feet before a meal was therefore regarded as good manners, just like washing one's hands. A household slave assigned to the task normally did this work, but on special occasions the master of the house himself might wash the feet of especially distinguished guests, thereby showing them particular respect. Jesus here evidently takes on work usually entrusted to slaves (verses 1–5). And the evangelist regards His action as a sign of the fullness of love characteristic of the Kingdom (verse 1). The contrast between Jesus' position within the apostolic community and the task He took upon Himself was so striking that Peter protested, wishing to turn an ordinary act of hygiene into a kind of ritual washing. This apparently explains his request that Jesus wash not only his feet but also his hands and head (verses 6–9). The apostle probably thought such a ritual washing more fitting for Jesus than simple slave labour, since it implied a spiritual content that, to Peter, ordinary foot-washing seemed to lack. But Jesus evidently sees the situation quite differently. He does not regard a slave's work as something low or unspiritual. He says: I have just shown you an example to follow, if you really are My disciples (verses 12–17). Apparently, the point is not to try to imitate Jesus' actions in some way. It is to be ready to do for our neighbour precisely what they need at that moment. For in the Kingdom there is no work that is ‘exalted’ or ‘lowly’, ‘spiritual’ or ‘unspiritual’. Everything is determined not by the nature of the work but by one's attitude towards the person for whose sake it is done. Then the distinction between ‘exalted’ and ‘lowly’ disappears: love puts all deeds and ministries on an equal footing. Only purely functional differences remain, which are not really so important spiritually. Yet this attitude towards every task is possible only when the one performing it remains in the Kingdom. It is no accident that the evangelist saw in what Jesus did for His disciples an expression of the fullness of love possible only in the Kingdom. Jesus' words calling the disciples to follow His example then become clearer. He calls them to live in the Kingdom, every day and every hour—not at some indefinite future time, but here and now.

Peter and the other apostles were naturally embarrassed. No wonder: the King of Israel was washing their feet, doing a slave's work! Many of us would surely dislike it if the person dearest to us began doing something humiliating and improper. But this washing of feet is a decisive moment in the history of Jesus' relationship with His disciples; anyone who dislikes it is free to leave.

Why is it so important? Apparently it is impossible to understand the Lord and follow Him without learning through experience this lesson in which the Master serves those beneath Him and the Teacher serves His disciples. As Scripture says, this is an example—but not an example on a board or in a picture. Peter and all of us must pass through this shock so that we will never again be shocked by the thought that we too must serve those who are lesser and weaker than we are.

Jesus washed the feet of all the disciples. Judas too. This tells us of the perfection of God's love for us, from which nothing can separate us. That is why the Lord gives us freedom, the possibility of choosing at every moment. At any moment in our lives we can become traitors, and perhaps at that very moment the Lord will want to wash our feet, but we will fail to notice. Or, on the contrary, we can notice, accept His love, and return to God by renouncing betrayal.

Only one word comes to mind when the washing of feet comes up, when you remember and imagine someone washing your feet: "piercing." And it is piercing when a brother or sister does this, and the thought does not even arise that your Lord could have done it... How disarmed, how defenseless you become, gathering trust with difficulty so as to accept this amazing gift meekly and humbly. The exposed heart grows still, almost stops, from the depth of the sensations and feelings.

But when you yourself wash feet, the heart beats with the desire to express, through this whole action, the love that increases with the decision to wash someone's feet. The heart beats, commanding you to touch the feet of a brother or sister gently, understanding that the trust shown to you borders on pain. And the Lord, who calls us to do this, is present nearby, blessing openness and multiplying love.

Yet His instruction to wash one another's feet concerns not only this action; it must permeate all our fellowship. But the state of spirit that gives you the possibility of being the one who "washes" or the one who is "washed" is possible only with the presence of Jesus in your heart. For it is He who can take in our hearts the places occupied by pride, fear of trusting, and unwillingness to serve our neighbor.