I find myself reading this story over and over and
over and over. Letting the words run over me the way
the water washed over the disciples’ feet, I rest in
the good news of verse 1 of chapter 13:
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he
loved them to the end.”
These words open the floodgate of tears for me. Yes,
I love the Lord’s Supper. In fact, I’m an advocate
of celebrating communion every Sunday, the way Jesus
instructs and Calvin encourages. I love the telling
of that story and the sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper. Bread broken, wine poured out, for us and
for the forgiveness of sin.
But it is this part of the story that got me today:
“Jesus…got up from the table, took off his outer
robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he
poured water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that
was tied around him.”
In this act of humility, we as the church gain a new
vision and a new commandment: to love one another.
Our calling as God’s children is to love one
another—to love the whole world finally, I
suppose—as Jesus loved us. To do that, we need an
infusion of a kind of love that does not arise
naturally from the context of the world as we know
it. Jesus says it’s by our love, and not by our
church attendance, the world will know we belong to
God.
Side note: Here’s the thing about this ‘new
commandment.’ It isn’t new. Instead, it is part of
the new life to which the disciples are invited. A
life of one who follows God via the Jesus way
involves loving others.
Which is why this story is one I have read over and
over and over.
Why today in my study tears finally fall. For me,
this is the good news of it all:
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Up until The very end Christ loved his own.
"Christ's own." That's us. We belong to Christ. We
are in God and God is in us. In this love is where
we discover, preserve, and create community--the
reign of God.
On the night Jesus shared his last meal with his
friends, just before Judas would leave to betray
him, he gifted them…gifted us…with a new
commandment: that we love one another. In bread and
wine, basin and towel, Jesus gifts us with God’s
vision for humanity—a vision of goodness and
compassion for each person and all things.
On the night before he was handed over to the
authorities, Jesus gave the commandment of love—a
message of gentleness and tenderness, nonviolence
and forgiveness.
"By believing against all odds and loving against
all odds, that is how we are to let Jesus show in
the world and to transform the world."
Yet, for this to happen, it begins with Jesus
washing my feet. Which is why the tears fell.
Why they fall now…
Adam Quine, pastor of First Presbyterian Church
in Lincoln |
