Maundy Thursday Meditation
Daily Scripture: John 14:12-25
(Jesus said) Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
— John 13:12b-15
On Maundy Thursday we read or listen to the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples during the final meal Jesus will have on this earth. We may take away from it that Jesus set an example for us of loving service to others by demonstrating that kind of service in humbly washing his disciples' feet. We may even participate ourselves in the sacramental act of foot washing. But it is much more than this.
One can follow Jesus' example only if one has already experienced Jesus' loving service for oneself. Jesus' call was not simply to love and to serve. What Jesus said was "to love as I have loved you;" to serve as Christ has served us.
Can we imagine ourselves in that upper room, a follower of Jesus, and he comes round during supper and begins to wash our dirty feet? Can we imagine Jesus cleaning up after us when we have been sick, or being present to us when we are particularly ashamed or perhaps needy? Are we able to accept the help and presence of others at these times as Christ being present and serving us?
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you.” — John 13:34