“Basin and Towel”
John 13:1-17
First Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Donald E. Ray
March 20, 2008
Maundy Thursday Service
Return to the 2008 Holy Week Page
Maundy Thursday. Maundy is a derivative of the
first word in Latin of the phrase, “A new commandment I give unto you; that
you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) That phrase comes from
later in the chapter of John’s Gospel from which we read this evening. In
Maundy Thursday worship, we traditionally follow the leading of the other
Gospels which focus on Jesus’ association of the bread and cup with his body
and blood. John makes no mention of bread and cup. The picture he gives us of
this night is Jesus taking towel, pouring water into a basin and
washing his disciples feet.
We are probably all
grateful that the church has chosen to name as Sacrament what happened during
the meal rather than this that happened earlier around the table. Washing feet
can be a ticklish, embarrassing experience.
Food and drink are
common human needs. Thus the bread and the cup of Communion have timeless
significance appropriate to Sacrament. Foot washing as a ceremony is lacking a
frame of reference in our culture. Washing feet was essential in an age when
people walked dusty roads and muddy paths wearing open sandals. Since we drove
to the church and walked paved lots and paths, washing feet is not necessary.
Nevertheless, having
participated in the ceremony of foot washing, both as ‘washer and washee,’
the basin and towel are my choice for this second in the series, “Four Poems
for Holy Week.”
“Basin and Towel”
Upper Room ready, the Table is set;
Flat bread, wine cup, bitter herbs.
But what of the guests; Who will be servant
Taking basin and towel to wash dust from their feet?
‘Tis the Lord who stoops so low.
Body broken, blood shed;
Sacrifice for a cause is thought gallant.
But to touch--to touch dirty feet;
To wash off the muck from toenails unkempt;
Is it I called to stoop so low?
From lanes and alleys they come to the Feast.
Loaf of bread, cup of water, taste of life;
Feet stained and scarred from the road they walk;
Who cleans and salves the lost and the least?
Can I--dare I stoop so low?
Don Ray
Maundy Thursday, 2008
Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13:15-17)
In Communion we receive the bread and cup. Though Jesus cautioned that as he was being persecuted, his followers could anticipate similar treatment, there was no expectation of deliberate martyrdom. But of his washing the feet of his disciples Jesus said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14)
While I am not on any campaign to institute a foot washing ceremony as common practice, I can recommend it if there is opportunity. To be on your knees, washing another’s feet or to be having your feet washed creates the setting for reflecting on one’s station in humanity. But in our culture, a foot washing is but a ceremonial rite.
What I will campaign for is Jesus’ new commandment: “that we love one another as Christ has loved.” Aside that we need consider; Love your enemies; give to those, do good for those who don’t have the means to pay it back.
Jesus said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet.” To take the position of servant, stooping to the task considered menial and subservient requires a comfortable sense of one’s own identity. It has been my experience that persons who are boisterous and are their own biggest fans are often covering their insecurity. When you are stretching to reach your own stature, it’s difficult to stoop to those you consider beneath you.
This table tonight is about who we are. Jesus’ new command is to love one another as we are loved. It is here that we celebrate that we live in love; we live in God. In God we are who we are, forgiven and renewed as God’s Spirit lives in and through us. We celebrate this feast in grateful memory of the supreme act of love as Jesus laid his life on the line for love and peace.
Maundy Thursday is about our loving one another. It is about being secure enough in God as love to lay our ego aside and care for the lost and the least—to do the equivalent of washing feet for the needs of today. The basin and towel are about abandoning any image consciousness to live in who we really are. It is about doing random acts of kindness and going beyond that to do the deliberate acts of caring and love that address the needs of others without regard to station in life, economic or ethnic or social strata. We just do it because it needs be done and we live secure enough in God’s love to be the one to do it.
Trusting who we are in God, we can—we dare stoop so low
Amen.