In the Western English-speaking world, Holy Thursday is called Maundy Thursday. This strange name comes from a corrupted form of the Latin ‘Mandatum’, or ‘commandment’, and it recalls the great commandment with which Jesus leaves his disciples: “A new commandment I give to you: That you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13.34). The symbol of this new commandment, both in the Gospel and in our Maundy Thursday services, is the rite of footwashing.
It’s a ritual for which the doing is more important than the prayers that accompany it. But I thought it would be interesting today to reflect on the words the priest gives preparing congregation to have their feet washed. The prayer begins:
Fellow servants of our Lord Jesus Christ,
on the night before his death,
Jesus set an example for his disciples
by washing their feet, an act of humble service.
He taught that strength and growth
in the life of the kingdom of God
come not by power, authority, or even miracle,
but by such lowly service.
This preamble summarizes the Gospel narrative: in the last private moments he had with his closest followers, Jesus washed their feet as an example of the kind of humble attitude they were to show in the world. His point, which he made time and time in his teaching, is that “strength and growth in the kingdom of God come not by power, authority, or even miracle, but by such lowly service.” I know I’ve been focusing a lot on this rejection of a ‘theology of glory’ for the ‘theology of the cross’ the past year or so, but it’s not me: it’s just the Gospel message! We are reminded yet again here that in a world that tries to convince us to ‘look out for number one’ and that ‘there isn’t enough to go around’, we as followers of Jesus are called to a completely different mentality and way of being.
The introduction to the rite of footwashing continues:
Therefore, I invite you
who share in the royal priesthood of Christ,
to come forward,
that I may recall whose servant I am
by following the example of my Master.
But come remembering his admonition
that what will be done for you
is also to be done by you to others,
for “a servant is not greater than his master,
nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
And so the priest invites the congregation up, not as ‘subordinates’ but as equals in the ‘royal priesthood of Christ, so that he or she might follow in Christ’s example and wash their feet. But the point, they are reminded, is that “what will be done for you is also to be done by you to others.” “A servant is not greater than his master” (John 13.16) and so all who follow Jesus must follow his example of humble, service-oriented love.
These are powerful and important words, if we have ears to hear them. In the divine economy of the Gospel, any blessing, any grace we receive is always to be paid forward to others in the spirit of humility and love.
“A new commandment I give to you: That you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13.34).
Matthew Root 