The power of a moment with a towel

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ove one another as I have loved you... Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet... By this (sign) all will know you to be my disciples, by your love one for another.  (John 13.1-17;31b -35)

Maundy Thursday is one of those days that ought to be our “ah-ha” moment to refocus what it is we do on Sundays and throughout the rest of the year. This is the moment when we are confronted with our agendas, lists and gripes about what God has not done for us and for what we have made of Christ in the past year we are confronted with some simple yet powerful things about who Christ is and who we are in Christ. All of us.

We are given the command again to love one another as Christ has loved each and all of us. Not just to “like” and give a check mark to someone on Facebook. Not just to learn to tolerate the person who irritates the living daylights out of you so that you don’t open up a hole in the earth and send them off to hell. We are to genuinely love and care for each and every person and to off them the grace that is within us the way that Jesus did and does... remember? “When you do it for the least of these, you did it to me?” I am sure that there are people you find hard to love and to serve, I have the same challenges to a lesser and greater degree. After all there are all kinds of people: white people and brown people; read people and yellow people. There are tall people and short people. There are thin people and wide people. There are people with brown hair, black hair red hair and no hair. There are people with blue eyes, green eyes, and brown eyes. There are people who go to Church and people who run away from the Church. We are called to live with and serve each and every one of them as Christ would.

Even at the table, as Judas Iscariot is thinking about make the trek to finally turn Jesus over to the authorities, Jesus gives him one last chance to stop and to turn around from the path that e is going to take – a pat that will lead to his own destruction. Judas is still bent on having the earthly kingdom, though Jesus has made it clear that is not going to happen. So Judas is going to force the issue and try and make Jesus an earthly king by forcing Jesus to protect himself and bring in God’s rule through divine power.

With those that remain, Jesus takes the time to teach them how to relate to each other in the days ahead. He washes each man’s feet. When Peter objects, he is told that this needs to be done for him to continue to participate. And all he needs to do is what each and everyone else has received. One is not greater that another – each is to love and serve the other. The greater the service, the better the servant. The better the servant, the stronger the leader becomes within the community that is to come – the Church. True greatness comes not from have power, wealth and position, but from learning and fervently serving those whom we find around us.

We are called to do just that: to genuinely care for each other in ways that are going to meet the needs (and not the wants or the greeds) of the neighbours and friends that we serve. In time, we will serve God and neighbour, not because we will have to but because we will have the desire to using the risen ascended life of him who died and lives for us.

Jason+