The Washing of Feet

Maundy thursday. An excellent part of holy week liturgy. The day we celebrate the last feast that the Liberating King shared with his disciples. In my faith community we have a service to celebrate this day, today.

The service revolves around two things, communion, in which we remember the last supper and looming crucifixion, and the washing of feet, when we remember how our Lord's authority system is the opposite of the worlds.

See my faith community is going through transformation right now, which I am grateful for. Transformation is a part of being redeemed. We are learning to buck the system. See, Christ preached a way of life that was very counter-cultural. It flipped the economic system on its head. It flipped the social norms. It flipped the definition of authority on its head.

Christ came himself as a servant, even stooping to wash the feet of his very disciples. The men who traditionally were underneath him. The men whom Jesus would have taught. The men who would have lovingly followed Christ around like dogs. The Liberating King flipped the reigning definition of authority over by doing something as dirty as washing the feet of his students. Feet which would have been caked with mud and smelled of wet leather.

Christ assumed the role of slave. He taught the disciples saying

"Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

I guess the question here is, "Is Christ just flip flopping the role of authority?"

Our elders in my faith community wash the feet of the members present at the Maundy Thursday service.

I clipped my toe nails, washed my feet up nice, wore the socks without the holes.

But I didn't have my feet washed. Was Christ setting up a system of authority where those in authority serve others? It sure seems so, and maybe he does. If that is what he meant, then I didn't have my feet washed because I'm not sure if our elders know what that means.

See, it seems that the elders in my community view themselves as the decision makers. They are freed from responsibility of action because they are wise.

This is a problem for me, see... I don't separate action and wisdom, they go hand-in-hand for me. And how can you make decisions for a group of people that you are not involved in action with.

I don't want someone to wash my feet and not understand that from that point on I will be holding them accountable to serve me. I don't want them to be puffed up with false humility, washing the purposefully perfumed feet of those they do not know. I don't want my elders to wash my feet, and not follow through by serving me forever.

Christ isn't creating a new kind of authority, he is abolishing the system of authority. He doesn't say go and wash the feet of those below you. He says wash each other's feet. He says, stop the arrogance of hierarchy. He says know each other, care for each other, serve each other, love each other, be the body.

What we have is the abolition of hierarchical systems, and the creation of true community.

Community where we complete each other's weaknesses with each other's strengths. Where we each take the lead sometimes. Where none is above the other. Where we are all wise, and all active. Where we as a body we approach true Shalom.


May you love truly, living not above others, but with them.


Note: Since writing this post I realized that my lack of understanding of the elders in my community was because of a lack of effort on my part to know them as people. I want to leave this post as it is because that is honestly where I was at this point. I may still find most of this post to be true, but it will not be unfounded.