Jesus the Slave: Washing the feet

 Christians on Holy Thursday practice the sign of the foot washing, which is the end of the Season of Lent and the beginning of the Holy Triduum. In our Churches, we witness the priests washing the feet of the faith

ful as a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet of His beloved disciples. A few persons who are chosen to be their feet washed show discomfort whilst priest washing the feet, by expressing their uneasiness of being washed. This symbolic gesture of washing of the feet has its significance and its effects on the people of God. This also will move us to meditate on the original event of Jesus’ washing the feet of his disciples. We need to span our attention to the original event and the context of the time to apply to our times. The title, ‘Jesus the Slave’ might disturb you but I would like to explore this ‘Slave Jesus’ keeping in mind Jesus’ divinity in the focus.

The washing of the feet by Jesus takes place at the Last Supper and this is recorded in the Gospel of John 13:1-15. If we read carefully these Johannine verses, we come to understand the context in which Jesus is placed. Jesus loved everyone as His own; a claim on the people He loved the most, especially His disciples hence a meal was imminent with them. The Jewish custom was to have a meal whenever a person left for a long journey, so to call a ‘farewell meal’, in other words a ‘thanksgiving meal’. He would have had meal with his disciples may times in the past but this meal was really a farewell meal. During this meal He desired to show how perfect His love was for His loved one. In the past, Jesus told them parables to make them understand His teachings but now He is the subject of the parable of washing of the feet. Jesus performs a parable in action by which he epitomises the significance of His entire life of dedication. It is not a parable or a miracle but a real life event in the life of the disciples of Jesus. Hence, the disciples did not understand, why Jesus is suddenly doing this act, because it was completely out of the expected.

The then slave masters practiced washing of feet, and also wives and children performed this action too. We have to understand the context of slave and their masters to get the situation right; a slave was expected to wash the feet of the master but never vice versa. Feet washing were a menial job. Masters feet would have become filthy after the long journey or work, so slaves had the job to clean them before master could enter the house. Hence, it is clear a slave had his place and master had his place. These two places remained intact for a long time until Jesus turns the table round. Jesus does the contrary by becoming a slave even though He was a master, teacher and Son of God.  Jesus shows how perfect His father is by a concrete symbol of humiliation of His incarnational state, reference, Jesus and Father are One. Jesus becomes a slave in order to show how perfect His love was for his disciples. This has its beginning when the Word became Flesh, in other words a Kenosis, He empties Himself (Phil 2:7). Jesus humbles Himself event to the point of becoming like a slave. This is an ultimate expression of love for us. Jesus bends down to human creatures to wash their feet in order to show that God can do this ultimate act of love and care. Jesus, in turn asks us to do the same to each other.

Jesus performs this act of washing of feet during the banquet, the Last Supper. This Last Supper becomes the beginning of our own liturgy of the Eucharist. Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Washing of feet has its fulfilment in the Last Supper that Jesus had with His disciples. The Eucharist we celebrate has this element of washing the feet but most often we don’t pay attention to the institution of the Eucharist but if we did, we could be washing each others feet before we celebrate the Eucharist. A few elements are incorporated in the Eucharist in which we commemorate the first Eucharist of Jesus. This commemoration of the First Eucharist will help us to understand that we are all children of God and when share from the same table, same chalice, same ciborium, we are expected to remind ourselves we are all welcome to the Supper. The Eucharist must help to love each other as Jesus does, even though we do not perform washing of the feet. Therefore, the Eucharist and Washing of the feet are intertwined. In other words, Eucharist must make us humble because our Lord became humble like a slave.

In conclusion, we are invited to practice the humility signified by the act of washing the feet. Jesus’ words, “you too have the obligation to wash each others feet”, must make us humble to serve each other. I would avoid the word slave for someone else in order to wash their feet or in order to serve them. Most significantly, we need to understand the spirit to act of washing feet than the re-enactment itself. We needn’t do this act literally in our lives but we can have the same spirit of humility and service to care for each other.