Do as I Have Done to You John 13:1-15 Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2003 The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi As a priest, one of my true privileges is to be invited into the last days of someone's life. I find that as one nears death, most drop all sense of pretense and live authentic lives. The focus becomes offering others objects, stories, and memories that metaphorically say, "This is who I really am; this is how I want you to remember me." The Gospel writers tell us that Jesus offered such metaphors to his disciples as they shared their last meal together the night before his crucifixion. While the disciples did not understand they shared their last meal together, Jesus fully understood. They had traveled together; they had witnessed his miracles - or his signs as the Fourth Evangelist calls them; he had taught them. Now, he had one last chance to say to them, "This is who I really am. This is how I want you to remember me." The author of Luke focused on the metaphor of the meal which we now celebrate as the Holy Eucharist. The Fourth Evangelist, however, says, "Knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him." My friends, this is the metaphor Jesus left his friends. However, one of the problems with metaphors, is that they can be misinterpreted. Jesus does not wash their feet to indicate they are dirty. He does not was their feet as some sort of ritual cleansing or symbolic baptism. While he continually served others and reached out to the marginalized, Jesus doesn't even wash their feet as a symbol of service. He washes their feet to demonstrate his love for them, a love that will receive its full and final expression in his gift of his life. Foot washing in the Jewish and Greco-Roman Mediterranean world served as a way of welcoming one's guests: an opportunity for relief from hot dusty journeys with the minimum of shoe protection. Either the host offered water for the guests to wash their own feet or servants of wealthier hosts performed the task. The service offered hospitality. Never, however, would the host wash the guests' feet. Such would be utterly demeaning. Even today, contact with someone's feet is considered to be a most humiliating act. Most of America has probably failed to comprehend the symbolism of Iraqis with sandals in hand hitting the face of posters of Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, at his final meal with his friends, Jesus first served as host - offering the bread and wine to his guests. He, then, extended his hospitality by assuming the garb - a towel wrapped around his waist - and position - kneeling at their feet with a water basin - of the servant. Through washing their feet, Jesus unites his friends with him as he enters the events of his hour: his death, resurrection and ascension. To have Jesus wash one's feet is to receive from him an act of hospitality that decisively alters one's relationship to him and, through Jesus, to God. Like all of Jesus' works in the Gospel of John, the foot washing needs to be understood as an act of self-revelation. We find the salvific offer of the foot washing in the intimacy of union with Jesus that it makes available. It reveals unfettered love for the disciples, and it is this love that holds the promise of new life for the disciples. The call for the disciples is to allow themselves to be ministered to in this way, to accept Jesus' gesture of love fully, removing the distance between him and his followers, and bring them face to face with the love of God for them. Yes, Jesus' washing his disciples' feet is about service, but it is mostly about relationship. It is his revelation of his identity to the world. He does not simply issue a general call for service; he issues a call to give as he gives, to love as he loves. And, he says, "You should do as I have done to you."