Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s Holy Thursday. Jesus is washing the feet of his disciples, in particular Peter. We can learn both from Jesus and from Peter.

Before Jesus begins his act of service, he interiorly recollects who he is. “Knowing the Father had given all things into his hands and knowing he had come from God and was going to God,” he rose… Jesus remembers his ultimate identity, his whence and whither, his coming and going to God. This is the contextual and permeating Mystery of his life. This God is a loving Father who has empowered him to serve others.

How often do we remember this ultimate truth of our lives? How often do we allow our identity as one who “comes from and God and goes to God and to whom all things have been given” to empower us to give and we have received?

Peter will not let Jesus wash his feet. He will not receive Jesus’ loving service. It has something to do with Peter’s image of Jesus as a Lord who receives the homage of others but does not serve them. It might also be Peter’s sees the implications: if Jesus serves and he follows Jesus, he will have to serve also. Whatever his inner motivations for refusing, the stubborn fact is he refuses. “You will never wash my feet.”

What keeps us from refusing God’s love? What keeps us from refusing the love of others whose care for us may reveal God’s deeper care? Take a look at the obstacles we set up. Remove them.

Bio: Jack Shea is the Program Director for the Ministry Leadership Center in Sacramento California. http://www.jackshea.org/

In John’s description of this Last Supper scene, Jesus goes straight to the feet. We’ve all seen feet that are pretty and perfect- the kind that are on sandal ads and in the windows of pedicure parlors. We’ve also seen feet with toes which are crooked, skin that is cracked and bruised, nails that that are dirty and fungal. Even my own feet, admittedly, have a couple of warts on them. In Jesus’ time, feet were almost always dusty and well trod. Yet, Jesus goes straight to the feet.

For me, our feet represent the place of greatest need in our lives. Feet are messy- you can never be quite sure what you’re getting into; what kinds of odors, sores, diseases, and total decay might come to the light. Feet represent the hidden brokenness we keep from everyone, even ourselves. Jesus goes there.

Feet also represent our journey. There is no where you have been that your feet haven’t touched. When you walk through a dirty subway, down a hospital corridor, or through the park by the lake, your feet touch these places. Even as you are careful to touch nothing with your hands, your feet make contact. Feet also have powerful memory receptors. The textures and pathways on our journey are strong memories, burning into our subconscious the places we’ve been, and impacting the roads we choose in the future. Our feet carry the story of our daily living- our most mundane and our most exotic experiences. Jesus goes there.

When I read this passage, I imagine myself at table with Christ, and my closest friends. Jesus gets up from his seat, removes his shirt (the barrier between his body and me), gets a towel and a bowel, and kneels down at my feet. Against my protests, he takes my feet in his hands, unties my shoes, removes my socks, and, gently cradling my feet, Jesus suddenly becomes intimate with my story. My life journey is there, in his lap. My greatest needs and fears are exposed; my cracked and broken feet are comforted by the soothing water and warm hands. Unexpectedly, my guard falls, and I realize that Christ is with me, in my place of deepest, greatest need. Holding me close, keeping me safe, comforting my sores, and preparing me to step out anew.

Then he turns to me, and in a soft voice with confident eyes he says, “What I have done for you, you must do for my people. Meet them in their place of greatest need- do not be afraid of what you will find. Be intimate with them; bring them comfort along their journey. Help them to know that I am there.”

Bio: Patrick earned his BA in Theology from Loyola University in 2005, and has over 7 years of professional and volunteer ministry experience, highlighted by time spent with Charis Ministries and Chicago’s Young Adult Ministry. Currently, Patrick and his wife Heather live in Oak Park where he works as a competitive swimming coach at the YMCA. Lent is one of Patrick’s favorite seasons in the Church because during this time Christ challenges us to simplify and re-center, and in doing so, to find restored hope and new life in the Resurrection at Easter.