Copy What I Have Done to You

Thursday of the Great Mysteries

28 March 2013

Copy of what I have done to you 

For a moment, let’s go back a little, less than seven weeks ago, to the beginning of Lent.  We were celebrating Cana Sunday.  We found ourselves at a table, in fact, a wedding celebration.  During the dinner, the mother of Jesus noticed that the hosts were running out of wine.  Jesus immediately responded, “. . . what do you want from me?  My hour has not yet come.”  (John 2:4)

This evening we find ourselves again at a table.  Jesus is reclined there with his closest friends, “his own, the ones He loved.”  But now it is different.  Jesus realized that His hour has come, that He was going to pass from this world to the Father. 

Just as He had done throughout His ministry, Jesus taught His disciples by doing something.  Let’s examine the text.  We hear that Jesus “knew that the Father had put everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God.”  Jesus knew exactly who he was; he had been given everything; he wasn’t filled with doubt, second-guessing or fear.  The one who had been given everything by the Father, knelt down and washed the feet of his loved ones.

This was contrary to the way things should be: He was Rabbi, the Teacher, the Master.  Yet, here He was, performing the most lowly of tasks.  He wasn’t doing this to show how humble He was: he was doing it to teach them how they were supposed to do things.  And this was just the beginning of things to come.  Very soon, He would be called to sacrifice everything.

Peter objected—out of respect for Jesus.  But Peter wasn’t getting it.  Jesus explained that He had to wash Peter so that he could be a part of the things to come.  Peter needed to be a part of Jesus self-sacrifice so that he could eventually sacrifice himself for others.

Jesus asked them if they understood and then explained: “you must wash each other’s feet.  I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.”  (John 13:15).