Thursday in Holy Week: Foot Washing

What will you do the night before you die?

Last April, I shared this piece — The Holy Thursday Revolution — and it became one of the most read, most shared posts ever from The Cottage. I invite you to re-read it or read it for the first time, and remember the mantra at its heart: “Table - trial - cross - tomb/tomb - table.”

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In addition to “The Holy Thursday Revolution,” I’ve also included a reflection on an interesting question which has sparked debate among theologians: Did Jesus wash Judas’ feet at the Last Supper?

Some say yes. Others insist not.

I’ve been sharing the gospel readings each day this Holy Week from the lectionary. Yesterday, we read of Judas’ betrayal. Today, however, the lectionary gives us the verses before the betrayal — the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet during the supper. The lectionary ordering of the readings gives the impression that Judas was not at the entire supper. But, if you read them in the correct order, it appears Judas was in attendance, even for the foot washing.

Below are two images for reflection (an ancient one and a modern one), the lectionary text itself, a video, two poems, and a prayer.

One poem, by George Marion McClellan, a Black poet, pastor, and educator, is from the Jim Crow period of American history — and tells the story of Jesus and Judas from the perspective of political betrayal and racial tension.

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An ancient mural of the foot washing. Is that Judas with the black halo?

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John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going, you cannot come.’

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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On the day before he died, Jesus had a meal with the friends he loved and washed their feet — including the feet of one who would betray him. This video asks the question: What will you do the day before you die?

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INSPIRATION

That moment, when you knelt before him,
took off his sandals, readied the water,
did you look up? Search his eyes?
Find in them some love, some trace
of all that had passed between you?

As you washed his feet, holding them in your hand,
watching the cool water soak away the dirt,
feeling bones through hard skin,
you knew he would leave the lit room,
and slip out into the dark night. . .
— Andrea Skevington, “Jesus Washes Judas’ Feet,” please read the entire poem HERE

The second poem is by George Marion McClellan, a Black poet, written during the period of Jim Crow in the American South. Read it with that context in mind.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
The dark and evil passions of his soul,
His secret plot, and sordidness complete,
His hate, his purposing, Christ knew the whole.
And still in love he stooped and washed his feet.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
Yet all his lurking sin was bare to him,
His bargain with the priest, and more than this,
In Olivet, beneath the moonlight dim,
Aforehand knew and felt his treacherous kiss.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
And so ineffable his love ’twas meet,
That pity fill his great forgiving heart,
And tenderly to wash the traitor’s feet,
Who in his Lord had basely sold his part.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
And thus a girded servant, self-abased,
Taught that no wrong this side the gate of heaven
Was ever too great to wholly be effaced,
And though unasked, in spirit be forgiven.

And so if we have ever felt the wrong
Of Trampled rights, of caste, it matters not,
What e’er the soul has felt or suffered long,
Oh, heart! this one thing should not be forgot:
Christ washed the feet of Judas.
— George Marion McClellan, The Feet of Judas

G.M. McClellan was born on September 29, 1860, in Belfast, Tennessee. He received degrees from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut. He was a teacher of Latin and English in Central High School in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1899 to 1911, before becoming the principal of Dunbar Public School.

He was a Congregational minister, a teacher, and a fiction writer as well as a poet. He died in 1934.

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PRAYER

Lord, you are always breaking apart
our communities,
our identities,
our images of you:
open hand and heart to receive this uncalled for gift,
this fractured food, this feast
where untouchables meet, human and divine;
through Jesus Christ, the passion of God.
Amen.
— Steven Shakespeare, “Prayers for an Inclusive Church”

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Washing of the Feet, II by John August Swanson