It's About a Towel

This night Christians around the world will move toward a Table. Not just any table—but hungry pilgrims will come to the Lord’s Table. We will remember that “on the night in which he was betrayed Jesus took bread…and a cup…” Bread for the journey—Lord knows we need it.

But what we fail to mention is that other part of the story. Only the Gospel of John mentions what happened after the Passover meal. Jesus took a towel and a basin and washed each disciple’s feet. Peter was incensed—the Lord washing his feet.

But Simon and the others learned that night that feet get dirty and somebody has to do the task of the servant with a towel, water and a basin. The church kept the story, I think not only because of the servant lesson but because we all get dirty. The dirt of everyday collects. Someone has said that this act dealt with the sins we commit after we are baptized.

Some scholars believe that the reconciliation of the penitents always took place on Maundy Thursday evening. All those who had broken their vows and not lived up to their commitments came back on that holy night year after year for a cleansing.

Our kids used to protest loudly when we told them it was time for a bath. “I’m not dirty” they would proclaim. Whew—no one could possibly stay in the room with them without a can of Lysol spray. Twisting arms and spewing out threats they reluctantly took their baths.

Maybe we don’t focus on this text as much as the bread and the cup because we forget how dirty we get and how much we need a cleansing. Somehow the baptismal waters are not enough—we need to be washed again and again.

And so we file down the aisle on this darkened night and we take what the Priest or minister offers. Tiny reminders of his body and his blood. But as we come we need to remember that Passover night he donned a towel and took a basin and washed each disciple’s feet. We come back to remember as the prayer book says:

                 "We confess that we have sinned against you
                   in thought, word and deed,
                   by what we have done,
                   and by what we have left undone…”

If we Christians could remember that less-than-holy-water Jesus took that first night—perhaps it would spare us this insufferable piety and self-righteousness. The ashes of Ash Wednesday are long gone. But the dirt--we still have to deal with.