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 decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. 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 supper, 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 reclined again, 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, slaves 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.
Jesus said, “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.” John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSVUE)
A knowledgeable friend of mine makes the point that the Gospel of John, the last of the Gospels to be written, is in many ways a commentary on the Gospel of Mark, generally regarded as the earliest Gospel. That may well be, for John tells a story very different from Mark’s portrayal of the last supper.
Mark sets the supper on “the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed;” John sets it a day earlier.
Missing in John are details such as the arrangements obviously made in advance for the “upper room” (an echo of the advance arrangements made for the colt on Palm Sunday) and Jesus’s institution of the Lord’s supper. Instead we get this story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and Peter’s initial resistance to the very idea. John with no apparent concern for biblical inerrancy or infallibility tells his own version of the last supper; John has other fish to fry (q.v. John 21:9-13.)
‘Quoting’ Jesus, John summarizes the point of his story about the washing of the disciples’ feet: “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.”
We should argue with John about his claim that loving one another was a new commandment. Either he has not read Luke (an issue contested by many scholars), or he chooses to ignore Luke’s parable of the good Samaritan wherein Jesus commends the “expert in the law” for quoting Jewish scripture that inheriting eternal life requires loving God and loving our neighbor as our self.
We should also challenge John about who’s included in the words he puts in Jesus’s mouth, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” John has Jesus addressing the disciples; is he limiting his commandment to just them? Or is it more encompassing? In the context of this scene at the Last Supper we might answer one way; in the context of Jesus’s life, death, and teaching we might answer another. . .?
Questions for Reflection:
-
Pronouns have become a touchy, hot-button issue for many people today. How do we answer the question “Who are ‘They’?” in the song title “They’ll Know We Are Christian by Our Love”? Is it important that ’They’ know we are Christians? Why?
-
Given the distance in time from the Last Supper we can hardly limit the words of John’s Jesus to his immediate audience, and even if we did, we would find it difficult to delineate who was Christian and who not. So, how do we live out the commandment to love one another? How does it inform our daily lives? Southwood Lutheran Church? The larger institutional church? Our stance toward public policy?
-
Among other things our predecessors answered these questions by developing ongoing relationships with congregations in Honduras and Tanzania, by establishing Lutheran Services in America and Lutheran World Relief. In a world of increasing politicization how should we as Christians show our love when we disagree on issues, especially when they affect the work of church organizations?
-
How does ‘faith’ as ‘trust’ affect our responses?
Prayer:
Lord,
We pray for peace; ‘we pray that all unity will one day be restored,’ but most of all we pray for mercy and justice, that your will be done on earth. Help us to work for your will, seeing in the stranger and the immigrant not an enemy but a fellow human, made in your image and loved by you. Make our faith active in love and hold us in your heart.
Amen
Login To Leave Comment