Baptize my Feet

Not all parishes incorporate foot washing as part of their Maundy Thursday observance. In fact, this is the first parish at which I have any sort of affiliation where foot washing was offered. It is only one part of what we do tonight, but it adds to our experience of this next to last day. Enacting the foot washing within the liturgy has multiple meanings.

One of those meanings is building community, here among the people of St. John’s, the individuals who gather together in worship here. I have heard a number of people talk about how important the foot washing is for them as a part of their connection to others here. There is a significant level of vulnerability and intimacy involved in washing one another’s feet. To do so is to build relationships and form bonds within community, to establish communion, at least with one another. In a Christian fellowship, any practice that forms communion is positive. But I do not think this is the only or even the primary benefit of foot washing. Especially since that benefit only comes to the people who actually participate.

On another and broader level, the foot washing is an enacted symbol of Christian servant ministry and servant leadership. Within his own close community, Jesus models servanthood as one of the activities his followers are to perform for one another. The Christian community is to be one where individuals serve one another, even in the most menial and dirty of tasks. And in Jesus’ day, foot washing was a very menial and dirty task. In those days feet walked dusty roads clad only in sandals. Feet trudged in the fields, following behind a plow pulled by farm animals. Feet stood at the nets when fish were sorted and cleaned. To wash feet like those was an act of profound humility and service. For Jesus to establish foot washing as a Christian practice means several things. First, it means that to follow Christ… to follow Christ’s example means being a part of a community. There is nothing particularly Christian about washing your own feet. You can’t serve others within a community if you’re not in a community. And Jesus establishes servant ministry as a defining activity of this community. Bridge clubs play bridge. Academic communities seek and share knowledge. Christian communities perform service. Part of being a follower of Christ is being eager to do almost anything for one another. Whether you want to or not. You may have some question tonight about whether or not you are willing to have your feet washed… literally, symbolically or metaphorically. But you really don’t have a choice about whether or not you will wash other peoples’ feet, literally, symbolically or metaphorically. Not if you are a follower of Jesus. Jesus’ followers wash feet.

There is at least one more potential meaning for this action of foot washing. It has to do with Passover and with baptism. All four Gospel writers place Jesus’ so-called Last Supper at the time of Passover. Matthew, Mark and Luke say this gathering was the Passover meal. John says it was the day before Passover. But for all four, Passover is the context for all that happens with Jesus and his disciples. And it is for us. The Old Testament reading we heard this evening was the Passover story. For Jews this is the most sacred time of the year, and the Passover story is the defining story for the Jews as a community united to one another and as the people of God. Remember some of the specific words we heard this evening from Exodus. “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.” The Passover was the beginning, the start of time, the moment at which they began to be the people whom they understood themselves to be.

The meanings of Passover are a part of what we remember and participate in this evening. The relationship between the Passover feast and the Eucharist has often been noted and is recalled in the collect for Maundy Thursday. But have you ever thought of the other great sacrament, baptism, in the context of this night? The foot washing can be seen as an institution of baptism. Jesus brings baptism to mind, at least for us, when he says to Peter, “unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus offers cleansing and a sharing in the Body of Christ. Baptism. It puts a whole new spin on the debate about sprinkling or dunking, doesn’t it? All this time, when we baptize, we should have been scrubbing feet.

Baptism and Passover. The association of baptism and Passover is a part of our understanding of baptism that bears reinforcing. Baptism is a beginning. For us it is the event that unites us as members of a community and defines us as beloved children of God.

Thinking of Passover, isn’t it interesting that the Jews don’t have their big religious celebration to commemorate their arrival in the Promised Land. Passover isn’t about arriving; it’s about beginning a journey. And it’s about being freed from slavery. I think we often expect baptism to transport us directly to the Promised Land. It doesn’t. The Passover didn’t. The Passover and baptism are not about arriving; they are about setting out.

We really just have two options. We can stay put or set out. We can stay in slavery. Controlled and defined by others. Our hopes, our expectations imposed on us by other people. We can live lives numbed and helpless before the power of sin in our lives. Or we can accept God’s offer to be God’s people and—by God’s power—escape. Escape from slavery and begin a journey. Not an easy journey. But accompanied every step by God. We can journey with God, as God’s people, knowing ourselves (in the words of the hymn) “forgiven, loved and free.” Or we can stay put in slavery. The greatest feast of the Jewish people is to be eaten quickly with unleavened bread and loins girded for a long and difficult journey. And baptism is about Jesus refreshing, equipping and blessing our feet. Feet that we will need for the journey of following him.