Jesus, gathered with the friends He knew best, does something so weird and upside down, that the Disciples recoil in confusion.
He washes their feet.
I think that if that happened in a social setting now, it would feel weird to us too. But there was much more happening culturally for those in the room that day.
Jesus got up. Took off his regular clothes, and stripped down to the garb of a servant for this. He was all in.
Remember He was their Rabbi.
Remember He had just arrived into the city midst the jubilation of adoring crowds.
Remember they were already figuring out this Messiah thing.
In an eastern culture built on a hierarchy of class, Jesus would have been seen, without question, as the most important person in the room.
And then He does the lowliest of tasks.
Even for a servant.
The least important servant in the household washed feet.
There's more.
John, in his gospel, makes sure to put this into context. His prelude into the story goes like this.
"It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."
John 13:1
Love is a servant.
This Maundy Thursday I feel the need to apologize.
On behalf of any of us followers of Jesus, who have tried to make it about being big and grandiose, I am deeply sorry.
If we don't follow Him in this,
we're not following Him at all.
Pausing here to make this personal.
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It's a wild an fresh sky out there this morning.
Glimpses of Resurrection morning.
Getting there.
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