"Foot Washing" - Reflections on John 12:1-17, 31b-35

by John C Holbert on Friday, February 14, 2025

          I wonder how many of you remember an examination question from 54 years ago? I know well that I am the nerd of nerds, but even the most nerdy among us will not likely have a fresh memory of one question on an exam over five decades ago. Well, I do. It was on an examination set for first-level graduate students. Though I was focusing on the Hebrew Bible in my studies, I still had to demonstrate some minimal proficiency in other fields of religious studies. The question I refer to was, in fact, on an exam in church history, though its ultimate root is to be found in the text we read this Maundy Thursday, 2025. I even remember who set this question; it was none other than the redoubtable Albert Outler, consumate Wesleyan theologian, and Protestant observer at the 1962 Second Vatican Council. 

         Outler well knew the ins and outs ‘of Roman Catholic belief and practice, and had been much moved when he witnessed the Pope, John XXIII at the time, take up the challenge and demand of the Gospel of John, chapter 13, wherein we are all charged to wash one another’s feet, since Jesus had not only done that for his disciples, including the Satan-haunted Judas, and had bid them to do the same. Outler then asked on the exam: “Why is the call to foot-washing not included in the lists of sacraments enjoined by the church, seven by the Roman church and two only for Protestants? Does the command by Jesus not meet the requirements for sacraments as found in the tradition? If not, why not? And if so, how would you argue for its inclusion in the lists?” I, of course, paraphrase the question somewhat; my 54-year-old memory in a 78-year-old brain is hardly capable of recounting verbatim what was asked. I think my answer then, however I phrased it, was less than satisfactory (though I did pass the exam!), and I imagine any current answer would not be much better. Still, the text is a fascinating one and well worth some of our time.

         I hope your ritual on this Maundy Thursday does include the opportunity for foot washing. I have participated in that ritual more than a few times over my liturgical life and have found it a deeply meaningful experience. This is not to say that I ever really looked forward to washing the feet of someone I do not know well, or even those I do know well. Feet are peculiar parts of our bodies, often subject to the dirt and grime of our places of walking, and perhaps not regularly subject to the very best of our attempts at washing them in our baths and showers. And, when I, as a man, am washing the feet of a woman, I admit to a certain embarrassment, a kind of queasiness in the act. Feet are not only on occasion subject to a lack of absolute cleanliness, there is also a clear intimacy about feet, a kind of sensuousness that is often reserved for two people who know one another more than casually. Oh, I have surely washed any number of women’s feet, but have had a difficult time looking into their eyes while doing so.

         Thus, I am hardly surprised that when Jesus “took off his outer robe,” (or “laying aside his garments,” it might be read), thus baring his chest, and “tied a towel around himself,” poured some water in a basin, and headed toward Simon Peter (John 13:4-6), Peter’s response is laced with alarm: “Lord, do you wash my feet?” This reply may be heard in more than one way. Most obviously, the first thing that often happened when one entered a house in ancient Palestine was that a servant washed the feet of the visitor, a needed act given the dusty roads and limited footwear of the time. Peter perhaps implies that Jesus is playing the servant here, and expresses shock and dismay at his “Lord” washing his feet. Jesus replies, “You do not know what I am doing now,” a plain truth, since Peter then says, “You will never wash my feet” (John 13:8). One can imagine Peter tucking his feet under himself denying Jesus the act he is intent on doing. 

         Jesus then says, “Unless I wash you, you have no part in me.” This is often understood to be a reference to the need for baptism, and that may be so, but the larger issue, I think, is Jesus must wash Peter’s feet if Peter is to understand that he too must undertake the task of servant for the world. This is certainly what Jesus means in 13:14-15: “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.” It is a rather similar charge that Jesus gives his disciples at the Last Supper when he says, “Do this when remembering me.” It could be that Dr. Outler was right to ask whether foot washing ought be another sacrament of the church. What do you think?