‘He loved them to the end’
John 12:12 – 13:17
From the Triumphal Entry we celebrate on Palm Sunday to the Last Supper we celebrate on Maundy Thursday, a lot happens in today’s relatively short reading.
If yesterday’s reading was all about Jesus’s power and divinity, today it’s his humility that is most on display, from entering Jerusalem on a colt rather than on a mighty war horse, to washing the disciples’ feet.
Even in 12:23 when Jesus is talking about being “glorified” (which appears to refer to his resurrection), he casts it in humble terms.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
The reversals here are similar to the ones in the Beatitudes, where so much is inverted, where things that seem to be bad are instead considered blessings.
The way to save one’s life is to not seek to save it—to surrender it freely. The one who serves is honored.
Jesus then puts this teaching into a concrete example by washing the disciples’ feet—a task that belongs not just to a servant, but to a low-ranking servant.
Peter speaks for many of us when he tries to preserve his own dignity rather than submitting to what Jesus is doing.
For many years, foot washing was the focal point of the Maundy Thursday worship service. Consider how you would feel if it were again.