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Here is the second of four installments of the blog for this week, by guest author Willow Brook Chaplain, Adam Metz:
I think the first time I ever truly used imaginative prayer was in reading John 13 when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. It has to be one of the most tense moments in Scripture. Judas is headed out for the betrayal. All the disciples are gathered in that upper room, and I always imagine that they all have a million questions but nobody was brave enough to ask the first one. I imagine the meal as quiet. Too quiet. I can imagine Peter cracking a joke – doesn’t he seem like the one who just couldn’t take the silence? Nobody laughs, and so they carry on in their awkward silence.
I can imagine the disciples all looking at each other trying to prod one of them to break the ice. Maybe two of them got up at the same time to use the restroom, and on the way, they go back and forth with each other saying, “I’m not bringing it up, you bring it up!” “Last time I said something it was a disaster, I’m not saying anything!”
And so it went – at least in my imagination. That old idiom, “You could cut the tension with a knife” seems applicable. I imagine them telling this story years later. What parts did they add? What parts did they leave out?
Finally, Jesus stands up. Breaks the ice. But, no one saw this coming. The towel. The water. The smelly feet. It may be difficult for me to imagine Jesus with smelly feet, but I have no problem imagining the disciples’ smelly feet. Imagine the cool water. Jesus’ soft touch. The utter silence. Who could break the silence? What could you say?
Leave it to Peter. “You’ll never wash my feet! Never mind – do my whole body!” Good old Peter.
Then there’s the moment when Jesus is done. I bet you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was on the edge of their seat. And he speaks into the silence one of his most beautiful teachings. “You call me teacher and Lord, and rightfully so for that is what I am. Now I, as your teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash one another’s feet.”
How must it have felt to hear those words uttered the first time? I have read them hundreds of times and they are so familiar to me, it is hard to imagine what was racing through the disciples’ minds at this moment. Slowly, they are learning this journey to Jerusalem is not what they thought it was going to be.
One thought on “Maundy Thursday”
Gave me goosebumps on my arms and neck…again. Thank you brother!