Holy Thursday
John 13:1-15
“If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash the feet of one another.”
Before the feast day of the Passover, Jesus knew that the hour was approaching when he would pass from this world to the Father. And since he had always loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
And when the meal had taken place, when the devil had now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he came from God and was going to God, he rose up from the meal, and he set aside his vestments, and when he had received a towel, he wrapped it around himself.
Next he put water into a shallow bowl, and he began to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them with the towel with which he was wrapped.
And then he came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to him, “Lord, would you wash my feet?” Jesus responded and said to him: “What I am doing, you do not now understand. But you shall understand it afterwards.”
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you will have no place with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Then Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus said to him: “He who is washed need only wash his feet, and then he will be entirely clean. And you are clean, but not all.” For he knew which one would betray him. For this reason, he said, “You are not all clean.”
And so, after he washed their feet and received his vestments, when he had sat down at table again, he said to them: “Do you know what I have done for you?
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you speak well: for so I am.
Therefore, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash the feet of one another. For I have given you an example, so that just as I have done for you, so also should you do.
What do the Fathers say?
St THEOPHYLACT. The Father having given up all things into His hands, i. e. having given up to Him the salvation of the faithful, He deemed it right to show them all things that pertained to their salvation; and gave them a lesson in humility, by washing His disciples’ feet. Though knowing that He was from God, and went to God, He thought it in no way took from His glory, to wash His disciples’ feet.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. It was a thing worthy of Him, Who came from God, and went to God, to trample upon all pride;
He rose from supper, and laid aside His garment, and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poured water into a basin, and began to wash His disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.
See what humility He shows, not only in washing their feet, but in other things. For it was not before, but after they had sat down, that He rose; and He not only washed them, but laid aside His garments, and girded Himself with a towel, and filled a basin; He did not order others to do all this, but did it Himself, teaching us that we should be willing and ready to do such things.
Some one will ask why none of them prevented Him, except Peter, this being a sign not of want of love, but of reverence. The reason seems to be, that He washed the traitor first, and came next to Peter, and that the other disciples were checked by the reply to Peter.
St AUGUSTINE. He laid aside His garments, when, being in the form of God, He emptied Himself; He girded. Himself with a towel, took upon Himself the form of a servant; He poured water into a basin, out of which He washed His disciples’ feet. He shed His blood on the earth, with which He washed away the filth of their sins; He wiped them with the towel wherewith He was girded; with the flesh wherewith He was clothed, He established the steps of the Evangelists; He laid aside His garments, to gird Himself with the towel; that He might take upon Himself the form of a servant, He emptied Himself, not laying aside indeed what He had, but assuming what He had not.
Before He was crucified, He was stripped of His garments, and when dead was wound up in linen clothes: the whole of His passion is our cleansing.