Ep. 114: Footwashing

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JOHN 13:2-20

The next part of the ceremony was for the head of the company to rise and wash hands. It is this part of the ritual of which John records the adaptation and transformation on the part of Jesus. The washing of the disciples’ feet is evidently connected with the ritual of ‘handwashing.’ Now this was done twice during the Supper; the first time by Jesus alone, immediately after the first cup; the second time by all present, at a much later part of the service, immediately before the actual meal.

The foot-washing, which was intended both as a lesson and as an example of humility and service, was evidently connected with the dispute which of them should be accounted to be greatest. If so, the symbolical act of our Lord must have followed close on the strife of the disciples and on his teaching what in the Church constituted rule and greatness, which was evidently very different to what they imagined it to be.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)