Do You Understand? (John 13:12)

 

Friday, May 23, 2025

Psalms 54; 55:1-12

Exodus 33:18-34:10

John 13:12-20

Do You Understand? (John 13:12)

 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?

We must have all heard this story a thousand and one times: Jesus, after sharing his final Passover meal with his disciples removed his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples feet, wiping them with the towel. He asks us, once again: do we understand what he has done to us?

Well, of course we do! Just as he has humbled himself and washed the feet of his friends (and the feet of his betrayer), we also must humble ourselves and be servants of all.

Then again, perhaps we understand nothing of it. The second Person of Almighty God, the eternal, pre-existent Word, has condescended not only to take on human flesh, but to wash the feet of his creatures. This is an infinite mystery.

Perhaps we only understand it a little. Year after year we hear this reading and reflect upon it at church on the Thursday before Easter Day. We feel a little uncomfortable and awkward removing a shoe in church and exposing a bare foot before the priest. Do we understand what Jesus has done to us?

Tomorrow, we remember John and Charles Wesley, Anglican priests and evangelists. The Methodists remember it as Aldersgate Day, when John heard a sermon and went away with his heart “strangely warmed”. We each have our own conversion story: perhaps a definite moment in time, perhaps a gradual moving from darkness to light. Jesus has washed the feet of our souls; do we understand what he has done to us?

How much of God’s love for you do you understand? How much of his love for you is still a mystery? How do you find joy in learning more of this love?

O God who became humble that we might join in your glory: teach us more of your great love for us, that we might always increase in our love for you.