Basin Theology

….So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you (John 13:13-15).

What does washing feet have to do with bearing fruit?  The answer lies in what happened on Holy Thursday evening.

For people of faith serving others isn’t optional, something to be tacked onto our busy schedules if we can spare the time or if we’re in the mood, no, it’s mandatory.  “Service,” a sage once said, “is the rent we pay in life for the space we occupy.”  More importantly, however, service is the primary way we obey Jesus’ command: “Love one another as I have loved you.”  That message comes through loud and clear in today’s gospel from John.

On the night before he dies, Jesus gives final instructions on what his disciples are to do when he’s no longer there to guide them in person.  In addition to giving them the Eucharist to be celebrated in remembrance of him, he gives them another method for keeping his memory and spirit alive.  And like a good teacher, to make certain the lesson is learned well, he not only tells them, he shows them. 

Washing feet clean of road dust when entering a home was a common practice in first century Judea where most people wore sandals.  Usually one washed one’s own feet, although to show respect a disciple might wash the feet of a revered teacher.  Jesus, acknowledging his role as their teacher, however, reverses this custom and honors his disciples instead by washing their feet.   And to make his meaning crystal clear, he tells them:  “…I have given you a model to follow… as this is done for you, so you do for one another.” 

If everyone who claims to love were to put love into action, is there any doubt that the kingdom would be a lot closer to reality?  “By their fruits you will know them,” is how Jesus says his disciples are identifiable.  Not by what they profess to do or intend to do, but by what they, in fact, do.  Service motivated by love, in short, is the hallmark of a true believer.  What does washing feet have to do with bearing fruit?  Everything!

Which leads to my next question -- if we truly love, how are we demonstrating it?  If we care deeply for our family, our children, for instance, how are we showing it?  Do we spend meaningful time together for example, or just go through the motions?  If we’re honestly concerned with hunger, poverty, loneliness, violence, injustice, what are we doing about it?  Without tangible evidence of love in action, it’s doubtful that we really love.  That’s why scripture warns us, “faith without works is worthless.”

Once a village blacksmith had a vision.  An angel of the Lord came to him and said, “The Lord has sent me.  The time has come for you to take up your abode in his kingdom.”  “I thank God for thinking of me,” said the blacksmith, “but as you know, the season for sowing crops will soon be here.  The people of the village will need their ploughs repaired and their horses shod.  I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but do you think I might put off taking up my abode in the kingdom until I’ve finished?” The angel looked at him in the wise and loving way of angels, “I’ll see what can be done,” he said, and he vanished.

The blacksmith continued with his work and was almost finished when he heard of a neighbor who fell ill right in the middle of planting season.  The next time he saw the angel, the blacksmith pointed toward the barren fields and pleaded with the angel. “Do you think eternity can hold off a little longer?  If I don’t finish the job, my friend’s family will suffer.”  Again the angel smiled and vanished.

The blacksmith’s friend recovered, but another’s barn burned down and a third was deep in sorrow at the death of his wife and the fourth… And so on.  Whenever the angel reappeared, the blacksmith just spread his hands in a gesture of resignation and compassion and drew the angel’s eyes to where the sufferings were.

One evening the blacksmith began to think about the angel and how he’d put him off for such a long time.  Suddenly he felt very old and tired and said, “Lord, if you would like to send your angel again, I think I would like to see him now.”  He had no sooner spoken than the angel stood before him.  “If you still want to take me,” said the blacksmith, “I am now ready to take up my place in the kingdom of the Lord.”  And the angel looked at the blacksmith in surprise, smiled and said, “Where do you think you’ve been all these years?”

Jesus’ entire life was an unending offering of praise to God and loving service to others.  “I come to serve and not to be served.”  “Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am there also my servant will be.” “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” “What you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me.”   Throughout the New Testament by word and example, Jesus demonstrates that love and service to others are synonymous. Greatness, for example, according to his definition, lies not in trying to be somebody, but in trying to help somebody.  For him, quite simply, serving others is serving God. 

Of course, you and I can’t solve all the world’s problems by ourselves.  Savior, after all, isn’t in our job description.  What we can do, however, is tackle at least one problem to the best of our abilities.  We can, for example, get involved in a cause that touches us most deeply: world hunger, local homelessness, juvenile drug abuse, children at risk, the pain of bereavement, the loneliness of the elderly in nursing homes.  We can’t solve even one of these problems single-handedly, but we can do something to ease one of them for somebody. 

Whatever our gifts, great or small, regardless of our age, physical condition, or economic status, we can make a difference.  A few examples of what you can do?  Write a letter to the editor; tutor an inner city child; teach an adult to read; visit someone isolated in a sickroom or prison cell; mentor a troubled youngster; reach out to a person who’s hurting; become a foster parent or grandparent – change the world a little and help bring the kingdom a bit closer to reality.

A pastor, let’s call him Fr. Mike, one Sunday morning was confronted by a parishioner who said “You preachers talk a lot about doing unto others, but when you get right down to it, it all about basin theology.”

 “Basin theology,” Fr. Mike asked, “What’s that?”

The parishioner replied.  “Remember what Pilate did when he had the chance to acquit Jesus?  He called for a basin and washed his hands of the whole thing.”  But Jesus, the night before he died, called for a basin and proceeded to wash the disciples’ feet.  It all comes down to basin theology.  So, which basin do you and I call for?                 

Anthony J. Sciolino
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15.
Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday).  April 5, 2007
(CycleC)