WEEK SIX INTRODUCTION
TITLE: CHRIST’S FAREWELL DISCOURSE & HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER
March 21 - March 27

Leaders in the Greco-Roman world commonly offered final words or farewell addresses near the end of their lives. This practice has continued throughout history. It is interesting to note that the Old Testament contains a number of final verbal testaments offered by patriarchs and kings -- Jacob blessing his sons (Genesis 49); Joshua's farewell to Israel’s leaders (Joshua 23-24); and David's concluding instructions to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28-29). Christ’s modus operandi of teaching as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels was through the parable (“an earthly story with a heavenly meaning”), but in the Gospel of John, Christ taught through discourse, especially in the second part of the gospel. 

This week as we look specifically in the Gospel of John at Chapters 13-17, let’s be mindful of those things that were of utmost importance for Christ to relay to his followers near the end of his earthly sojourn. This “Book of Glory” as these chapters are sometimes called, contain farewell discourses that describe the new commandment to love; Christ as the only way to God; the promised coming of the Holy Spirit; Christ’s return to the Father in Heaven; Christ as the True Vine; and finally Christ’s High Priestly Prayer. 

Singer/songwriter Michael Card says that three words dominate this portion of Scripture. These words are: remain, love, and glory. Card writes, “What seems especially heavy on Jesus’ heart and mind is that his disciples do not stray, wander, or abandon his teachings. That is, he wants them to remain, to stay, to abide, and resist the temptation to stray. And the glue that will hold them to his Word and to each other is love.” In John 17, Christ prays for himself, his disciples, and finally for all believers that he and they might be glorified. Jesus asks the Father that all who believe in him will share in the glory he shares with God the Father (John 17:22-23).

Day 33 - Sunday, March 21
Title: “LOVE ONE ANOTHER”
Scripture:  John 13:12-20;31-37
So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Poetry
True Love
by Kathleen Norris

binds all wounds,
wounds all heels,
whatever. You can tell.
William Buckley,
Gore Vidal, Sampson
and Delilah, Paul
and the Corinthians.
You can tell.

It makes us fight
and bleed, takes us to the heights,
the deeps, where we don't
want to go. Adam and Eve. Noah
and Mrs., David,
Bathsheba, Ruth,
Naomi. You can tell.

The way light surges
out of nothing. The Magdalene,
the gardener. God help us,
we are God's chosen now.

A TOUCH OF LOVE

When Jesus stoops to wash his disciples’ feet, he performs the most menial task reserved for the lowliest servant. This humility is so profound and socially inappropriate that Peter protests: you will never wash my feet! Peter’s surprise underscores Jesus’ command to humbly serve one another, but in the aftermath of washed and dried feet, Jesus adds, “love each other as I have loved you.” How has he loved us? The answer lies within the foot washing.

In her 2010 exhibition “We Are,” Hyeyoung-Shin created a series of drawings and lithographs of life-sized legs and feet which framed an intimate, performative foot washing. Enacted by Shin herself, she recounts how she and the participants shared their “scents, heartbeats, touches, and space,” resulting in mutual empathy. Notice the closeness and shared touch in this interaction.

Something we might overlook when considering Jesus washing his disciples’ feet is what physical presence and touch contribute to conveying a particular quality of love. We often think of communicating and receiving knowledge in mental, cranial terms. But our multi-sensory, embodied experience plays a role both in how we communicate and come to “know.” We can learn about love by viewing a foot washing, but it is quite another kind of learning to have our feet washed. Through the nearness and touch of the foot washing, Jesus conveys a quality of love which cannot be mediated any other way.

Touch is sometimes overlooked, but it is powerful. Skin is the most direct organ of touch, communicating in reciprocal fashion. Touch expresses foundational empathy; infants die without nurturing touch. Touch’s potency leads us to structure its practice, dictating propriety around who can touch whom and in what way(s).

Our society’s rules around touch surfaced this past year with COVID19. Overnight we observed a rule-reversal. Practices considered to convey kindness—a handshake, a hug—were suddenly deemed dangerous. What we once considered rude—maintaining “social” distance—became an important way to show love of neighbor. The pandemic has demonstrated the general principle that well-intended touch can convey love. We have witnessed this most acutely (and tragically) in the absence of loved ones. Zoom, while useful, is an insufficient proxy in the COVID patient’s most critical hour of suffering. In such moments, a nurse’s presence and touch loves the sick through their deepest valley.

When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he initiated his own rule-reversal around touch. What Peter considered inappropriate Jesus declared the new way to love. Jesus’ humble touch signified his heart turned outward through his hands, inviting disciples to receive this love into their hearts. As we consider the magnitude of love Jesus’ foot washing represents, poet Kathleen Norris captures the world-changing impact of “true love.” As love takes us to heights and depths where we sometimes don’t want to go, we are reminded that Jesus has gone there first. His touch conveys love to his disciples, saying, “you are here to me.” May this love fuel us to “say” the same to each other.

Prayer
Jesus, Word made flesh, washer of feet.
In love you have drawn so close to us.
Your humble grasp of your followers’ feet prefigures your humble, glorious death on our behalf. We are so grateful.
Would you lead us to “grasp” more fully this up-close kind of love you have for us?
And then, would you lead us to love all those we encounter in the same way?
Be near, Lord Jesus, we need you this day.
Amen.

Jeannine Hanger, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University

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