The Gospel of John, Chapter 13: Feet

 

The Gospel of John, Chapter 13 - Feet

I am posting these summaries several at once because I had computer problems and need to catch up.

Read Chapter 13 here.

Jesus knows that the time of his death approaches.  There is this sweet sentence of supreme loyalty:  “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”  (verse 1)  The text says that Judas (with the devil in his heart) plans to betray Jesus.  The gospel has had a sense of foreboding all along and now we know the denouement is near.

Jesus, knowing that he is going to sacrifice himself for all by dying, carries out another profound act of sacrifice: during dinner, he washes the disciples' feet.   It’s a nasty, dirty job, but Jesus is willing to do it.  At first the disciple Peter objects, but then he is all on board.  Pastor told us today that the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet occurs only in the gospel of John. I think it's a profound story.

Jesus makes a statement about how the disciples (all but one - the betrayer) are clean. It’s another metaphor - for spiritual cleanliness.  After Jesus finishes washing their feet, he explains to the disciples that in washing their feet, he was setting the example of how they should treat each other.  He tells his disciples to wash one another’s feet -  take care of each other.  At least that’s how I have always interpreted this story.  But in the text, Jesus adds “A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer.” (verse 16)  That implies that the story might be about keeping in your place within the organization.  The story of the washing of the feet is deeper than I knew, and will require further thought and prayer.

There is a clue in Chapter 15, verse 20.  Maybe I’ll address it then.

Jesus speaks again about the one who will betray him.  The disciples all want to know who among them is disloyal.  Jesus gives the sign - he says, it’s the person I give this bread to after dipping it in the dish.  And Jesus hands the bread to Judas.  The text says that when Judas took the bread, “Satan entered into him.” Judas immediately leaves to do what must be done. The disciples, ever naive, think that Judas is going to buy stuff for the party, or to make a donation to the poor.  The gospel writer points out starkly: “And it was night.”  This is significant, in a text which leans so heavily on the metaphor of light and darkness, seeing and blindness.

Heads up that Jesus is about to make a lengthy set of speeches.

Jesus talks about being glorified, not for the first time in this gospel.  Back in Chapter 11, Jesus made a point of saying that the purpose of Lazarus’ resurrection would be to glorify God.  Now Jesus makes an obtuse statement using a lot of pronouns plus the word “glorify” (verses 31-32):

Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.  If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.  (NRSV)

This passage is one of those typical Gospel-of-John texts where each word individually is understandable, but as a word ensemble one wonders what it actually means.  It’s one of those things that you have to know before you know it. It’s a reference to the crucifixion, which is hardly glorious, but this gets at the paradoxical heart of Christian faith - there will somehow be glory through this ignominious death of the Son of Man.

Jesus predicts his death again, saying “where I am going, you cannot come.”  The phrasing of Jesus’ next statement reaffirms his God-given authority (God is the one who issues commandments):

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (verses 34-35)

Jesus says it’s new, but is it?  Leviticus 19:18 commands “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  But maybe Jesus has taken this further, because wrapped up in that phrase “just as I have loved you” is the implication of being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, or at least the sacrifice of washing another person’s stinky feet.

As simple as this command sounds, we have not done so well at following it, have we?  

As usual, the disciples focus on the concrete while Jesus is speaking spiritually and metaphorically.  Peter asks “But where ya going?”  This is where Peter promises to lay down his life for Jesus.  Jesus replies with the famous prediction: “Before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.”  

Metaphors: clean, washing, going, night 

Images and themes: service, betrayal, love for others, denial

People/Beings:   Jesus, the disciples, the devil, Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter, “the [disciple] whom Jesus loved” 

Places: at the dinner table

Thanksgiving Survey 2018: Roads - responses

Just for fun, I’ve put all of the responses, including yours, in a word cloud.

I loved reading everyone’s responses.  Some of us are currently traveling real or metaphorical roads that are difficult, but nearly everyone had fond memories of some road they have traveled.    

For blog reader's responses, please see comments on the original post.

Here are the responses of my extended family.

Question 1. Name or describe a road, path, or highway for which you are thankful.

1. The tunnel under the street that connects the warm Justice Center to the cold parking lot

2. Hudson River Park

3. Crystal Springs Path.

4. The shortcut through the woods

5. I think I’m most thankful for Centre Avenue. It contains one of my favorite places on earth right now.

6. The two roads that are always diverging.  In a wood.    As in, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."   Yogi Berra also said, "Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't go to yours."

7. Lake Shore Drive.  Not the one in Chicago, but the one in our own local park.

8. /Our Street/ Drive. Because without it where would we live?

9. Mandarin Duck Road

10. Death Road to Canada

(The respondent informed me that this is a video game, not a fanciful description of the Airline Road in Maine.)

11. The Giant’s Causeway (in Northern Ireland)

12. King’s Highway in Haddonfield, because it had wonderful shops, like Rosen’s meat market where we could get a free hotdog.  And Neumayer’s sold comic books!)

13. The Appalachian Trail

Question 2. In your childhood, how did you travel to school?

1. School bus, where I was the first stop on and the last stop off

2. I walked.

3. School bus.  Car pool.  Walk.  Bicycle.  Drove a car.

4. I walked!

5. I traveled over plains, and mountains, going uphill both ways through 15 feet of snow until I finally reached the 1-room log cabin where they held school lessons for all the young’uns around.

6. We were told,  "You must always go down to the light at Strathmore Avenue, to cross Park Heights Avenue", to walk to school.    But we never ever ever did that - it was a full two blocks out of our way!  We always just ran across all 4 high-speed lanes of Park Heights at Pinkney Ave, where there was no light.

7. For elementary school I vaguely remember being in a car pool with other kids.  This involved mothers driving station wagons full of loud children.

8. I walked 10 miles each way uphill in the snow, just like everyone else.

9. #48 bus

10. Silently

11. By my feet and by my bicycle, carrying my violin in my left hand.

12. By foot and by bicycle, carrying my violin in one hand.

13. By walking, and then by bus

Bonus Question:  What is your favorite expression which includes the word “road”?

1.  Keep in the middle of the road

2. roadable plane

(that is to say, a flying car) 

3. And when we both have had enough,

    I will shake him from my shoe,

    saying "Meet your new road."

4. (no response)

5. I like ‘Hit the road, Jack!’. It’s a good song.

6. A voice cries:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

 Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

7. “You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll get to Scotland before you.”   (For the dark side of this seemingly light-hearted song, listen here.)

8.  Road hog!

     King of the road

     Road to paradise

     Road warrior

     On the road again...

9. I'm on the road.

10. The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

11. “I used the road less traveled.”

12. “May the road rise to greet you.”

13. “If you see a fork in the road, take it.”

Two chocolate roads diverged in a gingerbread wood...

Cabin of Grace

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

The Lord is my park ranger;

I have everything I need.

He gives me the key to a cabin in the woods

And leads me beside the still waters of the vernal pond

Where the trees all around rustle their praise of God's name;

Thus he restores my soul.

He leads me on the right path to get to the boathouse

and grows wildflowers in the nature reserve for his name's sake.

Even though the way is sometimes too narrow

and the hiking path is covered with mud,

I will fear no evil

For the park ranger has marked the trail with blue blazes on tree trunks

 so that I shall not be lost.

Though the ground beneath me is slippery, he will not cause me to fall;

he lifts my foot up out of the mud.

The park ranger tells me where I can buy matches, which I forgot to bring,

so that I can light the campfire.

You make it possible to prepare hamburgers on the grill,

in the presence of rabbits and birds;

You have caused me to remember the ketchup.

My cup of lemonade overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall sweep me along like the creek waters.

And I shall dwell in the cabin of God's grace for my whole life.

 - The Book of Jubilations 23:1-6

* * * * * * * * * *

I wrote this as a serious expression of gratitude to God for the three-day respite we had at this cabin in the woods earlier this month.  But when I recited the first line to my husband, he guffawed.    I stand by my portrayal of God as park ranger – to me it’s more relevant than the image of a shepherd.

Our three days was quite restorative.  We hiked in the forest, and got entirely muddy.  We observed animal tracks in the mud – definitely deer, and maybe raccoon tracks.   We saw a wild turkey, red-winged blackbirds, and heard a bullfrog in the reeds.

Another name for "vernal pond" is "mosquito breeding ground."
By a miracle, there were no mosquitoes during our entire stay.

Animal footprints in the mud.
Are these raccoon prints (after all, we were in Raccoon Creek
State Park), or, as my husband suggested, velociraptor tracks?
In any case, there was plenty of mud.

Younger Daughter got entirely muddy.  Even way more muddy
than in this photo.  She loved it.

We cooked dinner on the grill outside.  We roasted marshmallows.  We made 6-minute soft-boiled eggs and water for tea on the stove inside the cabin, and enjoyed blueberry buckle which I baked at home and brought with us.

Hooray for being able to buy a
lighter at the boathouse!

A week before our trip, we ran out of ketchup.  For the trip,
I packed one bottle of ketchup. Younger Daughter,
remembering the deprivation of the previous week,
 packed two more.

We canoed and did some fishing on the lake in the face of strong winds.   We observed my family’s time-honored tradition of going to the beach when no one else is there because the weather is cold and unpleasant. 

A fishie!

It was windy, chilly, and rainy.  That's my husband and
daughter in the water anyway.

We stayed in the cabin and read our books. We ignored the internet (no wifi at the cabin!).  YD played board games and card games with her Dad, while I wrote a psalm depicting God as a park ranger.  We played the “Jeopardy Game!!” which I made for my husband’s 50^th birthday (which he happened to find under the bed while he was packing for the trip, and threw in at the last minute).  

Final Jeopardy category:  Sports.
Click to embiggen to read.
I lost because I forgot to answer in the form of a question.

It really was a cabin of grace: an undeserved gift.