Our reading today has several very important tensions and nuances that bring to us the heart of the Gospel itself, the heart of the Christian message and the heart of the teachings of our saviour, Christ.
It is good to start though, by reviewing some fundamentals of our faith, our tradition and our holy scripture.
As briefly mentioned in our service booklet, the name for our celebration today, our ritual re-enactment and entering into the foot washing offered by Christ at the last supper, is ‘Maundy Thursday’. This comes from the Latin mandatum or ‘’command’ and refers to the commandment we hear today:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
Love one another.
As we may know, in ancient Greek, in which the New Testament was written, there were several distinct and different words all translated as the same English word, “love”. In English, every day, we use the same word, “love” when we describe our love for God, our love for our children or animal companions, and the love for our favourite food, or a cold beer after a long hot day.
In Greek though it was different, and though there was some overlap in meaning, to distinguish between forms of love, four words were used.
There was eros, which refers mostly to romantic or passionate love, often seen as a love between partners. The English word "erotic" is derived from eros.
Then there was storge, a word centred on the naturally arising affection or love within a family, such as love for parents, siblings, or children.
There was also philia, part of the name of the city ‘Philadelphia’. This the love of friendship, sisterly and brotherly love, or affection between companions on the way or partners in a mutual endeavour.
None of these forms of love though is part of the new commandment. The love we are being commanded to is a special kind of love, in fact the highest and deepest kind: agape
This form of love is central to the Gospel. It is a selfless, unconditional love that seeks the well-being of others, regardless of their response to our love. Agape contrasts all the other forms of love by not being based on personal inclination or family loyalties or communal-social relationships. Agape love loves without distinction, agape love loves all people without distinction.
And tonight, with our bodies and hearts and minds, we enact this agape love, we enact this lack of distinction between people when we wash each other’s feet.
There is no prearranged order of people here tonight; we are washed and then we wash whoever is next. We will not necessarily wash our partner’s feet, those we eros love. We may not wash the feet of those we share life and home with, those we storge love or even the feet of those we feel sisterly or brotherly philia love for. But we wash whoever comes to us to be washed, just as Christ loved all, and loves all who come to him.
As he taught in the ‘Sermon of Mount’, though, Agape love in Christ is also to be extended to the very worse of us, the very worse of humanity, even people we know as enemies and traitors. And here we come to a tension, a tension within our Gospel, our understanding of faith and the purposes of God. This tension is centred on Judas.
Right at the start, verse two, of our Gospel today we hear:
The devil had already decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus.
The devil had already decided.
Many other English translations reflect better the literalness of the Greek here: “the devil having already put into the heart” of Judas. Our text gives the agency here to the devil, not to Judas. The devil had already decided.
And our reading today skips from verse 17 of chapter 13 to verse 31. The verses we do not hear, verses we DID hear yesterday on ‘Spy Wednesday’, are of immense importance. In response to a question of who would betray him, Jesus responds:
26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. 27 After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him.
Satan enters Judas by the bread that Jesus gives. The devil, here equated at least in part with Satan, decides. Jesus gives the bread and then, only then, Satan enters the one who betrays, Judas, the one whom the devil had already decided would betray Jesus.
As we said, this is a tension, a tension that can upend certainty, a tension that can shake our faith, a tension that we, as a church often pretends does not exist.
It is a tension, however, that cannot and should not be resolved tonight, or indeed fully any night, because it speaks to fundamental questions of God’s sovereignty, human will, and the powers which seek to thwart God’s unfoldment and love.
But it is of immense importance, and it is no accident, that this tension of human and divine agency is within the exact same Gospel passage we hear our new commandment, that we should love one another.
We are told at verse 11, that Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, and yet his washed his feet anyway.
And so maybe this washing of feet is a clue, a way forward. Not to resolve the tension of Judas, the question of his agency and culpability, but maybe a way of living with the tension, of holding in uncertainty within and as the Body of Christ.
In the Gospel according to John, even at this the Last Supper, there is no description of the Eucharist, the breaking of bread and drinking of wine, the sharing of the body and the blood. There is only the washing of feet, and there are indications that for some early John based Christian communities, foot washing was their sacrament, their equivalent of the Lord’s Supper.
So, for us tonight when we wash and are washed we are participating in a sacrament, an outer action with water and basin and towel that brings forth the inner blessings of God, in and as the Body of Christ.
So, for us, today, tonight, when we wash whoever we are near, when we wash not in eros-love, not out of storge family allegiance, or philia sisterly love, when we wash with agape, we imitate Christ. Because Christ washed his betrayer, washed Judas with his agape love.
So, tonight, through our simple bodily action of washing and drying, caring and nurturing, we imitate and become like the One who includes Judas, whatever his role and agency in the betrayal actually was.
When we wash and are washed, we participate in the God of flesh and blood who includes all who betray and who includes us when WE betray. This is the agape love to which he calls us, this is the love to which we belong, this is the love to which we unfold tonight, with only water and basin and towel.
In his name, Amen.