![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/09\/51MSjabvF3L.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nQ. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have the Passover meal story from Thursday night, with no \u2018this is my body, this is my blood\u2019 interpretation of the Passover elements?\u00a0 Does this have to do with John\u2019s early proclamation that Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the world\u2019s sin? \u00a0 Not only is Jesus the Passover, he is also the Temple, the place where God\u2019s presence dwells, and he offers \u2018the high priestly prayer\u2019. In fact he is all the festivals rolled into one\u2014he is the light of Hanukkah, the bread of Tabernacles, the living water etc.\u00a0 It\u2019s one stop shopping in Jesus, fulfilling all these things.\u00a0 What do you make of this whole gestalt, which is hardly hinted at in the Synoptics?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A. John\u2019s Gospel, centered more on Judea, may have had a greater sense of the importance of the Temple in Jerusalem, so perhaps it is more \u201cliturgical\u201d in that sense. But it is ironic, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Because you could say that with John\u2019s higher Christology you would expect a greater emphasis on Jesus as \u201cin command\u201d and so you might expect in John an emphasis on the \u201cThis is my body,\u201d as in, \u201cI am the Bread of Life,\u201d one of the ego eimi<\/em> statements in John.\u00a0 In other words, your ancestors ate manna from heaven, and I am the new bread, which is a kind of exalted claim. And you would also perhaps not<\/em> expect him to wash the disciples\u2019 feet, an act that only slaves did at the time. You might also expect that at this late date, when Eucharists were being celebrated that John, written last of the Gospels, would include it. So it\u2019s quite mysterious.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMy response might be that it may reflect the fact that John\u2019s community included in their Eucharists something like the foot-washing, or perhaps even an actual foot-washing. You know, on Holy Thursdays I always ask the congregation to consider how much different our Masses and the Catholic understanding of priesthood would be if, along with the Eucharist, the priest washed feet every Sunday.\u00a0 Certainly the Mass would be longer\u2013and messier!\u2013but I think we\u2019d have a healthier understanding of the priest as servant-leader, as modeled by Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have the Passover meal story from Thursday night, with no \u2018this is my body, this is my blood\u2019 interpretation of the Passover elements?\u00a0 Does this have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":59594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13838],"class_list":["post-59693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-footwashing-at-the-eucharist"],"yoast_head":"\n
Dialogue with Father James Martin-- Part Eleven<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dialogue with Father James Martin-- Part Eleven\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-27T05:36:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-02T17:40:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/09\/51MSjabvF3L.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/\",\"name\":\"Dialogue with Father James Martin-- Part Eleven\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-27T05:36:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-02T17:40:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dialogue with Father James Martin– Part Eleven\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dialogue with Father James Martin-- Part Eleven","description":"Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dialogue with Father James Martin-- Part Eleven","og_description":"Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2023-09-27T05:36:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-02T17:40:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":333,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/09\/51MSjabvF3L.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/","name":"Dialogue with Father James Martin-- Part Eleven","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-09-27T05:36:39+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-02T17:40:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"Q. Why do you think the story of the meal with the Beloved Disciple and with the footwashing is the climax of the meal stories, and we don\u2019t really have","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/09\/27\/dialogue-with-father-james-martin-part-eleven\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dialogue with Father James Martin– Part Eleven"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}