The Really Crazy Thing We Do On Maundy Thursday

For Christians, today is Maundy Thursday, the Holy Week service that begins with foot-washing.

Oh, my, that sounds very peculiar, doesn’t it? Why in the world would people wash their feet in church?

The answer lies in that old-fashioned word “Maundy.” It comes from the Latin mandatum, which relates to our word for mandate.

On Maundy Thursday, the church recalls the command that Jesus gave his disciples just before his death. The apostles, who had been bickering on and off for a long time about who was most honored among them, almost as if they were competing to see who could be the most clueless, got their final answer on what followers of Jesus are to do.

During their last meal together, Jesus gets up from the table, takes a basin of water, and begins to wash the disciples’ feet. This would normally be done by the humblest of slaves, but there he is, kneeling on the floor, washing off the dust and grime from those gnarled and calloused feet (and in a dusty desert country, I’m sure they were mighty dirty).

After he’s done, he tells them they should do likewise (that’s the mandate part). “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,” he says, “you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

Let’s all agree that whatever you think of Christianity, this man has a flair for the dramatic.

The disciples, who had been hoping for something more along the line of a promise of golden thrones in heaven, or at least some glory and perks in this life, probably stood there feeling pretty bummed out. This is what they were signing up for? Foot duty?

But of course Jesus was actually telling them that the best way to follow him was to serve others.

Tonight at church we will act out this little drama. People will be self-conscious, because most of us have funny-looking feet, with bunions and bits of lint between our toes.

And when it’s your turn to wash someone else’s feet, it’s weird to kneel in front of them and take their equally funny-looking feet in your hands, pouring water over them and then drying them with a towel.

When you do that, you think, man, you have to be really committed or really crazy to do something like this.

But it’s also quite lovely, for foot-washing is a reminder of what’s most important about this man’s message.

When it came time to give his followers his last sermon—-the one thing he wanted them to remember most—-he got down on his knees and taught them by his example that service to others is the best worship there is.