My sisters and brothers, in reading the Gospels, I am intrigued by Jesus’ common practice of asking questions. I see each question as an invitation offered to those hearing him speak 2,000 years ago. The invitation was to engage at a deeper level with The Word and their own innerself – an invitation to ponder their personal relationships with the Divine and each other. Likewise, today, these questions are invitations for us to engage at a deeper level with Christ and our own innerbeing – an invitation for you and me to ponder our personal relationships with the Divine and each other.

Of course, we do so from a different point of reference as the text of the Gospels was not written in Aramaic, the language of the man Jesus. Even if it were, most of us have no proficiency in Aramaic. Additionally, the cultures and society that hold and form our lived experience are quite different from those which held and formed the lived human experience of Jesus. He was Jewish and Palestinian. At a very early age, he fled in the arms of his parents as refugees seeking safety in another land only to return home years later where he learned to live in an occupied land. Even as a child, Jesus would have been aware of the different cultures and societies that held and formed him. We may be surprised to learn about similarities in human behavior and ways of being that transcend time and place.

In the Gospel of John reading proclaimed on Maundy Thursday, Jesus does not disappoint. He captures my attention by asking a question. At initial glance, it may appear to be quite simple. Yet, in pondering it, we may see it as a profound invitation to metanoia.

So when Jesus had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?” You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

Do you realize what I have done for you?

Do you realize?

During the course of his ministry, how many times did Jesus say to those closest to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later?” The humility Jesus embraced to wash the feet of the others seemed to have been out of the ordinary, and it was probably a source of discomfort for those present. Have you ever wondered why Peter was so adamant in his refusal to allow Jesus to wash his feet? I want to address this in two parts.

Hold the question about Peter as we briefly journey to the time and place of Jesus and his earliest followers. If comfortable, close your eyes. Now, imagine the setting. People are walking in their barefeet or in sandals on dirt paths they share with animals. Upon entering a home to recline and share a meal, it was necessary to first wash your feet. Often, you would be the person to wash your own feet. If the homeowner or host was a person of means, one of his servants would have the menial but essential task of washing the soiled feet of guests. However, if the homeowner or host was Jewish, he would neither expect nor ask a Jewish servant to wash your feet. No, the task would only be that of a servant who was Gentile.

You may open your eyes.

In the 1984 movie, Places in the Heart, Sally Field plays an impoverished widow who owns a small farm in 1935 Texas. Despite her own poverty, she wants to help a neighbor who is more impoverished than she is by offering her a job to do work for Field’s. The neighbor’s husband was irate. He reprimanded Field’s character by saying that it was offensive and unacceptable for her, a woman in a white body, to offer such work to his wife who was also in a white body.

Is this why Peter emphatically stated, You will never wash my feet?

Do you realize what I have done for you?

Do you realize?

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Do you realize what I have done for you?

Do you realize?