John 13:1-17 - Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet Before the Passover Feast
1Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." 9Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" 10Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
If you have been following along with the church year, you might have heard this text just over a month ago on Maundy Thursday. It's a piece of scripture that has had a powerful impact on me for years and continues to do so. This story of how our Lord, in an act of humility, takes off his robe and washes his disciple's stinky toes shapes much of how I view Christian Discipleship as we are called to do as Christ to meet the needs of the world. Acting out of generosity and care for the other is something I have always strived to do, even before officially joining the church, but never did I think I would get the opportunity to do so in such a big way as I did recently...
A few months ago, I received a call saying that I had matched with somebody to be a stem cell donor! I promptly signed up for my initial appointment where they draw blood to double check to see if I am indeed as close of a match as they think... and I was! At this point, I brought many of you in on the journey,y and the prayers started flooding in. Here I would like to share my reflection I shared with Bishop from the hospital room:
"Years ago, my step-mom was diagnosed with a blood cancer. She has enough other stuff going on that she isn't a candidate to receive stem cells... but that didn't stop me from doing my research that led me that getting onto a registry to possibly help somebody else!!
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