I recently was given a big hug by an old friend.
It was wonderful. It really was. That physical affirmation from someone that I loved and respected, who had shared some of the same long road.
Love is like that.
John’s Gospel calls our attention, again and again, to the physical details of life that reveal God’s presence in the world.
And it isn’t something that is merely a point of interest on the way, a passing thing while more important things are going on.
The details of relationships, of physical contact, the basic intimacies of friendship and family and community, of food, of healing, of suffering, of love.
It is central to how God’s presence is known and revealed and experienced in this world.
It is redemptive. It saves the world.
Washing feet.
The command to be a community that loves one another, that is known for that love for one another, that washes one another’s feet, caring for the stuff of life, the vulnerable stuff, of being in need, the things we would rather not be known, that we would rather ignore, the washing of one another’s feet.
This night is many things. The celebration of the Lord’s supper, the meal of fellowship, the surprising intimacies of Jesus washing feet, the commandment to do the same for one another, to love one another, the members of the beloved community, and then that sudden betrayal, that kiss, the arrest and the physical horrors of mockery, torture and execution.
The betrayal of the physical affirmations of being human, that reveal the divine, a kiss that isn’t, a touch that isn’t, twisting the body that was created to embrace, to reveal God. The kiss that isn’t. The touch that isn’t.
Food. Touch. Caring. Washing. Community. Friendship.
The details of relationships, of physical contact, the basic intimacies of friendship and family and community, of food, of healing, of suffering, of love.
It is central to how God’s presence is known and revealed and experienced in this world.
It is redemptive. It saves the world.
It is how Jesus is known.
The flesh and blood of God touched in this life and this world.
Love is like that.
God is like that.
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