Haymes, Don

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LeavenVolume 1Issue 3 The Worldly Church Article 31-1-1990Dirty Feet and Acts of Love: John 12-13Don HaymesFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leavenPart of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought,Theology and Philosophy of Religion CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven byan authorized administrator of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Kevin.Miller3@pepperdine.edu.Recommended CitationHaymes, Don (1990) "Dirty Feet and Acts of Love: John 12-13," Leaven: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 3.Available at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol1/iss3/36 LEAVEN Summer 19901FTandActs of LoveJohn 12-13Don HaymesFollowing the last and greatest of his "stgns"in the Fourth Gospel -resuscitating the corpse ofLazarus--Jesus comes to a meal in the home ofLazarus, Martha, and Mary, "six days before Pass-over" (In 12:1-8). At that supper Mary takes a litra(11.5 ounces, a Roman "pound") "of ointment of nard"and "anoints" the feet ofJesus and wipes them with herhair. (InMark and Matthew an unidentified woman, inthe house of"Simon the leper," pours the ointment --inMark, "nard") over the head of Jesus "two days beforePassover"(Mk 14:1-9;Mt26:1-13). In Luke-at a quitedifferent point in the Synoptic outline -a "woman ofthe town, a sinner" enters the house of "Simon thePharisee" while Jesus is at table and "anoints" his feetwith ointment after "raining" her tears on them andwiping them with her hair (Lk 7:36-50).The picture in the Fourth Gospel (as in Luke)is a portrait of abased, abandoned, ecstatic love. Marybrings to the table an enormous quantity of expensive,imported perfume -worth, as Judas promptly notes, ayear's wages! -and anoints the feet of Jesus. To dryhis feet she removes her veil and takes down her hair,something that no "respectable" woman would do inpublic. It is customary for a host to provide water forguests to wash their own feet (cf. Lk 7:44), but theservice that Mary offers is not to be required even ofslaves (cf.Midrash Mekilta on Ex 21:2). It is an act oflove. In the romantic novel Joseph and Aseneth,produced at Alexandria sometime between 100 BCEand 100 CE, Aseneth invites her husband to-be intoher father's house and brings water to wash his feet.Don Haymes is Editor of Religion IndexOne: Periodicals in Evanston. Illinois.Joseph protests that such work is not for her;she should call a slave girl. But Aseneth will not bedeterred: "No, sir, because my hands are your handsand your feet are my feet, and another should neverwash your feet" (Joseph and Aseneth 20:1-3). But suchbehavior is shocking to those who witness it. Love andits acts are rarely "practical"; they are more oftenoffensive. That is the nature oflove. Itis embarrassingto watch. So it is here, throughout the tradition. InMark "some people," in Matthew "the disciples," areoffended by this woman's extravagance. The ointmentshould have been sold, and the proceeds "given to thepoor." Jesus remarks, with careful irony, that "youalways have the poor with you," and in Mark he addsthat "whenever you want, you are able to do good tothem." In Luke the concern is not for "waste" of avaluable commodity but rather for propriety. Simonthe Pharisee is aghast when the notorious womandisrupts the banquet in his house. We may wellwonder howhe knows that she is a "sinner." He speaksonly to himself, but Jesus "answers" him with aSocratic question about the person who had two debt-ors. Even Simon knows that the one who is forgivenmore will love the Forgiver more. In Mark and Mat-thew, Judas Iscariot leaves the house of Simon theLeper to make his bargain with the "chief priests" tobetray Jesus (Mk 14:10-11; Mt 26:14-16). The FourthGospel makes the connection explicit: It is Judas,identified as the person who holds the "money box" forJesus' entourage, who protests about this squanderingof resources. Jesus responds as in Matthew and Mark,in one ofthe very few sayings that the Fourth Gospelshares with the Synoptic tradition: "The poor onesalways you have with you. but me you do not alwayshave."Mary's ecstatic anointing of the feet of Jesuscomes at the close ofthe so-called "BookofSigns" in the1Haymes: Dirty Feet and Acts of Love: John 12-13Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 19908 LEA YEN SUIIlIDOf 1990(In 13: 8 - 10 ) .Who's not clean? Judas, of course, as the au-thor reminds us (In 13:11);he can hardly bring himselfto write down the name again, but the meaning is clearenough. Yet Jesus has washed the feet ofhis disciples;and, yes, he has washed the feet ofJudas. Jesus loves"his own," and Judas, the traitor and eternal Christianpariah, is one of them. One of us. Jesus loves him.Peter, devoted but proud, protests the washing of hisfeet; Judas, perfidious but -what? acquiescent? -bears the indignity, or enjoys the service, in silence. OfIn ecstasy, in abasement, involuntary servitude, in love weabandon "theworld" and all itsworks.most of the Twelve we know little more than a name,although there are many attempts to add cubits to thestature of all of them by mythology and hagiography.Peter and Judas we know almost too well, or think wedo. But they are not as easily typecast as we maysuppose. They are both human and fallible, both givento proud and impetuous declarations; both of them areambiguous. One comes down to us as a hero, the otheras a villain. How easily the roles could have beenreversed! They walk the same path, walk with Jesus,and arrive at quite different destinations. Jesus lovesthem both ... to the end. Earlier, in his first responseto the sputtering Peter, Jesus tells him, "You don'tknow what I do now, but later (literally, "after thesethings") you will know" (In 13:7). Now,having washedthe feet ofhis loved ones, he dresses and returns to hisplace as host. "Doyou know what I have done for you?"he asks. We may imagine the silence. "You call meTeacher and Lord," Jesus says, "and you're right: I am"(In 13:12-13). Jesus is their Rabbi -and, as the headoftheir school, he has given them a "pattern" to follow:As he has done to them, so are they to do. Nothing is"beneath" them; there is nothing that they, apostlesand teachers thouqh they be, are "too good" or "tooholy" to do. They, like him, are to take the form of aslave. Their service is voluntary; it is not coerced. It isnot for money but for love. It is what he gives them todo. They will abandon it at their peril.At this point in the synoptic outline Mark,Matthew, and Luke give us the institution ofthe Lord'sSupper. The Fourth Gospel gives us not bread andwine, but dirty feet ... and a washbowl. We may glory,and rightly so, in the gift ofthe Lord's Supper -but thewashbowl waits for us, for each of us. This is the onlytime in the New Testament that the word "pattern" isattributed to Jesus, and the only pattern that Jesusmandates is ... the washing offeet. It is not a patternthat pleases us. In most of the Western world thewashingoffeet is no longer a social necessity, althoughit is no more pleasant nor less demeaning to perform.In certain religious communities footwashing hasbecome an annual ceremony, as among Roman Catho-lics and Episcopalians on Maundy Thursday. Others,mostly obscure Fundamentalist sects, find in this texta mandate to wash feet as frequently as they andothers observe the Lord's Supper. But to make offootwashing a religious ceremony is to miss the point.Jesus is not instituting a ceremony but rather callinghis disciples to a way oflife, a way oflife patterned onhis own. This is the "pattern" that matters, and the"pattern" that remains to be "restored." That way oflife-the way exemplified by Mary Magdalene and Jesus-is, then and now, a witness against all the preten-sions ofthe kosmos, "the world." It is a witness againstthe "worldliness" of Judas-and of Peter and the dis-ciples and Simon.In the Fourth Gospel Jesus "knows" everyhuman being (In 2:25), and he "knows" Judas. Judas issaid to be a thief, a traitor, and an accomplice inmurder -a "devil" ifthere ever was one. Jesus knowsJudas for what he is. And yet Judas is the "treasurer"ofthe Jesus movement! The "devil," the wolf among thesheep, is holding the money box, keeping the books andsigning the checks! Nothing more vividly illustratesthe perspective of Jesus on our human priorities andpreoccupations -especially our preoccupation withmoney. When we elevate, as we inevitably do, the im-portance of the "church treasury," we need to remem-ber Judas. We should never choose one like Judas to"hold the bag"-not if we know who and what he is!Judas -at least in retrospect-is an embezzler whoseperfidy will know no end, and Jesus knows it. YetJesus keeps him where he is ... and washes his feet. Inecstasy, in abasement, in voluntary servitude, in lovewe abandon "the world" and all its works. That is thehypodeigma of Jesus, the model for our common life.It is not "practical," it is not the way of the world, butitisthewayofJesus, who is the Way and the Truth andthe Life.2Leaven, Vol. 1 [1990], Iss. 3, Art. 3http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol1/iss3/3

Dirty Feet and Acts of Love: John 12-13

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Dirty Feet and Acts of Love: John 12-13

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