Who of us here tonight, have not, at one time or another, felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness?
I can’t control my daughter. She just doesn’t listen to me.
I’m at a loss trying to get my brother help with his drinking.
He doesn’t think it’s a problem.
I’m at the end of my rope. I’ve lost my job. I’ve searched for months.
My savings are almost gone. I’m going to be living on the streets.
How is it that we can create computers that can process billions of pieces of information in a second’s time?
How is it the science can create human life in a laboratory?
How is it that we can send a man to the moon and bring him back safely?
And yet, many still go to sleep tonight having had so little to eat all day?
We still treat people with indifference and hostility because they do not live up to our standards of what it is to be “normal.”
We still sweep under the rug our dirty secrets and pretend they will go away simply because we wish they were no more.
There is forever a wrestling within the human soul— a battle between too much power and not enough.
“The devil had already induced Judas . . . to hand him over. So, during the supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power, he rose from table . . .” Jn 11:2-3
Jesus had the power to do anything, and Judas was powerless to force his hand.
Frustration and despair can lead any one of us down a path that in good times, we would never dare to travel.
Judas ventured into the night, so overwhelmingly frustrated that Jesus would not overthrow the evil empire, so desperate was he to bring about the greatest triumph that history would ever know.
Jesus had the power to stop Judas.
Jesus had the power to walk away.
Jesus in his divinity could perform yet another miracle.
But instead, he did seven things that no one who had ever lived could ever have imagined:
He
rose from the table.
He
laid aside his garments.
He
took a towel.
He
tied the towel around him.
He
poured water.
He
washed feet.
And he
dried them.
The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen eloquently described this scene as a summary of our Lord’s Life:
“Rising up from the Heavenly Banquet in intimate union of nature with the Father, He laid aside the garments of His glory, wrapped about His Divinity the towel of human nature which He took from Mary; poured the water of eternal life which is His Blood shed on the Cross to redeem us, and began washing the souls of his disciples through the merits of his Passion and Resurrection.” p. 284,
Life of Christ.
Andrew, John, James, Matthew, Thomas, Simon & Jude, Philip, Bartholomew, and the other James sat in silent wonder— unable to utter a word, so astonished were they that Jesus would not only disrupt the ritual of the Passover, but that He, who is Lord and Messiah, would so humble himself by washing their feet.
But not Peter, he would not be silent like the rest, and he would say what the others dared not:
“Lord, are you washing my feet?” Jn 13:6
Jesus answers him, and as only Peter could, who never parsed or calculated his words:
“You will never wash my feet.” Jn 13:8
The powerful and the powerless: who is who? Could anyone have predicted anything turned so upside down?
And yet it is only a foreshadowing of what is yet to come.
Although centuries have passed since this one night, we remember again, the wonder of the moment that should never escape us.
The lesson that Jesus taught, the lesson the world and the Church still struggles to learn is that:
“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.” Peter Druker in
Fortune
Oh, yes, how could we forget?
In the listing of the apostles whose feet Jesus washed, we left off one name.
Oh, yes, how could we forget that Jesus also washed the feet of Judas?
He could have skipped over him to prove a point.
He could have embarrassed him by passing him over.
He could have unveiled before the eyes of the Eleven that this was the one who would betray him.
And yet, “
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.” Peter Druker in
Fortune
Jesus knew Judas’ evil intention, and still he acted kindly toward him; he did not harden his heart. Instead. he offered Judas another chance to mix his tears of sorrow with the water of the basin, to fling his arms around his Lord and beg Divine mercy from the one who never even uttered his betrayer’s name.
But instead, the betrayer would trust the power of darkness. He would flee into the night, and the stage would finally be set for the great battle between the powerful and the powerless.
And yet, let me warn you: do not assume you know who is who.