Good Friday 2006
I. Personal Reflections: On the Washing of Feet
We have sometimes observed the ritual of the washing of feet. It is rare for us in our church, though; it is by tradition a Maundy Thursday ceremony, and for years we have chosen to observe First Communion at Maundy Thursday services.
However, this year again the news reported that the pope last night washed the feet of a selected group of men in the Vatican, just as Jesus washed his disciples' feet. I believe it was Queen Elizabeth I of England who also took part in the tradition. A hand-picked group of paupers was prepared for her to stoop down from her throne and dab some water on their feet.
One year I and my pastoral partner at the time, a woman, were asked by our youth director here to do the foot-washing as part of the final devotional worship of the 9th grade confirmation retreat. Certainly. Together she and I talked through the logistics of bathing the feet of 30-some students and their parents, and we logically decided that we couldn't do it all ourselves in the time we had. Ask the families to wash one another's feet and we would begin the ritual by doing so for each other.
I gave it little thought as I sat down in the chair in front of the entire group and began to take off my shoes and socks. Looking down at my feet I realized that my fairly-new socks had left fuzzies and dark bits on my insteps and between the toes of my now-warm, moist feet. It was unsightly and embarrassing.
I sat there exposed, unable to take back what I had revealed. And my colleague knelt down and washed my feet, cleaned both of them, then dried them with her towel. It was uncomfortably humbling and personal.
It was more than fuzz, sweat, and calluses that Jesus took into his hands when he went to his knees and washed the feet of his disciples. He said as much when he told Peter, "If I don't wash you, you aren't clean."
There's a certain leveling quality to this foot washing, as Jesus later pointed. If HE, the Lord and Teacher... well, then we, too, eh? But I learned that in foot washing there is also a sense of being unable to hide some things we'd like to keep private - and then being known, cared for, and cleansed even in our unattractiveness.
There is this kind of sacramental link between Maundy Thursday and the Upper Room - where the first Last Supper was shared - and the cross on Good Friday where from most to least was forgiven.
The Lord Jesus saw revealed fully and candidly his disciples' secrets, the darkness within their hearts, rank jealousy, self-centered fears, their emotional frailty and physical desires for luxury and ease. And he washed those sins away - looked at them without flinching, took them in his hands, looked each person in the eye, and washed those sins away.
Take the covering from your heart here beneath the cross tonight, my fellow disciples. Realize that even if you would rather not, you sit here exposed, unable to hide from God what you would rather not reveal or admit. It is all right to allow this cleansing, to receive it now and ask for it again as often as necessary.
Jesus did more than simply trade places with us. He took our sins away.
II. Personal Reflections: What is the Cross?
Everybody lives and everybody dies. Some of us have it worse than others but all of us suffer, and no one lives very long without loss, sorrow, and disappointment. Even though we often talk about our hardships as "the cross we have to bear," the hardships that happen as part of human life are just that, life.
The cross of Christ is what we bear when we lift high faith that in Jesus Christ God has acted to set right all that is wrong with the world - and wrong with us. We truly bear the cross when we then take action, too, for what is right, regardless of the cost. In some places that's called whistle-blowing and it is not popular with the powers-that-be, from Enron to the U.S. government to the neighborhood pecking-order.
We bear the cross when we live like Jesus Christ makes a difference in our relationships and, for example, we refuse the temptation of emotional unfaithful-ness in our marriage. Whenever we pay the price specifically for honoring the name of Christ, that's the cross we truly carry.
Long before the disciples had a clue what he meant, Jesus was talking about it. "If you would follow me, take up your cross." Little did they know then, and when faced with it really, they flinched and fled.
Yet something happened. The cross is something we rarely choose. They couldn't and we can't. It's too heavy and frightful and we are bred to protect ourselves. Then something happens. The cross is pushed upon us and we are compelled. And that changes us...
Not in a triumphal way, not in boasting, crowing victory, although Easter and our faith in it certainly are victories in the power of Christ. Not poking the cross in the eyes of others, either, or using it to stir up conflicts or identify who's on our side. But lifting high the cross is a servant's role, getting low enough to assist a Lord who is already on his knees for us.
III. Personal Reflections: Becoming a Different Man
Albert Speer was an architect by training and was the Nazi's World War II chief of armaments, weapons, and war supplies. After Germany's defeat he was sentenced at the Nuremberg war crimes trial to 20 years in Spandau prison.
Soon after that, at the end of a worship service in the prison, Speer asked to speak with the chaplain, Georges Casalis. Before Speer could say anything the chaplain told him that he considered Speer more worthy of blame than any of the other Nazis, partly because of Speer's intelligence, but especially because Speer had been responsible more than anyone but Hitler for prolonging the war.
Speer thanked Chaplain Casalis for his honesty, then explained his reason for wanting to speak with him. "I've been sentenced to 20 years, and I consider it both just and fair," he said. "I want to use this time that has, in a manner of speaking, been given to me. What I want to ask you is, Would you help me become a different man?"
A different man... When Jesus was on his knees, did Simon Cyrene become a different man when the cross was placed upon his shoulders? History does not reliably tell us what happened afterward. The legends aren't important, and we really don't know if Simon became a different man.
Albert Speer did, apparently, and by the end of his life in 1981 he was condemning the evil that had been done - and which he had supported and prolonged - in the Holocaust and throughout Europe. In the time given him the cross must have formed him into a different man, although to be honest, some who knew him questioned how complete his change had been. [1]
No matter. Even the saints, Martin Luther included - not to mention Peter, Paul, Mother Teresa, and your own favorite holy person - none of the saints nor any of us ever are complete in the changes God works within us through the Christ who serves us on his knees.
Yet we are granted time. With each Good Friday, each time we make confession or stand before this altar and receive Communion, at each prayer, by each regret of ours we are granted time. The cross is a burden quite able to set us free, and the higher that we lift it, the more different we become.
Nathan Castens
Chanhassen, Minnesota
[1] "Becoming a different man: Inside Albert Speer," L. Gregory Jones in Christian Century, May 8, 1996
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