“It’s a dirty job, get someone else to do it.” Was that what the disciples said to themselves as they went into the Upper Room? According to Adam Hamilton, they probably walked past a wash basin and a pitcher.[1]In a wealthy household, a servant would be there to wash the dirt off the feet of guests as they came in, then towel them dry. Evidently, there were no servants there that night, so it was “do-it-yourself,” but none of the disciples wash their feet as they come in. Is that a guy thing? Maybe. Might also be that no one stopped to do it for themselves, because they didn’t want to get stuck doing it for everyone else.[2]After all, if Jesus was coming into His Kingdom, there were positions of power to be had! That night the disciples may have argued about who is going to be greatest in the Kingdom. Was it John and James, the sons of Zebedee, also called the “Sons of Thunder,” or was it their mom who asked if they could sit on Jesus’ right and left when He comes into the Kingdom?[3]No one wanted to be the one to have to wash everyone else’s feet. “It’s a dirty job, get someone else to do it.”
“It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.” That’s what Jesus wanted His disciples to understand, as no one willingly took up the basin and the towel. Humanity has always run on self-interest. Didn’t the great economist, Adam Smith, talk about thrift, hard work and “enlightened self-interest” as the keys to the market economy in his Wealth of Nations? He’s right, of course. Everyone acts in their self-interest, at least some of the time. So people seek profit and power, comfort and experience. In that world, the dirtier the job, the less folks want to do it. When I was a kid, I remember sitting around the enormous table with all my older cousins, and at some point in the meal, my aunt would very slyly put her finger on the side of her nose. One by one, my cousins would slyly put a finger on the side of their nose. The last one to notice the finger on the side of the nose, they had to do the dishes. As someone too young to play, I thought it was hilarious, but there were 12 of us around that table, so maybe it wasn’t as funny to that person. Our world works a little like that, doesn’t it? It’s like we are all sitting around an incredible table, and if we have enough money, or enough privilege, we get to put the finger to the side of our nose—and if we don’t have enough money or privilege, we start to scramble notto be that person who has to do the dirty jobs. So we shouldn’t downplay how world-shaking it is what Jesus does next: He gets up from the table, pours water in the basin, ties a towel around His waist, and kneels before each of His followers to wash their feet. So Jesus, the Son of God, kneels before those He came to save. Jesus, the One Who can still the storm, heal the sick and raise the dead, takes the dirtiest job that night. In Mark, Jesus says of Himself, “The Son of Man came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”[4]“It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.” And so Jesus did.
“It’s a dirty job, but we will share it together.” Perhaps that’s the extraordinary story of the Last Supper. Jesus and His followers weren’t gathered in the Upper Room for the Last Supper—they were gathered in the Upper Room to celebrate the Passover. They were remembering how God rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and protected them from a final, awful plague, by killing a lamb and painting their doorposts and lintels with blood, so that the Angel of Death would “pass over.” For Jews, the meal is more than a symbol—it’s a way of participating in the reality of the first Passover night, more than three thousand years ago. They eat the same kinds of things that the Hebrew people ate that night, and relive the story. Jesus started something new that first Maundy Thursday night that we will remember again tonight. As Jesus broke the bread and poured the cup, He talked about how it was His body broken for them, His blood poured out for them. Jesus talked about how this was the start of a new covenant, a new relationship and promise, that would continue into the future. Perhaps they were confused—but after Jesus’ crucifixion, they realized what Jesus had done had changed their world. From then on, whenever they gathered, they remembered Jesus’ words, remembered what Jesus did, and it wasn’t just a memory or a symbol for them, it was real! In some mysterious way, that first Maundy Thursday was happening and they could participate in that original time around the table. In a life that can be so hard, with difficult choices and even real suffering, Jesus begins a practice with us that reminds us we will never be alone. “It’s a dirty job, but we will share it together.”
“It’s a dirty job, and I’ll do it for you.” That’s not quite what Jesus prayed in the Garden, is it? With all His closest followers—it wasn’t just the Twelve—Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. That night maybe the only time Jesus asked His followers to pray with Him, to pray for Him. He knew the road ahead was tough and He needed to get things sorted out, so He went a little ways apart with Peter, James and John, and then the battle really began. Prayer as battle? Not how we usually think of it, but history had come to a pivot point. How the next few hours went would determine all of human history! Adam and Eve had a similar point in another garden long before.[5]For Eve and Adam, they believed eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would make them like God. Though it opened their eyes to the way the world works, it just shows how little they understand God. In sharp contrast, Jesus who clearly doesn’t want to go through the crucifixion, comes to understand that God is prepared to go to any length to show each person His love for them. Did the last thirty-three years come crashing together in His mind that night? Heaven came down to earth as God took on flesh when Jesus was born, “full of grace and truth.” Asking questions and teaching in the Temple as a teen-ager. Enduring temptations in the desert. Healing and teaching in synagogues, streets and the Temple. And now was Jesus’ final test. By choosing to eat the fruit, Adam and Eve, essentially say to God, “My will not yours be done.” Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says, “Not my will but Yours be done.” Adam and Eve’s act is very much in their self-interest. Jesus’ choice is very much a sacrifice in all of our interest, in the interest of the whole world in fact. Where Adam and Eve’s choice brings brokenness into the world, Jesus’ choice begins to bring healing and restoration. It’s like Jesus might have said, “It’s a dirty job, and I’ll do it for you, God!” But tonight of all nights, we are reminded that Jesus resolved to accept death on a cross not only out of love and obedience for God, but out of love and hope for each of us. So Jesus says to each of us tonight, “Being crucified is a dirty job, and I did it all for you.”
[1]Adam Hamilton, The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus(2012), p. 174.
[2]ibid, p. 175.
[3]Mark’s gospel has the Boanergesor “Sons of Thunder” asking for themselves (Mark 10:35ff). Matthew’s gospel says it was their mom (the Bible doesn’t tell us her name; Matthew 20:20ff). That Luke’s gospel doesn’t focus the blame on any one person, reminds us that all of us have thought like that, at one time or another.
[4]Mark 10:45 and Matthew 20:28.
[5]Thanks, Adam Hamilton, op.cit, p. 176, for connecting the Garden of Gethsemane with the Garden of Eden, and Jesus’ prayer with Eve and Adam’s choice.