In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

I just love St. Peter . . . so impetuous, so enthusiastic . . . so often acting and speaking before he listens and thinks . . . hmmmm.  Maybe I should say that I love READING about him . . . I might have found him a little exasperating in person.  He so often gets things wrong.  I mean just think about the story we just heard.

Peter sees Jesus get up from the table, take off his outer robe, and tie a towel around himself.  Then he watches as Jesus pours water into a basin and begins to wash the disciples’ feet.  Can’t you just picture him sitting there, thinking, trying to figure out what’s going on as Jesus washes and dries the other disciples’ feet?  Of course, being Peter, he’s probably already decided what he’s gonna do.  The other disciples may be willing to play along with whatever Jesus is up to, but not Peter . . . oh, no! . . . he’s never gonna let his master be his servant.

When Jesus reaches him, Peter asks, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus gives Peter a typically “Jesus” cryptic answer, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

Oh, come on, Jesus should know better . . . Peter WAIT for understanding?!?  Peter knows all he thinks he needs to know:  Jesus is serving his disciples in the humblest of ways and Peter is not going to play along.  Disciples should wash their teacher’s feet, not the other way around.  And so Peter says flatly, “you will never wash my feet.”

Then in language that has long reminded the church of baptism, Jesus says, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”  Oh, well then . . . this changes everything for Peter.  If foot washing is a sign of being part of Jesus, then he wants to be drenched . . . to be soaked from head to foot.  “Well then!  Wash all of me, from head to toe!”  Ah, Peter. . . .

Picking up on the baptismal line of teaching, Jesus pushes it farther by saying, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except of the feet, but is entirely clean.”  One who has been baptized does not need to be re-baptized after committing some sin, but rather he or she only needs truly to repent to be made clean. 

But the connection to baptism was not Jesus’ main purpose that evening.  It was the night before he was to die . . . the disciples still didn’t understand this . . . but Jesus did.  This was his very last chance to get his friends to understand his most important lessons . . . to get them to understand what he was – and IS – all about.  So, in case they’ve still missed the point of his washing their feet, Jesus explains that he is giving them an example that they are meant to follow:  “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

At this point, we might expect Peter to strip off his outer garment, just like Jesus, and start working his way around the circle washing up all the other disciples.  But for once Peter seems to understand that more is going on here than a lesson in washing feet.  It is an example that Jesus is giving . . . an example of service. 

It might have been difficult to get across, but Jesus clearly embodies his message of servant leadership.  Peter and the other disciples might have left the table still somewhat confused . . . wondering when and where they were to wash each other’s feet.  But everything would change in a few hours.  The next night they would be gathered in mourning at the death of their rabbi.  Much later . . . after the shock of Good Friday and the joy of Easter . . . this foot washing lesson sank in.  We know that the point got through because with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples really came to understand their call to ministry and were empowered to act on it.

Later, when remembering that night before he died, Peter and the others would see that foot washing from the far side of the cross and the empty tomb.  Having seen how complete were their teacher’s love and commitment, those words of Jesus, “I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you:” must have sounded so different.  On the far side of the resurrection and ascension, even Peter knew that the life of service to which his Rabbi called him involved much more than washing the feet of those he might have considered beneath him.  After washing their feet, Jesus said, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” 

Jesus’ example was much more life changing than the humble act of washing feet.  Jesus had been obedient unto death, even death on a cross.  He loved as God loves, and in the process, so upset the status quo that various groups – who couldn’t agree about anything else – agreed that Jesus must die.  Jesus was restoring outcasts to community.  Jesus was breaking down the dividing walls between those who were “in” and those who were “out.”

Those in control, Jews and Romans alike, knew that they had to stop this new movement before it got out of hand.  In this, those who opposed Jesus were no different from those in power in all times and places, working to keep their influence and authority.  Yet Jesus would not give up on his revolutionary love, even when the price of that love was torture and death.

Eventually, the disciples DID come to understand Jesus’ actions full.  Seeing the foot washing anew in the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection they came to understand that the only real power and authority in this world belongs to God.  We mortals who spend our lives trying to build up and reinforce our sense of control chase an illusion.  And here all the paradoxes Jesus had been teaching could be heard anew:  the last shall be first; those how love their life lose it; and the master comes among us as a servant.  These paradoxes spoke to the deeper truth in Jesus’ life and ministry.

Jesus did not call his followers to lead in the same way that others led, by lording over them.  He called those who would come after him to lead through their service to others.  Jesus called those who would follow him to love as he had loved, with more concern for the other person that for one’s self.

Simon Peter would come to live fully into Jesus’ example of loving others.  Peter was part of the first band of disciples who turned the world upside down with a revolutionary way of loving.  The disciples followed Jesus in working from the bottom up to help the world see outcasts and victims not as those cursed by God, but as those in need of God’s love and healing and redemption.  They came to serve others, even the gentiles, who at first seemed well outside the bounds of their mission.

Tradition tells us that Simon Peter became a scapegoat himself.  The early historian Eusebius tells us that Peter was put to death by the Roman Emperor Nero.  It seems that following the burning of Rome, someone had to take the blame, and why not that new sect who refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods?

Peter went to his death boldly, not giving up on the love we are to have for others that Jesus taught the night before he died in the humble act of washing feet.  In response to that self-giving love of Jesus, Peter gave up his own life willingly.  Peter served others by giving an example of faithfulness unto death.

Impetuous, enthusiastic Peter finally got it totally, completely, right.

Amen.

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