Jesus challenges us in today’s Gospel to follow him: “Whoever serves me must follow me.” We may well ask Jesus, “Follow you where?” He will give us the answer at the Last Supper as he washes the feet of his disciples. He will give us the answer when he is “lifted up on the cross” in his passion, death, and resurrection.”
Jesus asks us to follow him on his way of service and sacrifice. The way of service is the way of humility, washing the feet of one another:
“Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (John 13:12-15).
Jesus’ way also requires humility because we also need to allow Jesus first to wash our feet as Peter learned: “Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” (John 13:8).
Jesus’ teaching is challenging because it requires us to “die to self” and to live for God. Jesus shows us the way not only of service but also of sacrifice: “Whoever loves their life loses it, and whoever hates their life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” There is an even more shocking version of this saying in Luke’s Gospel:
“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27)
Jesus does not mean that we should literarily hate father, mother, wife, children or oneself. What he is trying to impress on us through his shocking words is that God’s will and way must come before all people and things. God’s will and way must come even before our own will and way. This is the “dying to self” that Jesus calls us to follow in today’s Gospel: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
Image: “Christ Washes the Feet of St Peter” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.