麻豆社

Good morning. Today is Maundy Thursday, the first of three very holy days for the Christian church.

If you go to church, you'll probably see a priest washing people's feet. He's imitating Jesus, who, in the middle of the Last Supper, took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist and started washing his disciples' feet. It was a metaphor for the washing away of sins. It's also one of those moments when Christianity injected a radical idea into the world that, I think, has relevance for everyone today.

The middle east was very dusty, so helping guests to clean their feet was commonplace. But this ancient land was also very hierarchical. We read that at the Last Supper, the disciples argued among themselves over where they stood in the pecking order; even these spiritual men were driven by ego. So imagine their shock when the most important person in the room started washing their feet! Peter actually protests. This was something a servant would normally do.

Jesus had inverted the social power pyramid. His action showed that the son of God came not as a king in the traditional sense - wealthy and powerful - but as a humble servant.

Later generations of Christians learned from that example. St Benedict advised that all strangers should be received at his monasteries as if they were Jesus and in the manner that Jesus set: wash their hands and wash their feet.

The practice entered Maundy Thursday liturgy; Medieval bishops washed 12 pairs of feet, as did popes. And even European royalty would make an ostentatious display of cleaning the feet of the poor and giving them gifts. St Elizabeth of Portugal did it with particular fervour. On one occasion, she was presented with a foot covered with an ulcer. She not only washed it, she kissed it. Jesus had set a trend by touching lepers.

It's striking how many scandals in the modern world extend from pride, from thinking one is above the law, or forgetting who you are meant to be serving. When one aspires to have authority, it's all too easy to imagine that this means rising above the people. But Jesus is an example, for believers or non-believers, of leadership that maintains a sense of duty - of equality.

The tragedy and blood of the Easter story can be startling, but it illustrates that Jesus was a religious figure who was tangible. Not up there on a cloud looking down, but among us; washing, touching, prepared to get himself messy. To the very point of being whipped, mocked and placed on a cross.

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