2 Samuel 11:8-11
Uriah understood the metaphor quite readily when King David sent him to his own house, to his own wife, with the words "wash your feet." What David intended for Uriah to do was to embrace his wife in the marital way, and thus to sire a child (or rather, in this case, to cover the fact that David had already sired a child with her).
Similarly, in the Song of Solomon we find the male lover pursuing his bride, coming to her at night to knock on her door. She responds by saying, "I had put off my garment, how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet, how could I soil them?" (Songs 5:3) Notice here not only the mention of footwashing as a prelude to marital love, but also the mention of laying down one's garment, just as Jesus did in the Upper Room.
It would appear that footwashing can be a metaphor for the marital embrace, which is to say, it is a ritual that is performed when one is preparing to reproduce —
preparing to become a father.
Also of interest is the Levitical instruction concerning the Day of Atonement sacrifice (which the epistle to the Hebrews takes for granted as the kind of sacrifice which Jesus offered on the Cross). In Leviticus 16:23-24
The High Priest was constrained by the Law to wash himself in water before making the atoning sacrifice, and it is interesting to note the order:
- he takes off his garments,
- performs the washing ritual,
- puts the garments back on again,
- then makes the sacrifice.
In St. John's narrative, Our Lord follows this exact order:
- He takes off His garments (vs. 4),
- performs the washing ritual (vv. 5-11),
- puts the garments back on (v. 12),
- and then goes on to endure His Passion.
It is odd that St. John would have included the details of Jesus taking off His garments and putting them back on again, if he did not have Leviticus 16 in the back of his mind.
There are only two differences between the Levitical ritual and the ritual performed in the Upper Room: in Levitical Law, the High Priest washed not only his feet, but his entire body, whereas in the Upper Room Jesus makes a point of only washing the disciples' feet; and in Levitical Law it was the High Priest who washed himself, whereas in the Upper Room Jesus does not wash Himself, but His disciples.
The first point of difference can be explained by an appeal to the elaboration of the laws in the
Talmud, particularly in
Tract Yomah, which is concerned precisely with the Day of Atonement rituals. There, the rabbis argued, as Jesus does in the Upper Room, that once the priest has taken his full bath, he need only be concerned with the cleanliness of his hands and feet.
The second point of difference comes closer to explaining the significance of the footwashing in John 13. It was the High Priest who was to wash Himself before the sacrifice; the fact that it is not Jesus who is washed, but rather His disciples,
strongly encourages the interpretation that it is by having their feet washed that they come to share in the priesthood of Christ.
Finally, we may look again at Christ's words to St. Peter: "If I do not wash you, you have
no part [
meros] in me." (v. 8) This word used by Jesus is reminiscent of what St. Peter said to Simon Magus when the latter attempted to purchase the power of the Apostolic office: Acts 8:18-21
BOTTOM LINE: The moment Christ instituted the priesthood can be boiled down to His words,:
Do this in commemoration of me
… declaring Himself constituted a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech, He offered up to God the Father His own body and blood under the species of bread and wine; and, under the symbols of those same things, He delivered (His own body and blood) to be received by His apostles,
whom He then constituted priests of the New Testament; and
by those words, Do this in commemoration of me, He commanded them and their successors in the priesthood, to offer (them)
. source
Are we not then going against the teaching of the Church to suggest that the ordination of the disciples as priests took place during the footwashing ritual, as opposed to when Jesus commanded them to "
do this" in memory of Him?
The Footwashing Ritual and the Sacrament of Holy Orders: A New Look at John 13