Jesus, as he shares the Passover meal with his disciples, gets down on his knees to wash their feet.

Peter looks down at Jesus, kneeling there before him, and tells Jesus no. He can’t bear to have Jesus doing the work of a servant. Yet Jesus says that he has to do it, or Peter will have no part of him.

I understand Peter. There’s something modern about Peter’s sensibilities when he doesn’t want Jesus to serve him. It’s hard to let people help, when we’re expected to be so autonomous and all together, and we know that we’re not.

…When Jesus takes Peter’s foot in his hands, pours the water over his dusty toes, makes sure that the mud is no longer sticking to his soles, when Jesus pats Peter’s feet dry with his towel, in this great act of servitude and friendship, Peter is given a part of Jesus. Peter owes Jesus something.

And such is the nature of friendship, giving and spiritual community. We become part of one another; we carry a bit of one another with us. We learn to give and to receive, not as simple commodities, as people buying and selling hours, but as complicated bodies with abundance and necessities. We build community with one another, with all of our assets and all of our needs, taking into consideration the requirements of our hands, hearts and feet.     (Tribal Church, / Carol Howard Merritt)

Most of us don’t have much left to give. The pressures of work, finances, family and [fill in your own blank here] are draining. We balk at the concept of community, preferring instead anonymity, seeking interactions – human, economic, cultural, emotional, physical – that give us more than what we  have invested. The truth, however, is that the exact opposite is true. At the end of ourselves we recognize our need for one another, we recognize our need to be amidst those who need us, also.