Turning the world upside down
“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you” (Ex 12:14). It was a day to remember that most holy journey of the Jewish people from slavery under the Egyptians to freedom. A freedom that for a long time did not look at all like they had expected. And now the Jewish homeland was occupied by another imperial power, this time Rome. When would they be free? When would they escape the constraints of convention or the restrictions of their rage? This evening Jesus welcomes his disciples and he washes their feet. He turns convention upside down and bids his disciples enter that different world. Few, if any of us is completely free. We have external constraints of convention and law and internal limitations because of our history and constitution. Yet the call of Jesus is to set aside as far as possible those limits. He reminds us that love is to be our sign By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35). A love that is strong and that endures, like the love of God.
Andrew Glenn