" The Great Commandment" - Walking the Palm Sunday Path

I feel like the gospel of John is love wrapped in a hug wrapped in a blanket. And today's gospel blanket is equal parts warm and fuzzy and uncomfortable and scratchy. Now our synoptic gospel writers Mark, Matthew, and Luke, tell the intimately familiar Last Supper story of Jesus breaking bread and sharing wine and saying the words we hear each time we come to the communion rail. Fun fact: Mark's and Matthew's Jesus says "Take; this is my body." (Matt. 26: 26, Mark 14: 22) while Luke elaborates with "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22: 19). Our friend Paul who we heard in today's second reading is our earliest New Testament writer. Unlike any of our gospel writers, Paul was a contemporary of Jesus himself, likely being converted about three years after Jesus's crucifixion¹. The letter we heard to the Corinthians was likely written about 20 years later in 54 CE or so. And in that letter, we heard Paul echo the Last Supper story that we hear in the synoptic gospels. Or, actually, perhaps they echoed Paul, as they wrote between 70-90 CE, at least a couple decades after Paul. Either way, no one ever mentions foot washing until we get to John.

The gospel of John is the last gospel to be written and some scholars contend that it's unlikely that it was written by just one person², in spite of the author's claim that he was an eye-witness to everything he wrote (John 19:35). Other scholars attribute it to a disciple named John who was with Jesus³ Either way, The gospel of John is much less storytelling and much more story-meaning. Don't get me wrong, the gospel of John has a definite narrative arc and relays many of the stories in the synoptic gospels but it's all overlaid against the question: Who is God? And, John makes a very compelling case that God is love. Pure, pure love.

Jesus is a conduit for God's love and, in John's gospel, Jesus repeatedly and persistently asserts that he is nothing more than a manifestation of God's love. John tells us right up front that "In the beginning was [Jesus], and [Jesus] was with God, and [Jesus] was God" (John 1:1) and then later Jesus says "The Father and I are one" (John 10: 30). So when Jesus takes the initiative and washes the feet of his disciples - a job reserved for the lowliest servant - what does that say about God? What does that say about the depth of love that God has for each one of us? What does that say about the tender nature of God and God's beliefs about our worthiness? Jesus doesn't chastise the disciples for having dirty feet - I mean, in Jesus's time everyone had dirty feet - they wore sandals if they were lucky - and we've got pretty dirty feet today. Metaphorically and literally, we all step in the muck from time to time, right? But, without even being asked, Jesus simply kneels down and washes us, without punitive language, without condescension, without judgement. God loves us just because we need it. God is generous and benevolent and unreserved with God's love. That is who God is.

And I can't help but wonder if Jesus expresses his love through foot washing because he was on the receiving end of it when Mary (the sister of poor Martha) washed his feet with perfume and dried them with her hair in the chapter just preceding today's gospel. She took what was likely her most precious thing and literally poured it out on Jesus's feet, much to the irritation of Judas who judges her for being wasteful. I love the idea that Jesus might have been inspired by the love she poured onto him and returned the gesture to his beloved disciples.

And I also think it's notable that - once again - Jesus, perhaps taking a cue from Mary or more likely Mary learned from him - these acts do not happen in solitude. There are only a handful of gospel stories where Jesus's ministry occurs outside of community - his temptation in the wilderness, his conversation with the woman at the well, and his resurrection come to mind. Jesus almost always communes with others and the Last Supper is no different. All of the "yous" from today's readings from 1 Corinthians and John's gospel are plural. The foot washing happens in community and the command to love is for community. Fr. Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. In his book, Barking to the Choir, he writes, "If love is the answer, community is the context, and tenderness the methodology ... For unless love becomes tenderness -the connective tissue of love -it never becomes transformational ... There is nothing more essential, vital, and important than love and its carrier - tenderness - practiced in the present moment"⁴. I'm sure you can think of moments when tenderness has transformed love in your families. I see many instances of this tenderness happening within the community of Zoar, and it has transformed me for sure. The tenderness of Jesus's gentle washing of feet is him channeling God's affection and lovingkindness for all of us collectively. God is enthusiastically tender. That's who God is.

The gospel reading ends with Jesus's crystal clear assignment for the disciples: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." (John 13: 34) Love is a verb. Jesus doesn't say, "you should feel fondly towards one another." No. Jesus tells us that we should love as he loved. So, how did he love? He healed. He taught. He fed people. He touched the outcast. He offered comfort to those who were afraid. He bore witness to suffering. He reached for people in the margins and invited them in. He laughed. He wept. And he forgave.

Does anyone know what happens in the 24 (!) missing verses omitted from today's gospel? In the middle of this intimate story about humility and overabundant love is the part where Jesus shocks his disciples by telling them that someone at their table will betray him and then he signals to Judas that he knows what he knows and that Judas can go on and get it over with. And then in the verses immediately after Jesus's greatest commandment, Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times. The commandment to love is bookended with betrayal and denial. This is where that love blanket gets itchy.

Jesus indiscriminately washes all of his disciples' feet - including those who will betray and deny him. God indiscriminately loves us all and clearly compels us to do the same. And while that may feel comforting in many ways - God loves me no matter what! - it also becomes very uncomfortable very quickly. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who yells at my radio as I'm listening to the news. (Sometimes there are profanities, I'm not going to lie.) But I don't get to judge who is worthy of love and who is not because Jesus tells me that God loves everyone, even those people who betray, deceive, murder, scapegoat trans kids, kidnap immigrants, and bomb schools. What would Jesus do with those people? He would wash their feet. What does Jesus want us to do with those people? Name the suffering they've caused and then approach them with tenderness and love. Wash their tired feet without judgement or condemnation, channeling God's abundant love through transformational tenderness. But, if I'm honest, just thinking about that makes me so uncomfortable that my stomach hurts a little. Like a petulant child, I want to leave that kind of love up to God. It feels too hard, too vulnerable, too painful. I want to judge people who cause such suffering. I want retribution. But then I wouldn't be loving as Jesus loved, would I? And I wouldn't be inviting others to liberation and healing through God's abundant love if my discomfort with Jesus's command thwarts my living into it. Love for one another is the hallmark of God's people, not any sort of doctrine or theology. Because God is wildly radical, indiscriminately invitational, and abundantly forgiving. That's how Jesus loved and that's who God is.

This current era of rising fascism and unfettered war powers will end. The division created through lies and violent rhetoric will subside. But Jesus's command to love each other starts now. It's easy to love the people we love. That blanket of love is cozy. But how do we wash the feet of ICE agents, divisive influencers, and power-hungry politicians? How do we show those who've only heard the "theological sewage"5 of Christian nationalism God's radically complete love made manifest in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus? How do we embody "love and its carrier - tenderness - practiced in the present moment"6 to those who have caused such immense suffering? Questions about relationships between justice, tenderness, love, belonging, and forgiveness cannot be pushed to the side if we are to follow Jesus's command to love as he did. We need to consider these questions carefully and learn to make friends with the itchiness they cause. God is pure love. But no one ever said God's love is easy.

I'll close with some words that my friend Diane told me once and that I find comforting. She said, "Jesus tells us we need to love each other. Full stop. And, sometimes if we're lucky, we can love them right out of our lives".

Amen

¹ ESV Bible. "Introduction to 1 Corinthians." Accessed March 9, 2026. https://www.esv.org/resources/ esv-global-study-bible/ introduction-to-1-corinthians/.

² Usccb.org. "John, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN." Accessed March 9, 2026.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/o.

³ Griffith-Jones, Robin. "John's Gospel: An Eyewitness Account?" Biblicalarchaeology.org. Accessed March 10,   2026. https:/ /library.biblicalarchaeology.org/sidebar /johns-gospel-an-eyewitness-account/.

⁴ Boyle, Gregory. Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. Simon & Schuster, 2018. Ebook. 85-86

⁵ I first heard this term in a substack post by my EcoFaith Recovery colleague, Peter Sergienko.

⁶ Boyle 2018

" The Great Commandment" - Walking the Palm Sunday Path