St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
November 24, 2024
Year B: The Last Sunday after Pentecost – Christ the King
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-13
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37
In the Kingdom of the Foot-Washing King
One of the key moments in the gospels occurs just a bit before the exchange that we just heard between Pilate and Jesus.
Back before Jesus was betrayed, back before he was arrested and tortured, back at the Last Supper, Jesus taught his friends a few final most important lessons.
And maybe his most essential teaching occurred when he stood up from the table, removed his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.
He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.
Probably they were all shocked and confused.
Maybe they were embarrassed – embarrassed for Jesus, embarrassed for themselves.
Feet, you know.
But it’s Peter who expresses his horror at the idea that his Lord would stoop to perform an act of such lowly service – this was the kind of work done by a slave, most certainly not an appropriate task for the Messiah, the Son of God.
Yes, Jesus had certainly taught some challenging, confusing, unsettling lessons, but I mean foot-washing was just too much.
So, Peter objects, tries to say no to Jesus.
But Jesus warns Peter that he must allow Jesus to do this – that if Peter wants to be part of Jesus, then he must allow Jesus to wash his feet.
Peter gets it – he gets it so clearly that, with a little nod to, yes, Baptism, Peter invites Jesus to wash his whole body.
Try to imagine the scene.
The disciples were just beginning to wrap their minds around the bitterly painful reality that Jesus was going to be killed.
They were beginning to grasp that the end – or what sure seemed like the end – was near.
And now Jesus has made his way around the table, washing all those dusty, smelly feet.
After Jesus was done – when perhaps the room was fragrant with fresh smell of clean feet – Jesus explains that this is how it is to be among his followers – this is how it is to be among us.
Just as Jesus the King has washed our feet, we must offer this same kind of loving service to one another.
This is how it is to be
In the Kingdom of the Foot-washing King.
To say the least, a foot-washing king was uniquely strange back in the first century.
In today’s gospel lesson, we hear the Roman governor Pontius Pilate struggle to make sense of Jesus.
Pilate knew all about the ways of the world, the ways of kings, the ways of raw power.
You had to be tough to be a Roman governor.
So, Pilate knew all about using cruelty to assert and maintain authority.
Pilate knew all about instilling fear and amassing wealth.
And yet, standing before him was a King like no other – a King with no army – a King who didn’t fight back – a King who claimed that his kingdom was not in Pilate’s world of power politics.
Standing before Pilate was a King – a King he’ll execute just like he disposed of countless other troublemakers, countless others who dared to threaten the glorious power of Rome.
A King who would rise again on the third day.
No, Pilate never did figure out Christ the King.
But we shouldn’t feel too superior to Pilate because the truth is that we also struggle to figure out Christ the King.
A foot-washing King is uniquely strange in any century, including our own.
Today is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, the last Sunday of the Church Year, the Feast of Christ the King.
Much of our church calendar – the different seasons and the various holy days – much of our church calendar is very ancient.
But not the Feast of Christ the King, which is only 99 years old.
In the aftermath of World War I, Pope Pius IX recognized that, while the horrific war may have ended, the world was still a very dangerous place.
The pope and other Christian leaders were alarmed that many Christians were no longer placing their ultimate trust and faith in Christ the King.
Instead, Christians were pledging allegiance to strong men.
Many Christians were getting swept up in nationalism and fascism
Many Christians seem to have concluded that, yeah, the Foot-Washing King might be nice for church and everything, but in the “real” world, you gotta be tough.
Pilate would have heartily agreed.
So, responding to this grim situation, in 1925 the Roman Catholic Church, quickly followed by Anglicans, Lutherans, and others, created the new feast day that we celebrate today:
Christ the King.
On the last Sunday of the church year, we are reminded that our King is not like the kings of the world.
No, our King is Christ the Foot-Washing King.
And we are meant to live in the Kingdom of the Foot-Washing King.
Well, you don’t have to know much history, and you don’t have to closely follow current events, to know that this new feast day has not exactly been a big success.
Over the last 99 years, Christians have gone right on putting their ultimate trust in worldly kings – including some kings far more evil than anyone Pope Pius IX could have imagined, kings who would never, ever wash anyone’s feet.
Over the last century, Christians have gone right on getting swept up in the ideologies of their time, fooling ourselves into thinking that this – this system, this policy, this party – this will finally solve all of our problems.
Will we ever learn?
Back at the Last Supper, after Jesus finished washing the feet of his friends, he said to them,
“Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So, if I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
As we conclude what’s been an often very difficult year and we look ahead to a new year of uncertainty, the kings of this world will continue to be the kings of this world, the kind of kings that Pilate would have known well.
But no matter our troubles, just like with the first disciples at the somber Last Supper, Jesus calls us to follow his example of loving, lowly service.
It’s a costly way – it was a costly way for Jesus, and it is a costly way for us – but it is the only way to new life.
We are invited to live now and forever with Jesus and with one another in the kingdom of the Foot-Washing King.
As always, the choice is ours.
Amen.
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