As we begin the the three-day celebration of Jesus' passion, death and resurrection that the Church calls the Triduum, we are reminded that, for Jesus, the events about which we will read and reflect started with the Passover seder.  The connection is particularly easy to make this year since Passover just started on Monday evening, so we are literally in the middle of the eight-day Jewish festival.

Jesus plainly looked forward to celebrating the Passover seder with His disciples and wanted to make sure all the preparations were in order.  He and His disciples would have eaten the traditional foods, and the youngest at the table would have asked the traditional four questions-- questions which all address this basic question: "why is this night different from all other nights?"

The point, of course, was for the Jewis community to reflect on the pain and despair of slavery and contrast that with the joy of freedom as children of God-- a freedom that was literally achieved as a result of God's leading them our of Egypt on this night that is "different from all other nights." Undoubtedly as observant Jews, Jesus and His followers reflected on that history as they ate their seder meal. 

But then Jesus does something shocking-- something not previously in the tradition in any way.  He washes His followers feet.  That act of washing someone else's feet was something that was so demeaning that only slaves did it. Peter was horrified that Jesus, the great teacher, the Son of God, would stoop to such a thing.

Yet Jesus insists-- insists that He wash Peter's feet, and that His followers wash one another's feet.

To the Passover tradition of reflecting on and honoring God's saving work, Jesus adds the idea of service-- that we must serve one another, and that, in a very real sense, God serves us as well and we must let God do so. It is a pretty shocking idea to imagine the Almighty as our slave.

So in one dramatic gesture Jesus has expanded the tradition from simply the notion of salvation through the power and might of God to the idea that  the saving power of God leads us to humility-- the humility of serving others and the humility of letting others, and God, serve us-- and in that way we are brought to freedom.

For us Christians this night is different from all other nights as well because it is the night when Jesus institutes the Eucharist, and begins the process of His trial and crucifixion.  It is His last night alive before His resurrection.

I wonder if all those things aren't intimately and necessarily connected.  I wonder if Jesus would have had the strength to endure what was ahead if He had not washed His followers' feet (and if they had not let Him do that).  

I wonder about that because, for me, the Passion narrative is always about a test- -a test of whether the human frame would bear the strain of being fused with the divine.  You can see that in Jesus' prayers on the Mount of Olives.  He sees what is ahead, and in His humanity He is terrified. He knows that He could simply decide on a different course and, exercising his divine power, halt the process, call the "legions of angels" and avoid all the pain and suffering. 

It must have taken every last ounce of His committment to serving others-- to being our "slave" and savior-- for Him to overcome our the natural human aversion to pain, suffering and death and not call the whole thing off. Maybe He makes this dramatic change to the Passover tradition at least in part as a way to strengthen His own resolve, and to remind Himself in His humanity that His fundamental goal was to be our slave.

Perhaps the Eucharist fits as well as the source of strength for us to wash each others' feet, and let our feet be washed as well-- not always the easiest thing and something our human ego tends to resist, just as Jesus' human ego would have been horrified at the notion of enduring crucifixion.

It is a good thing that Pope Francis has dramatically expanded footwashing-- to men and women, Christians and non-Christians-- and a very good thing for us to do so too. 

Wash all the feet you can find, inside the Church and outside it.

And have a very joyous Easter.