During Advent, we prepare the way for Jesus within our hearts. Looking back across 2,000 years we remember the whole of Christ’s life. We remember his birth. We remember the start of his public Ministry. We remember the stories he told and how he taught with his life the way of the coming kingdom.

There are two kinds of stories of Jesus’s birth. There are those his followers later would be proud of and those they’d rather forget. Stories that compare him to Moses or David are celebrated. Prophecies of his coming and visions of angelic visitors set him up to be a great king or prophet. Magi bringing him precious gifts and an angel army choir celebrate him as a king from God. 

On the other hand, stories of his father considering breaking off a betrothal to his mother are an embarrassment. Stories about the inn being unable or unwilling to take his mother as a guest are unflattering. Jesus born among smelly animals, wrapped in cloths used to wipe them down, and laid in a feeding trough are embarrassingly humble. The historical test of embarrassment tells us the negative stories by his followers are more likely to be true and positive stories by them require more proof. In the same way, negative stories by his enemies are less likely to be true and positive stories about him from them are more likely to be true. If it reinforces your bias then you are likely to highlight it. If it goes against your message then you only tell it if you have to. The stories of him as an adult likewise confirm or refute our biases.

If you grew up as a non-Quaker Christian, the stories of the Last Supper from the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are so familiar that you lose sight of the variations and specific details. Elements of the meal like Jesus breaking bread and sharing it are burned into your mind obscuring other parts. Jesus’s role was affirmed.

 The version of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John is probably significantly less familiar. Jesus sets himself up as more humble.

Jesus takes time in the midst of dinner to wash his disciples’ feet and they are clearly confused. Jesus would catch them arguing over which of them was the greatest. You just know they were jockeying for the best place. Who was going to be at his right hand? When that was taken who would be at his left? 

But Jesus washing feet was outside of the realm of their understanding. Isn’t this a servant’s job? they would ask. Don’t people normally do this upon arrival and nor after everyone is seated at the table? How could this make sense?

Jesus is making a point about humility and service. Even he, their teacher, is humbling himself and serving them. What’s more he is doing this during a dinner party which is where Romans would make a point of reinforcing hierarchy. The best food would go to one group and inferior food would go to another. Everyone would want to sit next to the host.

Peter protested that his teacher–his Lord should not wash his feet. When Jesus told Peter that he had no part in the Kingdom if Jesus did not wash him, Peter went 180 degrees and demanded his whole body be washed. Peter wanted the best place in the Kingdom and he was still missing the point.

As Quakers, we learn the lesson of humility from footwashing, but we recognize that we are called to take it beyond literal repeating of Jesus’s actions. Jesus was preparing the way for a different sort of kingdom by teaching them the importance of humility.

There is a through line from royal expectations of Jesus as a baby to the disciples’ expectations. In the same way there is a through line from Jesus’s humble beginnings to his teachings for the disciples in humility. Footwashing, whether literal or as an lesson in humility towards others, teaches us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought and to be willing to lower ourselves in service of others.

Jesus was born into a stable and not a palace. Jesus slept amongst straw and feed not on a feather bed. He was wrapped in wipe down cloths meant for caring for animals and not wrapped in silk. Jesus showed his disciples the way by washing their feet not by making them address him with exalted titles. We are not called to be kings nor to lord our power over those around us. We are called to serve one another. Let us prepare the way for the kingdom by showing humility. I leave you with these queries:

• Where are you called to be humble?
• How can service to others offer them a present moment of the coming kingdom?
• How does taking seriously Jesus’s lessons in humility change our outlook on the world?