Jesus’ Wet Holy Week
Jesus gets so wet this Holy Week, on Thursday, Friday and
Sunday. Thursday night he plunges his
hands in water, spills puddles on the floor and immerses his disciples’ feet,
taking on the traditional footwashing role of a servant. Friday from the cross
he cries out in desperation, “I thirst!” and gets a sponge of sour wine thrown
in his face. And Sunday he surprises
those clean footed disciples at the beach, as they dejectedly search for fish. With his help - an abundant wet catch, and
they share in an Easter fish barbeque.
As a Blue Theologian I give thanks to God for water every day of
the year, but this week, Jesus’ last and first, it is his wetness I
commemorate. Thursday I too will get my
feet wet at a Maundy Thursday foot washing service. Good Friday I will hear Jesus’ Seven Last
Words, including that so very human cry, “I thirst.” And Sunday after Easter services, I think
we’ll have fish for our special dinner, and eat it coast side.
The world is feeling a bit dry and barren these days – I am
praying for some wet resurrection.
Note to my preacher readers – have you ever noticed how much
wetter Jesus is in John’s gospel than the other three? Only in John (and not the other three) does
Jesus turn the water into wine, only in John does he meet the Samaritan woman
at the well and offer her living water, never to thirst again, only in John
does he cry from the cross “I thirst,” and only in John does he host a beach
barbeque. I tend to think of John as a little serious and abstract, but maybe
he was actually a water baby. We do
traditionally say that he was an island guy, lived and died on Patmos. Maybe his island days made him a Blue
Theologian, celebrating all things wet.
Unlike the other gospels’ accounts of how Jesus spent his last
night, that he shared a meal with his disciples, John’s has no Last
Supper. Instead, his sacramental act of commissioning
and sharing with his disciples is about taking on the servant role, welcoming
the guest with a bowl of clean water. At various churches I have served we have
celebrated Maundy Thursday with this most vulnerable and gentle exchange –
kneeling and washing each other’s feet.
I invite you to get wet with Jesus this holy week. Serve others in his name with a quiet moment
of simple care. Hear, and answer the cry
of those who thirst, for real clean water, and for justice. And invite others to walk and eat with Jesus
beside the sea. The catch is always
abundant. And wet.
__________
I like this picture by John August Swanson because both men and
women receive the sacramental washing, and because of the swirly fluid robes
they wear. I post these Blue Theology
devotionals on ocean stewardship and spirituality every Wednesday here and at www.bluetheologytideings.blogspot.com. Check out bluetheology.com for ocean
pilgrimages and service trips by Monterey Bay.
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