Foot-washing Ritual is Humble Calling
By Carla Hinton
Religion Editor, The Oklahoman
“Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then wash your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
— Jesus in John 13: 13-15
It is a ritual that epitomizes humility.
As priests and other clergy in the metro area wash the feet of their parishioners during Holy Week, they harken back to another time and place.
The Gospel of John shares that Jesus washed the feet of His disciples who met with Him for the last supper, before He was betrayed and arrested.
It was an act of profound humbleness, so much so that the apostle Peter initially balked that His Lord would deign to take on such a task.
Foot-washing was a sign of hospitality and welcome in Jesus’ time. Visitors to a person’s home would extend their feet, often dirty from walking in dusty streets, toiling in fields or sand-covered areas near water.
That Jesus sought to wash His follower’s feet was His way of showing servant leadership but also evoking the spiritual reality of His cleansing of their souls.
“He is the Master. He is the leader, yet He has not come to lord it over. He has come to service,” the Rev. Stephen Hamilton, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Kingfisher, said of Jesus’ action chronicled in John 13.
The priest said he will wash the feet of 12 of his parishioners during a Maundy Thursday Mass, just as Catholic priests the world over — and the pope — will do, as well.
He said the ritual has remained a part of Holy Week traditions because it is a symbol of Christ’s humility and each believer’s call to serve others in the same way.
“It is a powerful reminder to us that this act of being humble and being a service to others is to mark the life of every disciple,” Hamilton said.
Others who offer foot-washing ceremonies agree.
The ritual is a standard Holy Week practice in most Catholic churches, while fewer Protestant churches offer the ceremony. In recent years, however, Crossings Community Church, Anointed Acts Ministries and Sooner Road Church of God have held foot-washing ceremonies.
“We are praying for the person while we are washing their feet,” said the Rev. Art Bostick, pastor of Sooner Road Church of God, 1724 S Sooner Road.
“I have seen situations where hard feelings are resolved. When it’s done in humility, God blesses it.”
Bostick said people have responded well to the ceremony, with many participating or observing because the ritual isn’t commonplace anymore.
“This is one way to say, ‘I am submitted to you. I am a friend to you. I want to be a blessing to you,’” he said.
“Jesus said if you want to be great in God’s kingdom, be the servant of all.”
The Most Rev. Edward Slattery, bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, has embraced this premise with his annual foot-washing ceremony at prisons across Oklahoma. Slattery said he travels to a prison each year to wash the feet of 12 inmates (12 is the number of Jesus’ disciples) on Maundy Thursday.
Slattery said it is a dramatic way of conveying the principle of Godly servanthood without saying a word.
As he cleanses the feet of inmates at the Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy on Thursday, the bishop said he will be putting the Gospel message into action.
“Where God bends down in a humble gesture and gives Himself to us — that’s the point. That’s the heart of the Christian message.”
