III: About Standing (in Kinship) by Kimberly Blaeser
August 18, 2024 • Katie Snipes Lancaster • John 13:12–15
And then across the chasm of centuries, there is Jesus. Stooping to wash his disciples feet. His great gift… his own labor of love under the “forgotten architecture of friendship…” wherein he discloses what it means to follow him. Like this. Stoop. Bend low. “find healing in the leaning, the closeness.”
One scholar puts it this way “It’s always easier to follow Jesus in our heads than it is to follow him with our feet on the Via Dolorosa.”#_ftn1 The Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrow. The Via Dolorosa, sacrifice. The Via Dolorosa, the servant’s path. And Jesus replies to his disciples, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you.”
This is the “forgotten architecture of friendship.” This is how to follow Jesus on the Via Dolorosa. Like this. Stoop. Bend low. “find healing in the leaning, the closeness.”
#_ftnref1 Herhold, Robert H. "Foot Washing and Last Things (John 13:1–20)." The Christian Century, March 9, 1983, 205.