Main news for 17 May 2026

In some Christian churches the custom of washing feet has become a tradition. After all, Jesus says directly that we Christians should do this for one another, and if His words are understood literally, then the custom or even rite of foot washing can appear entirely appropriate - if not for one "but": Jesus Himself insists categorically that this is no rite and no ritual. The ritual washing customary during the Passover seder (and the Last Supper was precisely a Passover seder, a ritual Jewish meal performed during the feast of Passover) had already been completed by that moment. Now they had to recline at the table (in those days people did not sit at table but reclined), and before that everyone needed to have their feet washed, because one usually climbed onto the couch with one's feet.

As a rule, this work was assigned to a household slave, and so when Jesus Himself does it, it causes real shock: such a task is not for the Teacher. Peter protests, but Jesus is unyielding: if you refuse, you will not sit at the Passover table with Me. Then Peter tries to turn everything precisely into a rite, into a ritual washing.

If Jesus had also washed his hands and head, and those of the other disciples, then this really would have resembled a ritual cleansing washing; but Jesus does not want that. He is not going to turn ordinary foot washing into a ritual. On the contrary, He wants to show His disciples that the Kingdom is not a ritual, but ordinary life, the life people live, and live simply, not for the sake of observing some endless mysterious rites. Only in this life there are no tasks that are, on the one hand, "high" and "spiritual," and on the other, "low": any work is filled with spiritual meaning if it is done according to God's will and with love.

And a person's position in the Kingdom, his so-called status as an inhabitant of this Kingdom (to the extent that it is appropriate to speak of any status here at all), is not affected by any ministries or tasks: what matters here is the person's inner state, the spiritual quality of his life, not what he is occupied with. This is the simple truth Jesus wants to bring to His disciples by His own example. And if, instead of understanding and accepting this truth, we again and again turn it into a ritual, then the problem is in us, not in the truth.