the good news is… revealed through nonviolence
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COMMENTARY
He Loved Them to the End
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Jesus’ mercy is not just unmerited—it is scandalous. I would much rather reflect on how Jesus is with us in times of trial. How Jesus walks with us when we are in the valley of the shadow of death. It’s not that I relish being in said valley of the shadow of death. It’s that, when I am grieving, or struggling, or clearly a victim, the mercy of Jesus feels. . . soothing. But Jesus’ mercy is not just confined to clean, easily identifiable victims. Jesus steps right into the traumatic muck of betrayal, and sin, and corruption, and says: Even here, at the end, I love you.
Judas should have been cancelled.
Instead, Jesus says clearly: “One of you will betray me” (John 13:21). As Judas knows he is the traitor, Jesus kneels at Judas’s feet and washes them clean.
There is some theater to this, of course; it calls to mind the work done by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the students who participated in sit-ins at Woolworth’s during the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. They would strategically select places known to be the worst for racist violence, invite the public eye to watch, and wait for the absurdity of this evil to play out—so that all could see it for its absurdity and evil. I have no doubt God is the original architect of this kind of Theatre of the Oppressed.25
Jesus is not just performing; he is extending genuine mercy. All confrontational nonviolence done in Jesus’ name invites the oppressor to be human again, not through dehumanizing power, but through the humility of our interdependence on each other. It is both unsurprising and devastating that, after his feet have been washed, Judas still runs to betray his Lord—just as it remains unsurprising and devastating when our enemies and oppressors do the same. But Jesus—truly human, and truly God—knew this would happen.
And he washes Judas’s feet, anyway.
Written by Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail
REFLECT
Imagine you are Judas; how does it feel to have your feet washed?
25 Theatre of the Oppressed uses theater as a tool for social and political activism. Originally created by Brazilian theater director and activist Augusto Boal, it is a participatory art from intended to inspire transformation.