The God Who Kneels
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
John 13:1–15
He rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. When he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
Grace Prayed For
Lord, grant me the grace to encounter You in the posture of the servant — and to be transformed, not merely moved.
Reflection
There is something almost unbearable about this scene.
The disciples recline at table — perhaps still arguing, as Luke tells us they were, about who among them is the greatest. And then Jesus rises. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t rebuke. He simply removes His outer garment, wraps Himself in the clothing of a slave, and begins, one by one, to wash their feet.
Sit with that image for a moment. The one through whom all things were made — kneeling on the stone floor, cradling the feet of fishermen. The hands that formed the mountains now cupping water, now drying mud and dust from between human toes.
This is not a performance. It is a revelation.
Jesus is showing us what God looks like. Not a God who rules from a distance, demanding tribute. But a God who descends — who takes on flesh, who lowers Himself to the lowest place, and finds us there. The towel around His waist is not a humiliation. It is His truest robe.
But then He asks the question that ought to stop us cold: “Do you realize what I have done for you?”
Do we?
It is easy to be moved by this passage — to feel its tenderness, to admire Jesus’ example, and then to return unchanged. But He doesn’t ask us to admire. He says: “As I have done for you, you should also do.”
Who in my life needs me to kneel? Who is waiting for the gift of my presence, my patience, my small unglamorous service? Where am I still too proud, too busy, too frightened to take off my outer garment and pick up the towel?
The spiritual life is not, finally, about ascending. It is about learning to descend — gracefully, freely, joyfully — the way Love itself descended for us.
Can you let Him wash your feet today? And then, can you go and wash another’s?
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Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post