Table-Setting Jesus

by: Jill Ver Steeg

It is the first day of Passover, and Jesus instructs his disciples to go into the city and prepare a room where they will eat the Passover meal. At the table he warns them about his impending arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death. Somewhere in the city stand a group of priests, carrying thirty gold pieces because that night they will finally get Jesus. They wait for Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, to leave the room. But before he can rendezvous with them, Jesus gets up from the table, ties a towel around himself, and begins to wash the feet of his disciples (John 13:1-11).

Jesus has just detailed his upcoming betrayal. He knows the path he must walk, the pain and abandonment that is to come. So when the foot washing came to Judas, what does Jesus do? You or I would have probably dumped the dirty water over him. But not only does Jesus wash Judas’s feet, later they share the same bowl of food.

The psalmist wrote, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Ps. 23). At the Last Supper Jesus does just this; he hosts his enemy, the very one who will betray him. And he continues to be the host at the table whenever we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Christ summons us to his table to receive and be nourished by his body and blood—we who have betrayed Christ through our thoughts and actions. And through Christ’s saving sacrifice we are turned from enemies to friends.