Daniel Apatiga
Prof. Lori Branch
Engl: 3140, Sect. 1
Dec. 16th 2016
Jesus’ Hidden Message to his Disciples while at the Last
Supper
Jesus’ action of washing the
Apostles’ feet held a hidden symbolic meaning and the action was a turning
point in the plot of the Gospel of John (Bible, page 1904). Christians commonly associate the washing of
feet as a lowly act including Catholics (Pope Francis in particular), but in
the Gospel of John, Jesus cleansed the feet of his disciples because he
understood the Jewish scriptures very well, and he enjoyed telling parables. Jesus understood that in order to keep the
love of his followers it must be shown in an extraordinary way. In his last action and riddle, Jesus said, “’You
do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’”, and this was
a fatherly kind of love that he held for them (Bible, page 1904). To Simone Peter, he misinterpreted Jesus
because he assumed that Jesus had quit his aspirations to become King of the
Jews by assuming a lowly job as a feet washer, but Peter misunderstood despite
thinking he understood when he said, “Lord, not my feet but also my hands and
my head!”, because Jesus wanted to be the Lord, divine, and remembered in
another way (Bible, page
1904). The removal of the disciples’
sandals symbolized the trust the Apostles had in Jesus and he in them and also
signified a major turning point in the plot in addition to Jesus saying much
earlier in the Gospel of Mark, “‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’”
(Bible, pg. 1807).
Before
Jesus shared his ideas during the last meal, he asked his disciples to let him
wash their feet, and this request alluded to the story of Moses when he took off
his sandals at God’s request because the divine voice that spoke to him communicated
this truth: the feet are more holy than the sandals (a human’s creation), because,
the feet are God’s creation—therefore, the action of taking one’s sandals off
was signifying the act of being in the presence of the divine. Also, the feet can become dirty from the
matter that is near the divine—Jesus—for the feet are most welcome in his
presence; and, the feet are significant parts of the body that symbolized cleanliness
or dirtiness and either femininity or masculinity, and should be naked like how
God made us. And this action signified
that the soles of the feet were designed to toughen so gaining callouses or
blisters would not be bad. This event
may have symbolized the importance of being active in terms of work even though
it is “the work of the lowliest of servants” by Jewish society at the time.
Although
Jesus appeared to the disciples as both a person a mystical being, who used a
lot of parables, the washing of the apostles’ feet meant to Jesus that his
apostles were ready to understand the deeper meanings and truths in life. Cleaning a person’s dirty foot will still be
dirty again, and this infinite loop humans enter of washing ourselves despite becoming
dirty again has a kind of insanity to it like a stopwatch: a stopwatch is a
tool that lets an agent know how much time has passed, so in that way, Jesus
was done preparing his disciples for a test of loyalty, strength of mind, and
of character, but they would gain the benefit of being judged by him. The event of Jesus’ crucifixion in the story of
Christ evoked emotions of loss and tragedy, like when a close friend of mine died,
and this event undoubtedly left the Apostles asking for Jesus to push the stop button
but it was too late, he could no longer be their teacher for he was dead. In
Catholicism, I was taught that Jesus is alive in heaven, but no way existed to be
judged except after death.
After
this turning point in the Gospel of John, Jesus foretold his betrayal and gave a
piece of bread to Judas, and Jesus was removed from the last supper by Jewish
authorities because Judas betrayed him. What
came before the feet washing was entirely about the joy of living, gaining a
following, seeing things that a “blind man” had not been aware of before, sharing
food with the poor and donating belongings to them, disavowing Kingship while the
authorities accused him of seeking power, telling funny stories that poke fun
at the absurdities of society, transcending cultural taboos by befriending a
promiscuous adulteress, all of which were enjoyable to Jesus’ followers because
of his quick advice and love for humans.
After
Jesus shared his last demonstrative teaching of washing his followers’ feet,
the story does not stop with the use of parables. In the Gospel of John, the form of the story follows
a Chiasmus form, but in a much bigger sense: the last teaching of Jesus is at
the center, while everything after what came before the middle section is
somehow related to each other but is variated.
This often takes the form of structural ironies to the plot in that the
story contains parables before the turning point and Jesus speaks a lot, and
his diction reveals his knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence. But when we get to the central turning point
of the plot in the Gospel of John, a higher calling or a search for the divine
occurs like in all Psalm poems that employ Chiasmus form. Some examples of parables that are later
variated after the central plot are when Jesus fished and was a good fisherman,
the raising of Lazarus, the breaking of bread and sharing it among a huge crowd
of followers. Similarly, in the prime
sections (imagine this form ABC’B’A’ and now we are at section A’) and after
the turning point, Jesus was arrested and like a fish in a net, flogged like a
fish that was skinned, and Jesus was crucified, raised, and sent to heaven like
the raising of Lazarus only it was God who raised Jesus, and Lazarus had sort
of disappeared from the plot, too.
After
the turning point of the plot during the Last Supper, Jesus’ says that one of
his disciples will betray him because he knows that his death is the will of
God, but the reader later discovers that Jesus’ death is also a result of the
unfairness of his trial.
²³ One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was
reclining next to him;
²⁴ Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom
he was speaking.
²⁵ So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who
is it?”
²⁶ Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of
bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”
So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to
Judas. (Oxford Bible page 1904).
Shortly
after, Jesus compares himself to the true vine, signifying the end of his
lowly, ascribed status, and now is this prophet of a new religious tradition.
The
last teaching foretells the death of Jesus as the death of the son of man. By washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus
prepares his disciples for the undertaking of their lifetimes since as a son of
God, Jesus does not require that his disciples take off their sandals, for this
symbolic act is not what God would have wanted from him, and Jesus never
required that anyone follow his teachings.
As described by Exodus when Moses encountered the voice of God from the
burning bush, by washing their feet, a very menial task, Jesus instructs his
disciples that it is for his father and themselves so that they can wash each
other’s feet, treating each other with respect and each other as though they
are father. Having cleansed feet suggests indirectly that
the house of God is everywhere, unlike only the cave where Moses encounters
Elohim. This part of the narrative
connects to the abandonment of Jesus by the disciples that occurs after the
last teaching, because even though Jesus says to them where he is going they
cannot follow, the disciples could not make everyone else realize in time that
Jesus is a good man, that he is who he says he is, and what he preaches it does
not desecrate God. Jesus creates a drive
and ambition in his disciples for them to spread his word though they were not
prepared to defend the son of God right away, it would just take some time. The reader is also unprepared for when Jesus
becomes crucified, dead, and resurrected.
The
last teaching echoes the beginning of the narrative in the Gospel of John when
we read that someone greater than John, who by many is considered a prophet,
will arrive. In this last, verbal teaching, Jesus makes use of the
symbology of vines that held significance to the Jewish and Jesus’
communities. The vine has held mystical meaning that goes back to
the time of Joseph when he lived in Egypt after he had interpreted the dreams
of a chef and a cup-bearer. Jesus uses this motif as a means of
explaining himself to someone who barely knows him even though his disciples do
know him. Hidden within the farewell, Jesus implores for help in what to
do but his disciples have misunderstood the message’s hidden meaning. In
answering who Jesus is we must answer who his Father is, and in answering who
we are, we must know Jesus, the passage suggests, which we do not.
Jesus
stressed the importance of egalitarianism in his last teaching in a world of
inequality, unfair laws, and misrepresentations of good people because of
religious doctrine, ascribed or attained status. In the Gospel of John, Jesus combined many
Jewish teachings with some of his own when he spoke to his disciples during the
last supper. He preached to them so that
his disciples could judge themselves and mark progress after he was dead. The climax of the Gospel of John was when
Jesus gives his last verbal teaching to the Apostles, using Freytag’s Pyramid,
because after that, Jesus is arrested and sent to trial during the falling
action that occurred because what Jesus said in the Last Supper, and the
conclusion of the story occurs after Jesus is crucified when he is resurrected,
being seen by Mary and a few of his disciples talking on a road—that they could
not really identify Jesus despite talking with him.
Works Cited
The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New
Revised Standard Version With The Apocrypha. Ed.
Coogan D., Michael. Pub: Oxford
University Press, 2007. Print.
