Thoughts on Washing

The Rejoice devotional entries of both yesterday and today referred to washing. Yesterday's words were linked to a passage in Exodus 30:17–21. The relevant portion of that was that one of the articles made for worship within the Tent of Meeting or Tabernacle was a bronze basin on a bronze stand. The Chief Priest, Aaron, and his sons were to wash their hands and their feet with water in this basin before they entered the Tent of Meeting or went to offer sacrifices on the altar "so that they may not die." (NRSV)

First off, this seems rather harsh. Wash or die! Of course, when we put this in context, we realize more. When God had originally called Moses when he was tending the flock on the slopes of Mount Horeb, northeast of Egypt, he was told to take his shoes off as he approached a burning bush out of curiosity because it was holy ground. Those who have ever attended a Muslim mosque will know that it is a practice to remove one footwear before entering. Indeed, in some mosques, there are facilities to also wash your hands and feet before entering the to worship.

All of this points to the fact that when we go to worship in whatever sanctuary or place, we are entering the presence of God, who is pure and holy, and as such, cannot by his nature, abide anything unholy or unclean in his presence. Now, of course, simply washing with water does not change our nature or the way we look to God. However, washing then is a symbol of our making a commitment of awe, reverence and respect as we enter the presence of God. It was also a regular ritual for ordaining and concentrating priests for service.

Indeed, we can think about baptism in this way. We generally regard it as a symbolic act of washing to demonstrate that we have put our faith in the saving work of Christ on the cross, and the efficacy of that in cleansing as such, that we can be welcomed into God's presence. More than that, we are told that by this act of faith we are adopted back into his family as sons and daughters. The act of baptism for us as Protestants and Anabaptists is a declaration of this change that we have chosen to experience and receive.

At the same time, I think this ritual speaks to a commitment to follow Jesus, which means to serve. This can be seen to arise out of the passage used as a basis for the Rejoice write up on the day after the one referred to above - John 13:1-11, which is the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.

This act took place on the eve of Jesus's last celebrating the Passover meal with his closest followers prior to his execution the following day. In his own words, Jesus described this as an act of the deep love he had for his disciples. He was  also demonstrating that his washing their feet symbolized in his eyes that they were clean and fully acceptable to him. As Miss Hostetler writes in her peace for the day, Peter, of whom we read at the idea of Jesus washing his feet, saw this as "an honour he was not worthy of a blessing he did not deserve." Jesus response had an element of rebuke in it, saying that if he did not let him wash his feet, he could not be part of Jesus. Jesus was here pointing to deeper layers of meaning of this act. The element of acceptance, belonging, love and affection. As Hostetler further rights, "to be in relationship with our heavenly parent, we must accept the gifts offered to us.” 

Again, with his command that his disciples should continue to do this to one another, I think we further see this as a call to service to one an other, a demonstration of the unity and love we share as brothers and sisters in God’s new family.

The fact that this involved washing another's feet is also often seen as an act showing great humility. Christ also brought out this meaning in his comments, following what he did when he told his disciples that he had "Set [them] an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” If he, their Lord and master was willing to do this for them, how much more ought we to do it to one another.

The Passover and Communion

It was in the previous quarterly issue of our church devotional, Rejoice, that a daily meditation struck me more strongly than some do. I believe it was based on Exodus 12:43-49.

What really struck me about this particular set of instructions for keeping the Passover, as there are several, starting with the original one in Exodus 12:1-20, was its particular focus on those other than The Children of Israel. In the first sentence of this particular message received by Moses and his brother Aaron from The Lord, it is stated, "no foreigner shall eat of it." This included slaves and servants (Verse 45). However, our God in his abiding mercy and grace, did make provision for those referred to here as aliens who might want to celebrate the Passover. In verse 48 it states that if all of their males were circumcised, these families could celebrate the Passover and henceforth be regarded as natives of Israel, or  "the land", as it states here. However, the same verse ends by saying, "no uncircumcised person shall eat of it." The instructions wrap up with the statement in verse 49: "there shall be one law for the natives and for the aliens who reside among you."

There is one other point here that I believe we ought to remember even today as non-Jews, and that is what is stated in verse 47: “the whole congregation of Israel shall celebrate it." We know, from what is taught in the New Testament, that we as believers, Christians, The Church, are the present day version of the "congregation of Israel."

Now, this is a reflection, a blog, not a theological treatise, so I am not going to go into heavy-duty explanations and proof-text all of my points. However, I think they are opinions that are shared by many or they would not continue to be passed on 2000 years after the beginning of the church.

Now, the parallel to The Passover which I want to draw, as indicated in our title, is with our celebration as The Church of Communion.

If we are compared to the children of Israel, I think Passover is compared to Communion. Both are celebrations of deliverance from evil, from death. Historically, it was Israel's celebration of deliverance from Egypt and from having their firstborn sons slaughtered by the Angel of Death that struck the Egyptians that first Passover night. For us in The Church, it is a celebration of Christ's deliverance of us from evil and death through his own sacrificial death and then victorious resurrection.

Therefore, it is on this basis that I believe we draw parallels between regulations regarding the Passover and how we celebrate Communion. In the first place, as mentioned in the paragraphs above, what is stated here should give us pause as to our feeling of needing to celebrate communion. I don't think it is an option. If we are believers, we ought to take part in communion on a regular basis.

However, the other point that I wanted to dwell on more here was with respect to what I began to discuss at the outset of this writing. This is the reference to aliens celebrating Passover. In our context, I think this would compare to non-Christians. They were told they needed to be circumcised if they wanted to celebrate Passover. Is this support for our stipulating that individuals need to be baptized before celebrating communion? Indeed, this is a practice that has been followed by the church for most of its history as far as I know. I think it is only after the middle of the last century that some churches began to open baptism to anybody who was a believer, whether baptized or not. The older more orthodox churches, including the Catholic and Anglican, certainly do not do this.

Jesus has commanded us to be baptized, just as he told us to celebrate The Lord's Supper. It is a sign of our repentance and forgiveness, the washing away of our sins. Circumcision was a sign of making a commitment to become one of the Children of Israel. Perhaps we need to think more seriously of commitment to The Church. I think there are some who would say that expectations in this respect have been considerably diluted in the last number of decades in the church's effort to appeal to many and boost its numbers, particularly in North America. However, for a church to be pure and effective, as with any organization, I think there need to be certain expectations and that includes one of commitment. If a person cannot be bothered to be baptized, or does not take that command seriously, are they ready to be part of the church? Will they be committed enough to be the kind of disciple Jesus wants them to be?