On stonewalling Peter

6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 7. Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 8. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. 9. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. 10. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

        Peter's interruptions of the footwashing reveal that he doesn't understand what Jesus is doing.

        Peter's first interruption, a question, "Lord, dost thou wash my feet?," with emphasis placed on both pronouns, reveals that he understood the footwashing in the ordinary sense of the act, a cleansing of the physical dirt from the feet, a task that a servant might perform for his master, but not one that a master would perform for his servant.

        Peter's question pointed to the inappropriateness of Jesus washing his feet.

        Jesus dismissed Peter's understanding of the footwashing, saying, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."

        In other words, the footwashing is not to be understood in the ordinary sense; it is not the cleansing of physical dirt from the feet, not the task that a servant might perform for his master but not vice versa.

        This dismissal of Peter's understanding of the footwashing applies also to the understanding of the footwashing when it is considered as an example given to the disciples that they ought to do to one another.

        The example Jesus gave is not footwashing in the ordinary sense either.

        Peter's second interruption, at face value a rebellion, "Thou shalt never wash my feet," seems to be an ingenuous request for an explanation of what he doesn't know now, now - before he suffers the washing of his feet by Jesus.

        Be that as it may, Jesus avoids giving him an explanation, saying, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me," and offers only the idea of needfulness as palliative.

        Peter's third and final interruption, a blurt out, reveals his exasperation in the persistence of his need for an explanation, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

        Peter is meagerly rewarded with the scant information that there is an unspecified uncleanness in the group.

        "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all."

        Obviously stonewalled, Peter finally bows to Jesus and suffers Jesus to wash his feet.

        Jesus withheld the explanation of the footwashing from his disciples deliberately in order to establish confidentiality in his dealings with Judas. Jesus taught that confidentiality was needful when one first goes to his brother to tell him his fault.

        This  post was revised and re-posted on September 24, 2010.

        In my own name.