Jesus of the Towel

Maundy Thursday Reflection

Before the cross…
Before the garden…
Before the rooster crows and the curtain tears…
Jesus is on a dusty floor with a towel with dirty feet in his hands.

Jesus makes God’s love known.
Not in grandeur or miracles.
Not even in words.

But in touch.
In water on worn feet.

In shame, exposed and gently undone.

“Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Peter, the leader of the disciples, is uncomfortable with this reversal and intimacy.
But more than that, I wonder if Peter is ashamed.

Has Peter bought into the lies the world has told him about who he is?
Is he ashamed of the dirt he can’t seem to scrub off his soul?
Is he ashamed of the faith he wants to express—but can’t or won’t?

And Jesus kneels anyway.
“Unless I wash you,” he says, “you have no share with me.”
Another way to say this might be, “I didn’t come to be admired. I came to be received.”
And receiving Jesus means letting into the places we might rather keep hidden.

Shame hides.
Love kneels.

Henri Nouwen once said, “Your belovedness preceded your birth.”
If that is true—and I have every reason to believe it is—the God who made us loved us before we ever took a breath.
Before our mistakes and betrayals.
Before our secrets and shame.

That same God now kneels in front of you and me—not to shame us, but to set us free from shame.

“What a joy,” Nouwen also wrote, “to be fully known and fully loved at the same time.”
That’s what this day the church calls Maundy Thursday is about.
A Savior who holds the whole truth of us—our dirt, our doubt, our denial—and still takes our feet in God’s hands.

Still calls us clean.
Still calls us beloved.

And that’s the scandal of grace:
The thing we're most ashamed of… may be the very place Jesus wants to wash in love.
Not to fix us.
But to remind us: We were never unworthy of love. Just unwilling to receive it.

Jesus of the towel,
You entered our dust—not to turn away,
but to turn toward us with grace.
Where shame has taken root,
let your love do its holy undoing.
Where fear has built walls,
wash them down with compassion.
Remind us that our belovedness
has always preceded our brokenness.
And teach us, by your example,
to kneel with tenderness in the presence of others—
not to fix, not to judge,
but to love, as you have loved us.

Amen.

Tonight at 7PM: Maundy Thursday Worship
Before the cross, there was a towel.
Before the silence, there was love that stooped low.
Join us as we remember the night Jesus undid shame with water, bread, and grace.
Holy Communion. Scripture. Reflection.
Come as you are—there’s room at the table.

Peace be With You,

Pastor Brian