STRIPPED DOWN
Sermontelling John 13:1-17 (NL 432)
BIBLETELLING
Below is the Narrative Lectionary passage for the coming week. It is followed by Bruce’s notes on the text which aim at a general understanding of the text and some notes on the structures and techniques used by the Biblical storytellers.
Before the Festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and go to the Father.1 Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully.2
Jesus and his disciples were sharing the evening meal. The devil had already provoked Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Jesus.3 Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing.4 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”5
Jesus replied, “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but you will understand later.”6
“No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.”7
Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!”8
Jesus responded, “Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you.”9 He knew who would betray him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you is clean.”10
After he washed the disciples’ feet, he put on his robes and returned to his place at the table. He said to them, “Do you know what I’ve done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, because I am. If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you also must do. I assure you, servants aren’t greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them.11 Since you know these things, you will be happy12 if you do them.
John 13:1-17 [CEB]
THREE STORIES
The following three stories pair well with the Narrative Lectionary passage for the coming week. They are followed by Danny’s sermontelling footnotes which explore the stories’ theological connection to the passage as well as insights into craft and performance. Our advice is to read the story first before digging into the footnotes.
THE ROOSTER PRINCE
A very wealthy King13 had a young Prince who was the heir to his entire Kingdom. The prince would wear fine robes14 and attend elaborate feasts where he would sit at the head of the table and discuss the great issues of the day with esteemed guests from all around the world. Everyone looked to the Prince for inspiration and leadership.
One day, no one is really sure why, the Prince suddenly decided that he was a rooster. He stripped down to all but a loin cloth and squatted beneath the table pecking at scraps like the rest of the roosters, clucking and crowing as roosters do. At first, everybody thought this was a joke, but it soon became clear that the Prince had indeed convinced himself that he was a rooster.
This went on for weeks and the Prince didn’t snap out of it. He remained beneath the table in his loincloth, behaving like a rooster. The King was greatly disturbed and didn’t know what to do. He secretly had the best doctors in the Kingdom brought to the castle to try and restore the Prince to his former self. One by one, they did their best. Some tried to convince him logically that he was not a rooster with well reasoned arguments but the Prince would just look at them, turn his head sideways and cluck. Others tried to scare his sense back into him. Some even tried feeding him elaborate concoctions. None of it worked. The Prince still believed that he was not a Prince, but a rooster.15 Finally, the King brought in the local Rabbi.
“Rabbi, please, I beg you,” said the King, “Restore my son to what he once was.”
The Rabbi looked at the Prince squatting under the table pecking at the scraps and said, “I believe I can do this but you’ll have to give me a week.”
The King agreed and the Rabbi set to work. He stripped to all but a loin cloth and got under the table and squatted. He pecked on the scraps and clucked and crowed like a rooster just like the Prince. The Prince immediately warmed to his fellow rooster.
After two days of this, the Rabbi said to the Prince, “You know, we can still be roosters if we eat good food from plates. There’s no reason we must peck at these scraps.”
The Prince shrugged and agreed with an approving, “BUCK BUCK,” so the King ordered the servants to put all the finest foods from the top of the table underneath the the table and for the next two days, the Prince and the Rabbi squatted under the table in nothing but their loincloths, clucking and crowing, while eating the finest foods with a knife and a fork.
After these two more days were up, the Rabbi said to the Prince, “You know we can still be roosters if we talk to one another. There’s no reason we must cluck and crow.”
The Prince looked at the Rabbi and said, “Sure. That makes sense.” So for the next two days, the Prince and the Rabbi squatted under the table in nothing but their loincloths, talking with one another, while eating the finest foods with a knife and a fork.
Finally, on the sixth day, the Rabbi said to the Prince, “You know, we can still be roosters if we wear clothes and sit at the table. There’s no reason we must squat beneath the table in nothing but our loincloths.”
The Prince agreed to this and for the rest of the day, they sat at the table in their robes, talking with one another, while eating the finest foods imaginable with a knife and a fork. On the seventh day, the Rabbi bid farewell to his fellow rooster and the King thanked him from the bottom of his heart. For the rest of his days, the Prince did all the things a prince (and later, a king) was supposed to do. He was a source of inspiration and leadership to the entire Kingdom and no one knew his secret: that deep down, no matter how he acted on the outside, he was still a rooster.
~ my telling of a traditional story
THE MODEL T
When the Model T came out in 1908, it was the first affordable automobile. Because it was made on an assembly line, it was faster and cheaper to produce than all the cars that came before. Suddenly automobiles went from being a fancy toy of the rich to something the middle class could afford. American life was forever changed!16
But... because those first Model T cars were cheaply and quickly produced, they were also somewhat unreliable.
There’s a story17 about a man whose Model T breaks down on a country road far away from any help.
He gets under the hood to investigate. He’s pretty good with engines but he’s not having any luck. Nothing in his usual bag of tricks is working.
The engine just spits and smokes and makes awful clanking sounds. Finally he resorts to doing what even the best of us do in this situation. He starts kicking the car and cursing.
This is what he’s doing when another Model T pulls up beside him. Out comes a man in a fancy suit. “What seems to be the trouble?” He asks.
Our guy explains his situation and the man in the fancy suit asks if he can help.
He looks the man over. He’s dressed to the nines. He can tell by looking at his soft hands that he’s never worked a day in his life.
“That’s kind of you,” the man says, “But I’m really good with engines and I can’t get it to do anything. I’d hate for you to ruin your suit when it’s not going to do anything for you either. Go get where you’re going. I’ll be alright.”
“Nonsense,” said the man in the fancy suit. He took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves18 and took the wrench from the guy’s hand. And quickly got to work. Tightening a bolt here, loosening a screw there. After about 5 minutes he said. “Now try it.”
The man cranked the engine and it roared to life. The guy was dumbfounded. “How in the world did you do that?”
The man smiled and put his hand out. “My name’s Henry Ford and I’m pretty good with engines too.”19
~ anecdote of unknown provenance
TWO SERVANTS
A king20 had two servants. He told the first servant to do something. The servant did it, and was promoted. He told the second servant to do something. The servant did not do it, and was fired.
The servant who was promoted lived very, very well in the king’s service, and continued to obey the king and be promoted.
One day, however, his thoughts turned to the servant who had disobeyed the king and been fired. So he went to visit him. He arrived at the house where the man used to live, but he was no longer there. A neighbour said he had sold the house and moved to a much smaller one.
When the first servant arrived at the place where the second servant now lived, he realized that ‘house’ was too kind a word. It was a hovel. The first servant knocked on the door, and a voice said, “Come in!”
The second servant was sitting on the dirt floor eating a very, very thin soup.21
The servant who had been promoted smiled. “If you had learned to obey the king, you would not have to eat that thin soup,” he said.
The servant who had been fired said, “If you had learned how to eat this soup, you would not have to obey the king!”22
~ John Shea
From the Archives: THE KING AND THE MAIDEN
One evening the King was lying alone in his quarters, tossing and turning in his big empty bed. He had been tossing and turning for hours because he had realized, quite to his shock, that he had fallen in love. He hadn’t set out to fall in love but it had happened anyway. For in his kingdom there lived a beautiful maiden whose mere glance had captured his heart. And now the King lay awake unable to think of anything but her beautiful face. Though this maiden was of humble birth, he had in mind to make her his Queen.
Once he had resolved to do so, all that was left was to figure out the manner of his proposal….
SERMONTELLING NOTES:
As this story unfolds, we will witness the humility of Jesus on display as he takes on the work of a servant. This humility, however, is not rooted in a low opinion of himself, but in the astounding truth of his high status rooted in his relationship with the Father. He is set free from the need to exalt himself by knowing that God has already chosen to exalt him.
Throughout John, the idea of Jesus’ exaltation and his return to the Father is used to point towards his paradoxical exaltation on the cross. The story teller is inviting listeners who are already familiar with the Jesus story to read this foot-washing narrative in light of the cross.
The storyteller wants us to understand Jesus’ following self-abasement as the fulfilment of Jesus’ love for his disciples.
It is important to the storyteller that we know that Judas the betrayer is a recipient of Jesus’ coming gift. Not the unspoiled, idealistic Judas who set out to follow Jesus, but the Judas who is already in the midst of blooming rebellion.
The washing of feet is routinely the work of household servants which, for some reason, has been left undone until now. None of the disciples present seem inclined to take on the role of the missing servant, but Jesus does so.
Many regard Peter’s question here as rhetorical. Greek grammar, however, has a specific construct used for rhetorical questions. Grammatically, this is a real question, but the emphasis is on the word “you.” Peter recognizes that somebody should be doing this, but that it should NOT be Jesus.
In the moment, Jesus’ action can only be seen as a social faux pas. Later, this action will be interpreted in light of the cross. As Paul unpacks this thought in Philippians 2, Jesus is emptying himself of divine status to take on the role of a servant. He will humble himself further by taking up the cross to die.
Peter doesn’t want to understand later. He wants Jesus to stop NOW.
Jesus response is not so much about the washing of Peter’s feet as it is about the work of the cross which this action foreshadows.
As usual, once Peter decides to move forward, he goes in full-throttle.
Jesus’ disciples have already displayed their loyalty to him. He does not want them to confuse what he is doing as a “rite of passage,” but to understand it (in due course) as an expression of his own nature which they are to imitate.
Again, the storyteller draws attention to Judas’ presence and his fallen state.
Jesus calls his disciples to imitate him not so much in washing feet as in surrendering the privileges of status on behalf of others. Judas presence in this moment stands as a reminder that we are not to be discriminate in this action. It is not reserved for those who somehow “deserve it.”
The word here translated as “happy” is more often translated as “blessed.” For most of us “happy” denotes an emotional state. The Greek word behind “blessed” is about being in alignment with a way of life that is ultimately rewarding. Throughout scripture, the “blessed” life is a life that is pleasing to God.
THE ROOSTER PRINCE
This is a parable about solidarity. The rabbi of the story will strip down and stoop down to connect with the afflicted prince. It is only in ‘getting on his level’ that he can truly lead him to healing. In one sense this can be a metaphor for the self-emptying of Jesus Christ who stripped himself of his divinity and got on the level of our fallen humanity so that we could be raised from our fallen states. This is one thing Jesus’ stripping down and serving shows us. But it is also a model. We too are called to be stripped down as we serve others. The word ‘compassion’ means to ‘suffer with.’ When we suffer with others we are emulating Jesus’ humble love.
This is an important detail. The image of ‘stripping down’ will form a thematic connection to the passage.
In pretty quick succession we have moved through three attempts to heal the prince: logic, fear, and medicine. If one wanted to make this story the centerpiece of a sermon, each of these could be expanded into an event in its own right. Fun could be had depicting the pedantic arguments and attempts to scare the rooster straight. In any case, the result of these three events to create a sense of hopelessness.
THE MODEL T
It will be a real testament to the health and vitality of your congregation if everyone doesn’t automatically know what a Model T car is. I find when telling a story like this, it’s best to make necessary explanations as quickly as I can at the start so they don’t bog the story down later.
‘There’s a story’ is my code for ‘this probably didn’t actually happen.’ I have heard this story in sermons and I love it but I was unable to track it down. It has all the hallmarks of a folktale though. It happens to a nameless person in a nameless place during a vague time in history (the time people drove Model T cars, as opposed to June of 1912). That’s not to say this didn’t happen or couldn’t have happened, it's to say that it has come down to us through the oral pipeline, rounded and smoothed.
This is another ‘stripping down’ image. The man in the suit is removing his outer garment to take on the role of a humble service mechanic.
If you think everyone in your congregation doesn’t know who Henry Ford is, you may follow this with a quick explanation. What I like about this story is that it is about the humility it takes to accept help. Like Peter, the man by the road knows better and initially refuses. Imagine refusing help from the creator who knows our problems and their solutions more intimately than we can ever hope to! Such folly!
TWO SERVANTS
In retelling this story, I might be tempted to change the word ‘King’ to ‘Emperor.’ ‘King’, especially in Church, has positive associations with God. When telling this story, one might think it is a metaphor for obedience to Heavenly power and not earthly power. ‘Emperor’ and ‘Empire’ would have a much more negative association (thank Star Wars). On the other hand, John Shea might have chosen to tell a parable about two servants of the king in the way that he has precisely to elicit surprise at the end. I’m torn on this one.
This story is told very economically. This is a virtue. We could learn a lot from studying the sparse style. The teller really trusts the hearer’s imagination to do the work and fill in the details of the hovel and the thin soup. My temptation would be to fill both of those things with a few more details. But, again, I’m not sure who is right. We learn a lot from closely engaging with the work of other storytellers.
This parable is a reversal of expectation. The second servant has been stripped. Stripped of his title. Stripped of his land. Stripped, it would seem, of his basic dignity. And yet he has something essential that the first servant does not have. He has freedom and, perhaps, an unburdened conscience. His life is truly his own. In being humbled, he is exalted. Jesus too will be stripped (seemingly) involuntarily for his refusal to follow the ways of the world. He expects his followers to be willing to do the same. Perhaps in washing their feet and commanding they do the same, he is teaching them to eat the soup (or drink from the cup).