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Maundy Thursday​

by Adam Metz

I think the first time I ever truly used imaginative prayer was in reading John 13 when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. It has to be one of the most tense moments in Scripture. Judas is headed out for the betrayal. All the disciples are gathered in that upper room, and I always imagine that they all have a million questions but nobody was brave enough to ask the first one. I imagine the meal as quiet. Too quiet. I can imagine Peter cracking a joke – doesn’t he seem like the one who just couldn’t take the silence? Nobody laughs, and so they carry on in their awkward silence.

I can imagine the disciples all looking at each other trying to prod one of them to break the ice. Maybe two of them got up at the same time to use the restroom, and on the way, they go back and forth with each other saying, “I’m not bringing it up, you bring it up!” “Last time I said something it was a disaster, I’m not saying anything!”

“That old idiom, ‘You could cut the tension with a knife’ seems applicable…” 

And so it went – at least in my imagination. That old idiom, “You could cut the tension with a knife” seems applicable. I imagine them telling this story years later. What parts did they add? What parts did they leave out?

Finally, Jesus stands up. Breaks the ice. But, no one saw this coming. The towel. The water. The smelly feet. It may be difficult for me to imagine Jesus with smelly feet, but I have no problem imagining the disciples’ smelly feet. Imagine the cool water. Jesus’ soft touch. The utter silence. Who could break the silence? What could you say?

Leave it to Peter. “You’ll never wash my feet! Never mind – do my whole body!” Good old Peter. 


How must it have felt to hear those words uttered the first time? I have read them hundreds of times and they are so familiar to me, it is hard to imagine what was racing through the disciples’ minds at this moment. Slowly, they are learning this journey to Jerusalem is not what they thought it was going to be.