Today is Monday 11 April in Holy Week. As we walk through the pilgrimage of Holy Week, let us pay attention to the interweaving of justice and mercy in Jesus’ words and actions, from the triumph of his arrival to his death on the cross. We will pass through the intimacy and fellowship of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, the anguish of Gethsemane, the pain of Good Friday, and the empty darkness of Holy Saturday, as we journey towards the joy set before us on Easter Sunday. 

I invite you to reflect on each stage and step of the pilgrimage of Holy Week through the reading of the Passion in the Gospel of Matthew (beginning in Matthew 26) and the Lent and Holy Week reflections from the Church of England.

I invite you to join fellow pilgrims by participating in our services, whether in St Albright’s Church or online, whether indoors or out of doors. During Holy Week, Church Without Walls is joining with other Christians in Stanway in our ecumenical Walk of Witness on Good Friday and our Easter morning sunrise service on the ‘green hill’ above the bridge on Church Lane. 

But today I want to particularly reflect on feet. I know – rather unusual and not especially beautiful, but profoundly important. 

Feet are one of the dirtiest parts of our body, especially if we live and work and walk in hot countries, as Jesus did. Feet, in cold countries, are seldom seen and quite a private part of our bodies, exposed only in the privacy of our own homes or when we wash, shower or swim. It interests me how feet play an important part in the events and encounters leading up to Holy Week and within Holy Week itself.

In John’s gospel, chapter 12:1-11, we read of the profound generosity of Mary who pours expensive perfume over the feet of Jesus... and of Judas’ and Jesus’ reaction to her intimate, costly act: 

"Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’"

Judas was absolutely right: the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Whilst his words were true, being a thief and betrayer, his motivation was wrong and his heart was hard. Jesus’ response reflects a totally different attitude, one which speaks of generous love and prophetic awareness: Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ 

During Lent, some of us have been reading and reflecting on Isabelle Hamley’s challenging and enriching book ‘Embracing Justice’. She writes of this passage: ‘The tyranny of scarcity reaches deep. Even seeking justice can become ruled by productivity and efficiency and overlook the Sabbath principle: there is more than needed, life is not a zero-sum game.

 Judas instrumentalises and perverts justice, and forgets that giving to God and giving to our neighbour are not in competition, but belong together. Judas’ fake care, from a position of authority sitting at the table, contrasts with Mary’s selfless devotion, despite not having a space at the table. Mary’s status may be lower, a woman, expected to serve, but she is the first person to wash feet in Holy Week, with perfume and her own hair for a towel.’

The tender act and example of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet during the Last Supper is equally profound. It speaks of Jesus’ humility, servanthood, love and intimacy with his disciples, as well as practical cleanliness. It is so much part of our pilgrimage during Holy Week that every year during the Maundy Thursday service, we re-enact foot-washing, remembering God’s love for us in Christ, and the importance of humility and servanthood as members of Christ’s body.

We come to the Cross. Allow yourself to reflect on the piercing of Christ’s body: not only his hands and his side, but his feet, too, were pierced and bled for our transgressions.

As we walk the way of the Cross during the pilgrimage of Holy Week may we offer to God hearts and lives which reflect the generosity of Mary and the humility, servanthood and obedience of Jesus.

Collect 

True and humble king,

hailed by the crowd as Messiah:

grant us the faith to know you and love you,

that we may be found beside you

on the way of the cross,

which is the path of glory.

Amen