John 13.10 and the Service Industries

[steepholm]

John is my least favourite Gospel (Jesus comes across too much like a politician, never answering a straight question), but 13:10 is both practical and true: "Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit."

The recent very hot weather, combined with the necessity of marking, have made me more sedentary than usual, so this morning I decided to walk the 8-mile round trip to work. As I mentioned last year, this can be a very pleasant experience if you do it right, and so it was today, but there's no denying that by the time I got back I was pretty hot and bothered. Until, that is, I kicked off my sandals and lowered my plates into a bowl of cold water. Instant, all-over refreshment!

Yes, Jesus was definitely on to something with the foot-washing idea. Actually, the context of the story suggests that having a servant wash one's feet was the kind of thing one might expect to happen at a formal dinner in first-century Judea, and I think it's a custom cafes and restaurants might very usefully revive, at least in summer. What could be blissier than to kick of one's sandals and sit sipping a citron pressé while a willing attendant coolly laves one's every toe? I've never bought a shoe shine or a pedicure, but I would definitely pay a premium for that service.

Incidentally, C. S. Lewis seems to have been struck by this verse too. At any rate, he appears to riff on it in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

Lucy looked and saw that Aslan had just breathed on the feet of the stone giant.

"It's all right!" shouted Aslan joyously. "Once the feet are put right, all the rest of him will follow."

Is it a stretch to see that as a Gospel allusion?

Comments

[kalypso]

Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.

And it is Whit, even if they didn't give us the bank holiday!

[steepholm]

You mean, Jesus said we could be clean only once a year?

I want my money back!

[kalypso]

Well, we used to get a whole week of Whit...

Re the rest following the feet, it could be a reference to that verse, but I think I always assumed it was to do with the simile about the flame licking over the paper, that once the paper was alight the whole of it would burn.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

With Lewis, it was probably fully intentional, although I missed it entirely until you pointed it out.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I could not imagine a pedicure until my daughter got one for me a year or so back, and now I am addicted. (I still loathe the idea of spas in general, specifically people messing with my face or slapping goo on me, but a foot and hand massage? Ahhhhhhh!)

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I like Luke myself- he has a lot to say about religious hypocrites :o)

And Yeshu preferred to turn water into wine not the other way about as the teetotallers would prefer it!

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Danced in public, too! Don't tell the hard-shell Baptists.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Not to mention talking to Romans, tax gatherers and prostitutes and (whisper it) Samaritan women............

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

whisper it...

... but not in Gath.

Re:

[viniflus.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6M_6qOz-yw