Jesus, during this last meal with his closest friends, with hours left of his earthly life, takes a towel, gets on his knees, and washes the disciples' feet, even the disciple who soon will betray him. The Word and the towel, together, inextricable, in Jesus and, Jesus says, in us.

Maundy Thursday means that followers of Jesus serve. We are servants, servants of the Lord of all, who willingly ate with sinners, touched lepers, welcomed children, and washed feet. No one is "less than....” If we do not put the Word alongside the towel and take them both door to door, house to house, town to town, to the ends of the earth, we are failing to follow Jesus.

If we forget that those who push heavy carts down long hallways or wake up before dawn to pick up trash or get on their knees to scrub floors or carefully wash the feet of the sick for very little pay, if we forget that they have names and stories, we fail to follow the One who not only knows them by name, but numbers the hairs on their heads.

excerpted from Lent in Plain Sight (p. 152).