Blue is for Christ
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ (John 13:1, 3-7).
═══✿═══
I love the image at the top of this page, by an unknown artist from Lord Hastings’s Book of Hours. I love how it's so squarely set in medieval Europe, in the colours and shapes of the person who painted it, and of the person or people for whom it was painted. Literal history (chronological time) is important, but without being immersed in other senses of time and space (through art, silence, poetry, music, ritual, dreams, drugs etc.), religion becomes a worship of ashes.
Iain McGilchrist points out that, for Ancient Greece, Logos (word, discourse, reason) was useful, but Mythos (the story of gods and heroes) offered a fuller, more holistic sense of truth.
I love how blue Christ is in this Book of Hours - his robe, the towel around his waist. He's almost an extension of the blue, cleansing water that’s in danger of tipping out of the golden bowl. I love his little bare foot peeking out from under his robe.
Blue and gold keep repeating - in the halo above Jesus’s head and blue body, in the clothes others are wearing, too, in the walls and windows of the vaulted room, and in the blue flowers and gold field surrounding this scene. What might these colours symbolize? Might gold represent God the Father - the Source, the Spark, the Ground or Field of Being? Might blue symbolize God's manifestation in the world - flowers, water, Jesus the Christ, John the Beloved, you and I?
On the eve of their death, what religious founder, guru, prophet, rabbi, holy man or holy woman, takes a towel and washes their disciples’ feet? And yet, what authentic spiritual teacher - whose life and mind is no longer centred on ego - does not think or act in a similar way?
I've chosen the music below - The Weeping Meadow, by Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou - as it's full of water, and makes me want to weep too.
John understands how tender this event and memory is. Surely John is the one with hair like my son's (Celtic red), wearing a robe the colour of Christ's towel.
Peter, all Logos-driven, left-brain dominant, wants to argue with Christ once more. Why can't he just let things happen? Why can't he accept the gift? It's excruciating for us to receive, sometimes. To be as vulnerable as an infant, to have someone else wipe our nose or wash and massage our feet. Once again, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to die - how to let their ‘grains of wheat’ (egos) fall to the ground, so that a larger life (“Christ”) may be there's.
Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.
Image at top of page: Christ Washing the Apostles’ Feet, Hours of William, Lord Hastings.
