Jesus answered, 'You do not now understand what I am doing, but later you will understand' — Jesus does not argue or rebuke Peter's refusal but invites him into patient faith. The now-and-later temporal structure is crucial: understanding cannot come by reason alone but only through participating in the event, through allowing oneself to be served by love. This is the logic of discipleship: we must receive before we comprehend, must be acted upon before we can act. The footwashing is a parable of the entire redemptive work—we cannot grasp the cross until we have been crucified with him, cannot understand dying with him until we have already consented to die.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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