Wash

I've seen this picture in the Tate a few times, and love the careful detail, especially in the indignant, resisting Peter.

When Ford Madox Brown painted it in the 1850s Christ was clad, as he was in the Gospel story, in only a towel. The public were outraged and the picture didn't sell. Apparently the shock of Jesus' humanity far outweighed the far more significant shock of us being asked to surrender our dearly held ideas of how things should be decently done. As it was at the last supper, so it was in the 1850s. And now.

And when you serve

And when you serve,
Start with the feet

And when you serve,
Get down low
With a towel and a water bowl

And when you serve,
Find your honour not over
But under
Not higher
But lower
Not first
But last.

So when you serve,
Don't wait your turn
But push your way
Right to the back.
Where you'll find
Nothing to prove
Nothing to hide
And nothing to loose
But your pride.

Yes, you heard,
When you serve
Observe His example:
Undo a sandal
And start - with - the - feet.

-Steve Page

Comments

Kate said…

The change from ethereal, stereotypical illustrations based on Gothic allegories, to depiction in religious artworks of the people as real, three-dimensional, feeling beings, did much to engage the mass of humanity with ideas of goodness.

19 December 2018 at 18:30

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