Cultivating Rhythms of Remembering in a Hyper-Forgetful Age: Roughly 24 Feet Before The Cross

Our observance of Palm Sunday served as a reminder that the triumphal entry of Jesus signifies that Jesus, the Son of God, truly is the Christ, the long-awaited King. The Scriptures also remind us that Jesus, the Son of Man, will be lifted up, not onto a throne but nailed to a cross, wearing nothing but a crown of thorns.

A closer reading of the gospel narratives reveals that Jesus is not unaware of this impending doom. Matthew’s gospel cites three successive occasions when Jesus foretells his death and resurrection. The first follows on the heels of Peter’s famous confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Matt. 16:16–17). Jesus praises the Father for revealing this monumental truth to Peter and warns the disciples to keep it a secret. Then, he tells them quite plainly about his forthcoming death and resurrection,

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man (Matt. 16:21–23).

Jesus follows up this first revelation with an unusual invitation,

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? (Matt. 16:24–26).

This suggestion must have seemed preposterous. The cross was known to be one of the most brutal and shameful forms of capital punishment. Jesus wanted them to know and to remember that following him involves carrying a cross, losing it all, and dying.

Next, Jesus invites Peter, James, and John to join him on a hike up a high mountain. Once there, Jesus is transformed or transfigured right before their very eyes. “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” The other gospel writers describe his clothes as, “dazzling,” “radiant,” “intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” To top it off, they are joined by Moses and Elijah, appearing in glory, to discuss Jesus’s departure. (Matt. 17:1–3; Mark 9:3; Luke 9:30–31). What in the world?! You remember the Old Testament stories about Moses and Elijah that took place thousands of years before this, right? Events like these remind us that we follow a God who transcends—upends—our understanding of life and death, glory and majesty, heaven and earth.

Then, not long after this logic-defying experience, Jesus foretells his death and resurrection a second time,

As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed (Matt. 17:22–23).

Jesus who had come from God and was going back to God, had to endure the cross. As he makes his way to Jerusalem, he reminds them a third time,

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matt. 20:17–19).

Then, just before the Feast of the Passover, we find Jesus and his disciples in the Upper Room. Here, the perfect Lamb of God, stoops to wash his disciples’ feet,

He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him (John 13:3–6).

Jesus proceeds to leave them yet another paradoxical clue to his identity,

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you (John 13:13–16).

Bear with me as I lay yet another layer to this chain of events. The simple act of feet washing does not stand alone, but follows a sequence of events, and some pithy discussions on the road to Jerusalem. The first began with a group question, “Jesus, which one of us will be the G.O.A.T. in the kingdom of heaven?” The second came as a mother’s demand, “Jesus, say that these two (perfect, handsome, well-behaved, strong, and more-than-deserving) sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom” (Matt. 20:1–4, 21).

Somewhere between glorious messianic declarations and a mind-bending transfiguration the disciples lost focus. Somewhere on the streets of Jerusalem amid the palm branches and the party the disciples forgot about the threats on Jesus’s life.

Jesus knew they would and still he washed their feet. Jesus knew that Judas would flat out betray him, and still he washed his feet. The King rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey stooped to wash the feet of his followers just before being arrested for crimes he did not commit. Roughly twenty-four feet from the cross.