Tuesday, March 31, 2026
(As I mentioned yesterday, there is too much to learn from Holy Week. Too much to digest in 100-word bites. My hope this week is to introduce something new, something thoughtful, some other angle by which to view the week’s events. And my prayer is that just one might be meaningful to you. - Chris)
The Last Supper: Jesus Washes the Feet of his Disciples
Station 10: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
Station 11: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
I often think of the Passion of Christ in the context of physical pain. But there’s something else happening here.
I think Jesus is trying to show us something, in these moments, about embarrassment. About humiliation. About shame.
The only one of these three things that even feels remotely possible today is being “stripped of your garments” - so let’s run with that in our imagination for a moment. Imagine this (admittedly absurd) scenario: You are in public, at a major event, with your entire family and friends in attendance. Then a group of misfits comes up to you, and for no apparent reason, forcibly removes all your clothes. And just leaves you, naked, in front of everyone.
Would you ever be able to look your friends in the eye again? For every one of us on the email chain, this would be the single most embarrassing, humiliating moment of our lives, and then some. Impossible to recover from.
That was the easiest of the three listed above. As you likely know, the washing of feet was no joyful bath. This is what the lowest slaves in the house did for their masters. Feet had dirt, grime, manure on them. This was stooping to the lowest position of any human being in society.
And of course - Jesus wasn’t just killed. As if that would have been bad enough. He was killed in the lowest of low ways. In front of everyone. Hung up high for all to see. Made an example of. Like the worst criminals. With a sign above his head, mocking him.
Jesus entered the humiliation, the embarrassment.
Of course, he told us he was going to. In fact, he told us we’re going to have to as well. “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you, falsely, because of me.” (Matthew 5:11)
He’s telling us something about humiliation, about embarrassment.
I’m not sure I know what it is. I don’t have a nice bow to tie this up - so much of Holy Week feels like that.
But I do know the next line of that final Beatitude. And I do know what Jesus told the thief on the cross beside him a few hours later:
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” (Matthew 5:12)
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)