A Letter from John McCall, serving in Taiwan
Spring 2024
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Dear friends,
After 27 years of living in Asia, I am often struck by the fact that the Bible is an Asian book. As I live among the Taiwanese, I see how the culture of this continent has shaped the culture of the Bible. Jesus was Middle Eastern, not Western, and he lived in an Eastern culture.
Isa washing his classmate’s feet.
The story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet on the last night of his life is told from an Asian perspective. Peter is an Asian student who knows that his teacher should not be washing his feet. Often Taiwanese Christians will describe themselves as students of Jesus. So, Peter protests and Jesus understands his protest by saying, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand” (Jn 13:7). It is hard to break out of our cultural view. But Jesus constantly breaks through the view of the world and brings in a new culture, the culture of God’s Kingdom.
This is a beautiful story because it once again shows the freedom of Jesus. Hierarchy and status were of great importance in Jesus’ Asian culture, just as they are equally important today. One of the worst things in Taiwan is to “lose face.” You don’t want anyone to look down on you. But because Jesus knew who he was as a beloved child of God, because he knew that God had put all things into his hands, because he knew that he would be returning to his place of honor in heaven, he was free to do the work of a servant. He shattered Asian cultural norms by kneeling and washing the feet of his students.
Washing feet at an aboriginal youth conference.
When we know who we are as beloved children of God, we are also free to serve with joy and abandon. When we know that our eternal destiny is in God’s hands, we don’t have to worry about our status. Our status does not come from how many people like our posts on social media, but our status, our worth, comes from the God who creates us and redeems us and loves us with an unconditional love.
Peter needed his worldview shattered. He spent his days with Jesus, but most of the time he did not understand this kingdom which Jesus was ushering in. Peter’s value system was shaped by Asian culture, but Jesus is a firm teacher, “If I don’t wash your feet, you can’t be part of what I am doing.” If you hold on to the old-world view, you can’t walk in my way and love with my love. And Peter, with all of his shortcomings, is open to change. “Not just my feet but wash my head and my hands too!”
One Holy Week I designed a Maundy Thursday service for our seminary community at Taiwan Seminary. The students in my class were the leaders of this service. When it came time for the foot washing, I had asked an Indigenous student named Isa to wash the feet of his classmate. The liturgy for this service was abundant, and I was paying attention to the time.
Pastors washing each other’s feet
But as Isa knelt to wash his classmate’s feet, he was in no hurry. He poured the water over the feet and slowly washed them. He not only washed them; he began to massage them. He lovingly caressed the feet of his classmate seemingly oblivious to the time or the rest of us in that chapel. I was transfixed and said to myself, “here is your teacher of how to wash feet in the name of Jesus.” In the past, I had poured water and then casually dried the feet of the one I was serving. But Isa gave me a new vision. “Whatever you do, do it with love.”
Now when I wash feet, I am never in a hurry. I do it in the name and spirit of Jesus. My student became my teacher, which has happened more times than I can remember.
I’ve often thought that foot washing should be one of our sacraments, for Jesus told us to do it, just as he had done it. And when we do it, we are changed into the likeness of Jesus, who served with such freedom because he knew that he was loved by God and would return to God. As children of this same God, we can serve with that daring freedom. We can, as the hymn says, “be lost in wonder, love, and praise,” as I was when I saw the way Isa washed his classmate’s feet.
Gratefully,
John
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