as
required. As a matter of course, the pitcher of cool water, the basin,
and the towel had been set as part of the requisite furnishing of the
supper chamber; but no one among the disciples betrayed the slightest
consciousness that he understood that any such custom existed. Why was
this? Because, as Luke tells us (xxii. 24), "there had arisen among them
a contention, which of them is accounted to be the greatest." Beginning,
perhaps, by discussing the prospects of their Master's kingdom, they had
passed on to compare the importance of this or that faculty for
forwarding the interests of the kingdom, and had ended by easily
recognised personal allusions and even the direct pitting of man against
man. The assumption of superiority on the part of the sons of Zebedee
and others was called in question, and it suddenly appeared how this
assumption had galled the rest and rankled in their minds. That such a
discussion should arise may be disappointing, but it was natural. All
men are jealous of their reputation, and crave that credit be given them
for their natural talent, their acquired skill, their professional
standing, their influence, or at any rate for their humility.

Heated, then, and angry and full of resentment these men hustle into the
supper-room and seat themselves like so many sulky schoolboys. They
streamed into the room and doggedly took their places; and then came a
pause. For any one to wash the feet of the rest was to declare himself
the servant of all; and that was precisely what each one was resolved
he, for his part, would not do. No one of them had humour enough to see
the absurdity of the situation. No one of them was sensitive enough to
be ashamed of showing such a temper in Christ's presence. There they
sat, looking at the table, looking at the ceiling, arranging their
dress, each resolved upon this--that he would not be the man to own
himself servant of all.

But this unhealthy heat quite unfits them to listen to what their Lord
has to say to them that last evening. Occupied as they are, not with
anxiety about Him nor with absorbing desire for the prosperity of His
kingdom, but with selfish ambitions that separate them alike from Him
and from one another, how can they receive what He has to say? But how
is He to bring them into a state of mind in which they can listen wholly
and devotedly to Him? How is He to quench their heated passions and stir
within them humility and love? "He riseth from the