The necessity for ritual cleanliness finds a place in every religious tradition. Even today, mosques are built with fountains in their courtyards so that the faithful can wash before prayer. Jewish washing and kosher requirements are well known and Catholics bless themselves with holy water whenever they enter a church.

Within the context of Holy Week, we have a slight twist on the significance of washing. In the story of the Passion read on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the most obvious description of washing of hands is the action of Pilate washing his hands of guilt after handing Jesus over to be crucified. In fact, in the old Tridentine rite, where every action of the priest was described as symbolic of the story of the Passion, the washing of hands was described as symbolic of the washing of Pilate’s hands. Modern church historians and liturgists have disputed this analogy since the priest as ‘alter Christus’ cannot at the same time be ‘alter’ Pilate. Historians will add that the washing of hands came about in the early Church because, at the time of the preparation of the gifts, the priests would bless things, accept gifts (food, livestock, etc.) for the Church, etc. and so needed to wash up afterwards.

The continued practice during the preparation of the gifts, however, is not just a vestige of a practical liturgical action that was done in the early Church. The Church maintains the practice of the washing of hands as a sign of the ritual purity of the priest, and by extension, the priestly people who are celebrating the Eucharist, the sacrifice
of Thanksgiving and can be a reminder of the cleansing of sin at baptism. This meaning of the washing of hands is demonstrated by the words of the priest during the washing, “Lord, wash me of my iniquity, cleanse me of my sins.” It is actually a practice that goes back to the rituals of the Temple of Jerusalem where Jesus would have
witnessed the exposition of the ‘showbread’ every Passover of his life. The washing of the priests’ hands during Mass at the preparation of the gifts is the symbolic washing of everyone's hands, a symbolic washing of the iniquity and sins of all of God’s priestly people. This action is always connected with the preparation of the gifts.

These words are also an example of an Epiphany, a word meaning appearance or manifestation from the Greek words meaning "to shine upon". We ascribe the label "Epiphany" on the feast on which we remember the visit of the magi to the baby Jesus but there are actually many "epiphanies" in the Gospels, occasions in which it is being made manifest that Jesus is the Son of God. The Baptism of the Lord, the many miracles of Jesus, the events occurring around the death of Jesus and his resurrection and ascension are all epiphanies.

But what does John mean when he describes Jesus as the "Lamb of God"? Today, we see lambs as cute barnyard animals that we like to see in petting zoos. In Jesus’ agrarian/pastoral society, lambs represented food and shelter and sacrifice; their wool being used for clothing, blankets and tents and their flesh as food. Even their skins were used as parchment and for carrying water or wine. Lambs represented the wealth of a family or community and as such, were proper sacrificial offerings to God. The sacrificial Lamb of God was especially important during the time of Passover when thousands would be sacrificed at the Temple of Jerusalem for the seder meal, the blood sprinkled on the altar and smeared on the lintel of the door as a sign of the Covenant of the Jewish people with God. Jesus is singled out as the Lamb of God whose sacrifice will be a sign of the New Covenant for all who believe in his. In this New Covenant, we are identified as children of God, washed and signed in his blood and for whom he sacrificed himself on the cross. Like John the Baptist, Andrew and Peter, we point to Jesus as Messiah by the way in which we live our lives.