I’m always intrigued by the fact that John did not include any account of the Eucharist during the Last Supper. How could he miss it out?
The Eucharist was clearly central in the life of the church from the earliest days. We hear about it very specifically in Paul’s first letter to his church in Corinth. It’s spelt out in the early account of Justin Martyr (about AD150) where he explains to Roman pagans what the Christians do on Sunday (when there were all sorts of wild rumors flying around about human sacrifice and drinking blood, etc). By the time of Justin a structure of worship on Sunday had developed that is very like our mass today.
John certainly doesn’t ignore the Eucharist. He has a whole section when Jesus teaches how his followers must eat his body and drink his blood (Jn 6:53-58). However he puts it in a completely different place in his story, not long after Jesus starts his public ministry. For the Last Supper, the last meal Jesus had with his disciples, John thought it more important to show off Jesus’ dramatic act of service, the most menial service that would normally be done by the most menial of servants in a household (Jn 13:1-15).
In this way John tells us, as clearly as he possibly can, that, while it may be central to Christian life to meet and share in the Eucharist, the most fundamental thing that Jesus left with us was the example of service. And he expected us to follow him in that: “as I have done for you, you should also do”.
So yes we “proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” when we “eat this bread and drink the cup”, as Paul tells us (1 Cor 11:23-26). But without washing each other’s feet we have missed the point. And because we often do miss the point, in one way or another, Jesus came to wash away our failure and inadequacy. He turned us back into those perfect creatures that God created, in the garden of Eden and in our mothers’ wombs. More of the story of how he did that is coming up.