WRITTEN BY MICHELE HANSEN
Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
John 13:1 (NIV)
People who have walked with the Lord for any amount of time, have run across this passage of scripture and heard sermons, devotions, teachings, podcasts, blogs and all manner of other things that speak of this teaching of the washing of the disciples feet.
This tenant of Christ might rub up against those well-hidden and camouflaged places of pride that inhabits all of us.
In Mark 10:40 and Matthew 20:23 it tells of a time just prior to this foot washing account where the disciples were asking to have seats of prominence in heaven after Jesus had just told them, again, that soon He was going to be killed. They kept missing the point.
Chapter 13 of John tells the account of when Jesus was trying to make that point by washing His disciples feet.
It was the love of Christ for His disciples that prompted Him to do a very uncomfortable, possibly degrading act that would challenge His disciples to see their role in the kingdom of God from the perspective of a humble servant.
Verses 2-5 give express details of what Jesus did in that act of foot washing. Judas Iscariot was not there because he was betraying Jesus at the very moment Jesus was washing the remaining disciples feet.
Peter, being Peter, had to make a show of humility when he refused to let Jesus wash his feet. Peter may have had the opinion that because it was a menial task, Jesus must not do it, and neither should he. Peter then takes it further by saying that Jesus should then wash his hands and head, too.
I am in awe of the way Jesus always handled His interactions with His disciples. This was a situation where the Lord graciously explained to Peter that he didn’t know what Jesus was doing at that moment, but at some point, he would. Just like he told Peter that he would deny Him, to which Peter stood valiantly and arrogantly denying such a thing would ever occur. We know how that turned out.
Jesus says to Peter and to us, “I (Jesus) have made you clean, you only need to have your soles (souls) cleaned.”
In verse 10 Jesus says the disciples are clean, though not all of them. He made the distinction, I believe, between those that are saved and those not saved.
Listen to the heart and teaching of Jesus after He was finished…
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.(NIV)
In this verse we see that Jesus gave up none of His deity. He stated plainly that if He truly is the Author and Creator, Lord and God and He washed their feet as an act of grace, mercy and service, the disciples would be in direct disobedience if they thought they were above such acts of humility.
Christ’s humility and love for His disciples and for all of us, transcends logic, propriety, worldly status and normal human behavior. His challenge to them, and to us, takes us so far out of our comfort zones sometimes that we might as well be in another galaxy as far as standing out from the crowd is concerned.
We willingly place ourselves at the feet of Jesus, but how willing are we to submit ourselves to “washing the feet” of our fellow man, let alone those we struggle with? Again, I am asking myself this very thing and admit that I really struggle with it.
What’s amazing about our Lord Jesus Christ not only spilling blood for salvation, but in an act of pure humility He put Himself in a place of lowly servant, the God of the universe condescends to the created in an act of pure sacrifice and grace far beyond the act of washing our feet.
As we take time this year to be still at the feet of Jesus, let us always remember that He was at ours first.
