Washing the feet

All through Jesus' three years of ministry the disciples would have private arguments amongst themselves about who was the greatest of them (Luke 9: 46 – 48 and 22: 24). Every time Jesus lovingly corrected them but on the night of the Passover meal, the day before his crucifixion, Jesus showed them that being great in the kingdom meant being the servant of all (Mark 9:35).  He did this by washing their feet.  We find this in John 13.

When one was invited to another’s home or went to visit, people would be clean but on the way their feet got dirty from the dusty roads. It was the job of the lowliest servant in the house to wash the visitors’ feet (Genesis 18:4 and 19:2).  When Jesus got up from the meal and started to wash the disciples’ feet it was shocking. You can imagine the protests from Peter and others and then the stunned silence as Jesus continued his task.  He was their teacher and Lord, not the one to wash their feet but Jesus was showing them the true meaning of servanthood.

Servanthood is not servitude but an honest desire to serve others and put their needs before your own. Paul teaches in Philippians 2: 4 each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. Too often we are self absorbed but we need to see how we can serve one another and do good to them.

Alan Vincent teaches one way we can do this.  He says that Jesus washing the disciples’ feet is a wonderful picture of the real relationships we need to have in the church. Our dirty feet are representative of the impurities of everyday life that like dirt on feet need to be washed away. Just as Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, he wants to wash us clean from the impurities of our lives by the washing of the Word. We must resist the temptation to be like Peter and refuse him or then to go completely over the top and think we are so bad that Jesus must wash us all over. We must let Jesus do this and he may use others. If someone comes with loving correction to our lives, let us be humble enough to receive it. Let us learn to give and receive this correction in true humility.