The Washing of Feet: John 13:1-15

Have you ever had someone wash your feet? I'm not sure you can fully enter into the emotion of the scene in John 13:1-15 if you have not. Recently we were discussing this scene at our care group. One of our young women commented on what it would have been like to be sitting above our Lord as he humbled himself in the position of a slave or servant to wash our dirty feet while looking up into our eyes. Could we bear such a moment?

Eight years ago as we prepared to take our youth group to Brazil I had to sit above one of the young men who had diligently served me in this project for two years. He asked to wash my feet and the emotion I felt towards him at that moment made me understand why Peter would blurt out, "Lord, you shall never wash my feet." It was deeply humbling. As tears flooded my eyes, it was actually painful having someone I cared so much about take a position of humility below me and look into my eyes.

Jesus then wraps his garment around him and sits back at the table. Were the disciples dumbfounded, in shock, having watched Jesus lovingly touch each disciple? Were they were confused? Did their hearts burn with love?

He says to them, "If I then, your Lord, and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." This act of great humility Jesus meant as a teaching tool, to be followed by his atoning sacrifice on the cross.

We are to take up our cross and follow him daily. But what about washing one another's feet or, perhaps more applicable, serving one another with the humility of Philippians 2, putting ourselves beneath the concerns of another brother or sister in Christ?

I think this example is one we all embrace in our "one anothering," yet do we remember that Judas was also one whom Jesus knelt before, perhaps looked into his face and washed his dirty feet knowing full well his dirty heart. That reality causes my heart to cry out along with John, "Behold, what kind of love is this?"

It is a self denying love, a hard love to live up to, a love that we desperately need to have infused into our hearts from our Father. It is the love that resided in Jesus as he set His face toward Jerusalem. This Lenten season, ponder this love, setting our affections upon the Lover, by grace getting beneath our brothers and sisters, taking advantage of opportunities to serve. Perhaps in the process we will be blessed to see them with the eyes of Jesus and cultivate a deeper love for one another.

Holding a feeble hand of a weak brother, encouraging the faint heart of a sister, admonishing a rebel soul back towards repentance to their loving Savior, will all result in new affections in our hearts towards one another and a greater appreciation for our Teacher who led us by His humble example as seen in John 13:1-15.

by Pat Bowditch