There is a well known part in John, where Jesus, before the last meal, washes his disciples feet (John 13:1-17) and for as long as I can remember, it is one of the most often quoted passages to teach that we should serve.
But I think it goes deeper than just serving.
The first hint of this is right there in verse 1, “… now he longed to show them the full measure of his love…”
Jesus has been speaking into the disciples for the better part of three years now. They spent so much time together, witness of so many miracles that John says at the end of his book that if they were to describe everything Jesus did one by one, there wouldn’t be enough books in the world to contain it.
For three years, Jesus taught them, corrected them, loved them, cared for them.
So it is not surprising that Peter is the one that says “No!” I will not let the master wash my feet. I will not let my Lord come close to the dirtiest part of my body. (Sandals and feet feature a lot in the Old Testament cultures of the areas)
The thing that throws me off was what Jesus responds:
“… But Peter, if you don’t allow me to wash your feet,” Jesus responded, “then you will not be able to share life with me…”
(John 13:8)
Peter then goes completely the other way, and wants Jesus to wash his whole body… etc, etc…
But why? Why could Peter not share His life with Jesus, if Jesus did not wash his feet? This part never made sense to me… This is Peter, the guy that would deny Christ… Three times! But he couldn’t share eternal life with Jesus if He didn’t let Him wash his feet?
“Do you understand what I just did?” (v12) – Erm… no?! So I started looking, digging and asking God the Father to reveal to me the importance of that sentence.
“… You don’t understand yet the meaning of what I’m doing, but soon it will be clear to you…”
This is my conclusion:
Once I have accepted Jesus as my only Lord and Savior (have you considered recently what that means? My only Lord…?) I am His, I am considered clean, no matter how dirty I am.
But…
I walk in a broken world, a dirty world every day, and I get my feet covered in all kinds of mud, dust and crap. Every day. And if I don’t wash my feet, I quickly start to make my home dirty, and then tomorrow, I build on that dirt that was on my feet yesterday. And it starts to build up higher on my legs, and rubs of on every place I get to.
Then I do not only need to clean my feet and legs, but I also need to clean my house, my chairs and my bed.
(We wear shoes everywhere we go, so its no surprise that the impact of this metaphor is lost on us. But it is kinda obvious…)
If I do not allow Jesus to clean my feet… every… single… day… then the crap will build up and spread. I need to cleanse my thoughts of the day, the anger of the day, the frustrations of the day. Every part of my day. Because if I don’t, I will take it with me tomorrow, and build on it.
Its fine to walk through the muck, we need to be there. But we don’t need to wear it and make it our own. It really isn’t a protective layer of dirt, and making my home dirty with the grime of the world, the place where I am supposed to be the pastor, prophet and king, is not acceptable to Christ.
Let Jesus wash your feet…
