It’s just before the Passover, the feast that reminded Israel that their God is a God who
protects, who provides, who guides, who will go to battle for them. Jesus’
journey to the cross is quickly coming to its climax, and it fascinates me that
John leads into this account of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples by letting
us know that “many even among the leaders believed in
Jesus. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear
they would be thrown out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more
than praise from God.”
Passover’s almost here; Jesus knows that his time has
come. John leads us into this last meal by reminding us of “Jesus’ love for his own, how he loved them to the end.”
This is the emotional context of this last meal, coupled with the weight of
betrayal. With everything going on, Jesus sits with his disciples at the start
of the meal, knowing that “the Father had put all
things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.”
Jesus is confident in who he is as God’s son, confident in his Father’s plan.
When you know who you are in God, service, even the humblest and even
humiliating service doesn’t threaten your knowledge of who you are, or your
self-image, and so it is with Jesus. As John wrote earlier in his gospel, “the free are free to serve,” free from worrying about
what others think, free to do what needs to be done.
What happens next should never have happened. Jesus is at the table with his disciples and nobody has
bothered to wash their dirty stinky feet after walking all days in sandals in
the streets of Jerusalem, streets filled with garbage and animal waste. Their
feet were gross and smelled. There should have been a servant or slave assigned
to them. These would have been the lowest servants or slaves, or slaves who
were being punished by being given this nasty job. For some reason, likely
arranged by Jesus, there’s no one there to wash their feet and they’re all way
too proud to be humble enough wash their fellow disciples’ feet. I’m sure they would
have been willing to wash Jesus’ feet, but then the others would have expected
them to wash their feet too, so in their pride they would rather eat with the
stench of their feet filling the air.
Now, because Jesus knows who he is, because he loves
his disciples, he wants to give them a deep
lesson on what’s coming up, on who he is; a lesson on who they’re being called
to be as his disciples. So, Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of the universe,
gets up, takes off his outer clothing, wraps a towel
around his waist, pours water into a basin, and then kneels before the
first disciple and begins washing his feet. Imagine sitting at that table. You’ve
been willing to put up with the smell of your own dirty feet rather then wash
them; washing the feet of the other disciples is definitely below your dignity,
but now Jesus is washing your feet. The arguments that had been going on
between everyone about who was going to sit at Jesus’ right and left hands when
Jesus took power are still fresh in your memory and there’s a sour taste in
your mouth because Jesus didn’t choose you to sit right beside him when he
takes the throne, he actually told you all off about arguing about caring so
much about power and influence.
Now your rabbi, your leader, the one who raised
Lazarus from the dead, the one sent by
God, blessed by God with power to do amazing miracles, is on his knees, taking
your smelly feet in his hands and washing them. How embarrassed are you feeling
right now, is the shame making you squirm yet, is guilt flooding your heart and
mind? All this is going through the disciples’ minds, especially when Jesus
comes to Peter.
Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, are
you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replies,
“You don’t realize now what I am doing, but later you
will understand.” At this point we start understanding that there’s much
more going on here than Jesus washing feet, there is something deeply spiritual
happening here. There’s a patience here that strikes me. Jesus knows that Peter
is going to abandon him to the anger of the Pharisees in just a few hours, and
then later deny knowing Jesus three times to save his own skin. Jesus insists
that he has to wash Peter’s feet. This is going to stick deep into Peter’s
memory, he’ll always remember this moment and the significance of what’s going
on, even if he can’t understand it right now. Peter’s shame’s too great and he stubbornly
says, “No, you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus now goes deep, pointing past this moment to a
deeper spiritual truth, to the reality
that “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
We have the advantage of looking back to this moment and the events that are
still to come, knowing now that Jesus is pointing to the forgiveness of our
sin, to how his sacrifice on the cross is for the washing away of all our sin,
echoing back to other moments like when the friends brought their lame friend
to Jesus, lowering him through the roof so Jesus could heal him, but Jesus’
first act is to offer the young man forgiveness of his sin, healing his soul
before healing his body. Something clicks in Peter and he now goes to the other
extreme, “Then Lord, not just my feet but my hands and
head as well!” Jesus gently responds, “Those who
have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean, though
not everyone of you.” I wonder if Peter remembered these words after the
resurrection when he met Jesus on the beach where Jesus restored him, offering
him grace and forgiveness and a commission to serve. For those of you heading
out to Mexico to serve, remember who we serve; that Jesus has washed you clean
of your sin and he is calling you to serve with that same spirit of grace and
humility, offering hope as you serve, willing to do even the dirtiest tasks
that need to get done.
We often focus on Jesus’ interaction with Peter here, but there’s an even more difficult foot-washing that
happens. Jesus also washes Judas’ feet, knowing that Judas has already betrayed
him for 30 pieces of silver. Judas hears Jesus connecting washing their feet with
something deeper and spiritual. How difficult is it for Jesus to wash Peter’s
and Judas’ feet? Even though Peter and the other disciples desert Jesus, even
though Judas has betrayed him, Jesus still humbles himself and washes their
feet, a spiritual sign that Jesus is willing to wash your feet, no matter what
your past has been like, no matter how great your sin has been, or is, Jesus’
blood on the cross is able to wash away all our sin.
Yet there’s more going on here; remember that the disciples had been fighting about
who’s more important, so the second thing Jesus sticks in their face is that
leadership needs to come from a place of humility. He straight up
asks them if they understand what he just did, “Do you
understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and
rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I your Lord and Teacher, have
washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet. I have set you an
example that you should do as I have done for you.” Jesus doesn’t
command them to wash each other’s feet, this is leadership through example. One
of my favourite teachers on what leadership is, is Simon Sinek; he writes “leaders
eat last.” The idea is that leaders put those under them first, that they
have the ability to have the best first; leaders are responsible to their followers’
needs first. The more important you become, the more you are called to place
others first.
The disciples are still learning that following Jesus involves growing a character rooted in humility and
service; rooted in loving God above everything else, and then loving your neighbour
in practical daily ways. As a mission team, I encourage you to take time to not
just work on the house when you get to Mexico, but look for all those little
ways of serving that can bless someone else, maybe even someone else on your
team.
Mother Teresa said, “There are many people who can do
big things, but there are very few people who will do the small things,” Jesus points us to the importance of serving in the
small things that many don’t recognize or won’t do. As the creator of this
series wrote, “Perhaps
grabbing a towel is a much better symbol of Christian discipleship than we’ve
been willing to admit,”
serving out of thankfulness for Jesus washing our sins away.
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