Thou Shalt Never Wash My Feet

You will wash anyone's feet before you let Jesus wash yours.

You will take the shift, carry the weight, stay on the phone until two in the morning with someone else's crisis. You know how to give. You know how to be useful. And somewhere in all that giving, being the one holding the towel began to feel safer than being the one sitting in front of the basin.

Nobody looks closely at the person doing the washing.

John 13 begins by telling us something about Jesus before He ever touches the basin: “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”

This scene begins with love.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew the cross was near. He knew what Judas had already set in motion. John tells us that Jesus knew “that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God.”

Then those hands reached for a towel.

Jesus rose from supper, laid aside His garments, poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet.

When He came to Peter, Peter recoiled.

“Lord, dost thou wash my feet?”

Peter had left his nets to follow Jesus. He had watched Him heal the sick, command storms and speak with authority unlike anything he had ever known. Now that same Lord was kneeling in front of him with a basin.

Peter said, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.”

It sounds almost honorable. Peter knew which one of them was Master. If anyone should have been kneeling, surely it was him.

But Jesus answered, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”

Peter was telling Jesus there was a form His grace was not allowed to take.

He could follow a Lord who commanded the sea. He could listen to a Lord who taught the multitudes. But a Lord who knelt close enough to wash the road from his feet was harder to receive.

Because there is nothing impressive to do from where you sit.

When you are holding the towel, your hands are occupied. You are helping. Giving. Doing something useful.

When Christ kneels before you, all you can do is let Him.

Peter immediately swung in the other direction. “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

He moved from refusing the basin to trying to climb into it.

Jesus answered him, “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”

Peter did not need to be made Christ's all over again. He belonged to Him. But even those who belong to Christ still walk dusty roads.

The feet still get dirty.

You can love God and still need His cleansing. You can follow Him sincerely and still pick up things along the way that should not remain on you. The answer is not to pretend the road left nothing behind.

It is to let Christ wash your feet.

Peter did not get to dictate whether Jesus washed him, and he did not get to dictate how much washing Jesus said he needed. He simply had to receive what the Lord was giving.

That is why He brought the water.

You are not surprising Him by needing to be washed.

Judas was still in the room.

Jesus had already said, “And ye are clean, but not all.” John explains why: “For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.”

Jesus knew exactly what Judas would do. He knew betrayal was already moving toward Him, yet He took the towel while Judas still sat among the disciples.

That does not make betrayal small.

It makes Christ's love startling.

He did not kneel because everyone around that table had become worthy of His service. He knelt knowing exactly who was there.

After He had washed their feet and taken His garments again, Jesus said, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.”

Then He continued, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”

He did not become less Lord when He knelt.

He showed them what their Lord was like.

And only after they had received the towel did He place it in their hands.

Received grace comes before reflected grace.

The person who remembers Christ kneeling before his own dirty feet has less reason to recoil from the dirt on someone else's. Mercy changes the way you look at people when you remember how close mercy was willing to come to you.

But Peter had to receive it first.

So do you.

Peter's feet were dirty because he had been walking. Yours may be too.

The towel was already in Christ's hands before Peter admitted he needed it.

Let Him come close enough to use it.

Prayer

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Scripture, reflection, and one thing to carry with you.