Today we celebrate Palm Sunday, the beginning of Passover week. If ever there was a time of the year to truly reflect on the depths of love God has shown us, it is this week. Although the fact that Jesus gave up His life for me is always at the forefront of my consciousness, this week it is especially vivid.
Today, I will be looking at the beautiful illustration of Jesus washing His disciples' feet. The text I will be referring to is from John 13, starting with verse 4.
4 so he (Jesus) got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
In the culture of that time, only the lowest of the low had the job of washing people's feet. The major mode of travel was to walk. Imagine walking around barefooted (or if you were lucky, in sandals) in a dry, dusty climate. I'm fairly certain that there was no abundance of pedicure shops in that day and time, so we are talking nasty, dirty feet. Now imagine being one of the disciples: you are serving and walking with God himself, in the flesh. You've seen him heal the sick, raise people from the dead, walk on water, and cast out demons. And he wants to wash your feet. I can empathize with Peter who in verse 8 says, 'No, you shall never wash my feet.' But the master of the universe insisted. Kind of hard to argue with the creator of the stars. He proceeds to wash each ones feet, and in the Bible, it says he washed ALL of their feet.
Here's the utter beauty of this passage. As with all of the Bible, there are so many lessons to be learned in this one short story, but I will condense it down to what hit me the hardest. First, Judas Iscariot was still one of the disciples. He was there at the feast. Jesus KNEW who was going to betray Him. He KNEW the kind of death He was about to endure. But the Bible doesn't say He skipped over the one who was going to betray Him. He washed them all. What depths of love that shows!! I think I'd have a hard time washing the feet of the one who was about to turn me over to be killed. When Jesus said love your enemies, He meant it. And LIVED it.
The other lesson I got from this was a lesson in complete humility. No one is higher or better than anyone else. The Lord of all creation did the work of a slave. Again, a hard lesson to put into practice. How many times at work do we think, 'I'm not doing that, it's not my job.' How many of us would take in a dirty, ragged homeless person off the street and bathe them? How many times does someone hurt your feelings, and you lash out at them? But Jesus calls us to put everyone else first. Everyone. Not just the people you like, not just your friends, not just your family....EVERYONE. Wow. Even if that person is about to have you killed, show them the ultimate love, serving them.
In closing: These things that Jesus did, and commanded us to do, seem impossible. And in truth, they are. But only if you are trying to do them on your own. It takes the power and love you get from the Holy Spirit to reach these depths of love. To humble yourself, and submit when everything in you cries out that it's not fair, is a task you cannot complete without total surrender to the one who has already done these things.
Amy Edwards
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