Day Twenty Five: Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
Servanthood is among the great markers of the Christian life. The deeper one travails with Christ, the more profound their sense of service runs. The true Christian delights in serving others, for they know that as they serve others, they are serving Christ (Matthew 25:40). What greater joy could a Christian experience than tending to the Savior himself?
But the depth of our servanthood runs deeper still. As we serve others, and as we take the lowest role, the most unwanted positions, and fulfill the least enjoyable tasks, we are behaving like Christ himself. In a sense, it is in our greatest service to others that we most identify with our Savior.
On the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus performed an act of service that would not easily be forgotten by his disciples: He washed their feet. In the days of Christ, men typically wore open-toed sandals. So, at the end of the day, one’s feet were particularly dirty from the day’s travels. What’s more, because of the presence of many animals and the lack of systems for cleaning up waste alongside paths and roads, the role of cleaning feet was particularly unsanitary.
According to the norms of their day, touching another person’s feet was work only suitable for Gentile slaves. There was a particular aspect of shame associated with being responsible for cleaning another person’s feet. It was the lowest a person could go. It is there where we find Jesus.
While there are numerous examples of the shame associated with washing feet in Jesus’ day, there are no other examples in all of ancient literature of foot washing performed by a leader. Jesus is the first leader in all history to dare serve his followers in this way.
Peter is so shocked by the audacity of Jesus that he initially cries out, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” In a culture like Peter’s that was built on particular codes of honor and shame, Peter did not have a category to describe how unsettling it must have felt to have the man whom he believed to be the messiah dare to lower himself in such a way.
Peter was yet to learn the lesson of the moment: Jesus was not just washing the dirt from the feet of his disciples, but he was teaching them a new way of life. He was bathing them in a new perspective of humble sacrificial love and service towards others.
When Christ completed this act of love, he said, “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 also should do just as I have done to you (John 13:14-15).”
During Lent, we must pause and ask ourselves whether we are truly following in the footsteps of our Savior. Christ’s love was sacrificial, and so ought our love be. Christ did not just use washing feet as a symbol or an illustration of the kind of love we ought to exhibit. He commanded that we do likewise.
There is a hidden joy in following Christ downwards. It runs contrary to the fast-paced hunger for the top so often exhibited by our secular age. May we remember the example set by Christ.
But the depth of our servanthood runs deeper still. As we serve others, and as we take the lowest role, the most unwanted positions, and fulfill the least enjoyable tasks, we are behaving like Christ himself. In a sense, it is in our greatest service to others that we most identify with our Savior.
On the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus performed an act of service that would not easily be forgotten by his disciples: He washed their feet. In the days of Christ, men typically wore open-toed sandals. So, at the end of the day, one’s feet were particularly dirty from the day’s travels. What’s more, because of the presence of many animals and the lack of systems for cleaning up waste alongside paths and roads, the role of cleaning feet was particularly unsanitary.
According to the norms of their day, touching another person’s feet was work only suitable for Gentile slaves. There was a particular aspect of shame associated with being responsible for cleaning another person’s feet. It was the lowest a person could go. It is there where we find Jesus.
While there are numerous examples of the shame associated with washing feet in Jesus’ day, there are no other examples in all of ancient literature of foot washing performed by a leader. Jesus is the first leader in all history to dare serve his followers in this way.
Peter is so shocked by the audacity of Jesus that he initially cries out, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” In a culture like Peter’s that was built on particular codes of honor and shame, Peter did not have a category to describe how unsettling it must have felt to have the man whom he believed to be the messiah dare to lower himself in such a way.
Peter was yet to learn the lesson of the moment: Jesus was not just washing the dirt from the feet of his disciples, but he was teaching them a new way of life. He was bathing them in a new perspective of humble sacrificial love and service towards others.
When Christ completed this act of love, he said, “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 also should do just as I have done to you (John 13:14-15).”
During Lent, we must pause and ask ourselves whether we are truly following in the footsteps of our Savior. Christ’s love was sacrificial, and so ought our love be. Christ did not just use washing feet as a symbol or an illustration of the kind of love we ought to exhibit. He commanded that we do likewise.
There is a hidden joy in following Christ downwards. It runs contrary to the fast-paced hunger for the top so often exhibited by our secular age. May we remember the example set by Christ.
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