Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent and we will focus our reflection on John 13:1-17, The Foot-washer. This is our Mexico Mission trip commissioning service. We will reflect on what it looks like to be a servant; to be willing to humble ourselves, to place the needs of others first, making serving a part of our character, and a regular part of our life journey as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We will reflect on how washing feet is also an image of Jesus washing away our sins.
Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent and we will focus our reflection on John 13:1-17, The Foot-washer. This is our Mexico Mission trip commissioning service. We will reflect on what it looks like to be a servant; to be willing to humble ourselves, to place the needs of others first, making serving a part of our character, and a regular part of our life journey as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We will reflect on how washing feet is also an image of Jesus washing away our sins.
The Foot-washer
John 13:1-17
It’s just before the Passover, the feast that reminded Israel that their God is a God who protests, 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 is 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, along 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 already and nobody had 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 would normally 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 is 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 might 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, he loves his disciples, and he wants to give them a deep lesson on what’s coming up, on who he is, and a lesson on who they’re being called to be, 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 the table with the disciples. You’re 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. 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 when he takes the throne. Jesus 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, and blessed by God with power to do amazing miracles, gets down on his knees, ready to take your smelly feet in his hands and begins to wash 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, we see it especially as Jesus comes to Peter.
Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus tells Peter, “You don’t realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” At this point we start understanding that there is 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 later that evening is going to abandon him to the anger of the Pharisees, and then later deny knowing Jesus three times to save his own skin. Jesus insists that he has to wash Peter’s feet because this is going to stick deep into Peter’s memory, always remembering this moment and the significance of what’s going on, even if he can’t fully understand it right now. Peter’s shame is too great and he responds to Jesus, “No, you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus now goes deep, pointing past this moment to a deeper spiritual truth, pointing everyone 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, offering hope as you serve.
We often focus on Jesus’ interaction with Peter here, but there is an even more difficult foot-washing that happens. Jesus washes Judas’ feet as well, knowing that Judas has already betrayed him to the Jewish leaders for 30 pieces of silver. Judas would also have heard Jesus connecting washing their feet with something deeper and spiritual. How difficult was 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 our 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 is more to what’s 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 why he just did and why, “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 looks like 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, that leaders are responsible to their followers.
The disciples were still learning that following Jesus involved growing a different kind of character rooted in humility and service, rooted in loving God first above everything else and then loving neighbour in practical, normal, daily ways. As a mission trip 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 so many don’t look for. 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.”