12/28/2021
We sit before Jesus listening as He teaches, and we speak of being humble, but when He kneels before us, do we let Him wash our feet? Do we share in this moment of His humility, service, and love? Can we even allow Him to kneel before us? Can we begin to feel what He is feeling at that moment, when one at a time He takes each of our feet into His hand and ladles water over it with His other? Do we feel ashamed as He rubs the filth from us, and is that shame because we are allowing Him to serve us in a manner that we feel is demeaning to Him, or because we have looked upon so many others as being less when they were serving us? This one act of foot washing teaches us truths at so many levels.
“Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.””
John 13:8 ESV
In our modern society we believe that we have done away with the cast system, slavery, and all the other vestiges of a time when people had definite roles in life, and were not meant to rise above them; where they had been born to serve, or to be served. Yet, when we really look about us we find that those ancient ideas have actually survived, and remain with us today. We may have done away with the old systems, but the mindset is still thriving, and new less obvious manifestations have surfaced. We read the scripture that tells us that the least will be first but do we actually believe that, and live it out?
“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Matthew 19:30 ESV
Here is a modern, and everyday, example of the subtle existence of what was very pronounced during the times of kings, and slaves…
I work in a large office building that has cleaning crews to clean it, guards at the entrances, maintenance people to fix the things that break, administrative assistants, interns, junior workers, workers, senior workers, consulting workers, managers, directors, Assistant Vice Presidents, Vice President, Presidents, and a whole raft of Chief Officers of this or that, and then board members. All of them together are participating in a corporate cast system by title, and unfortunately, by attitude. All of these ranging from the lowliest servant to the most powerful Chairman, or Stock Holder. This is the physical structure, as it exists in many forms throughout modern society, and provides a framework that allows us to function efficiently. However, beneath these roles and titles something sinister lurks… pride, and sometimes abuse, or cruelty.
I am an observer by nature, and see things that many do not. One thing I see very clearly is the human story beneath these various titles and job structures. When I come into work in the morning I watch everyone walking in groups, talking with one another as they go through the turnstiles, or checkpoints, and I see the guards watching on. Most totally ignore the guards, and in truth, they probably don’t even see them standing there. This goes on time and time again as various classes of workers go to their desks, or work places, ignoring those who they feel are beneath them until at last you reach the top floor where the real rulers are housed, and they recognize the human existence of very few equals. The tragedy isn’t in the organization, it is in losing touch with the human value of ourselves, and of others. The tragedy is in believing that we are better, or less, than another. Then on Sunday churches receive these same souls, and they bring these same damaged worldly attitudes, and wounds, into the pews, but is living this way what it means to be Christian?
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Galatians 3:28-29 ESV
When I came to realize what was happening in the world of business, government, and society, at the basic human level, and I saw how we had become so divided… one group feeling better than the next, and ignoring the equality and worth of others; I decided to live out my life by symbolically washing the feet of those around me… whether society viewed them as greater, or lesser. I started by doing a very simple thing… asking others their name; recognizing the invisible people around me, not by just looking at them, but by knowing their names, having real conversations with them, and accepting all people as my equals, and brothers and sisters in Christ. I started washing feet. I want to be Jesus, and not a Peter who was locked into what the world dictated as appropriate.
“But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
Galatians 3:25-26 ESV
Today let’s all begin to wash each other’s feet. It might seem uncomfortable at first because we have been subtly taught since birth to see, or not see those around us, and as we climb the social or corporate ladders, these lessons are forcefully reinforced through peer pressure as we are taught that those who we once saw are now supposed to be invisible to us. The real questions that show us how we should live in faith, and the nature of our righteousness, are like these… how many names do we know? Can we see those who serve us in the most demeaning jobs, and ways? Can we have real conversations with those that feel they are less, and who are uncomfortable even talking with us? Are we washing feet, and allowing others to wash ours? Are we able to see ourselves as the least when the world wants to see us as much more? Only when we can answer these questions as Jesus would have, will we be able to wash His feet as we should. Jesus said follow me, but at the end of the day He had the same dirt on His feet as any of His disciples, and He loved them all.
“and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.”
Luke 7:38 ESV
Who washes our feet, and whose do we wash with water… living water… or our tears?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus who washes our feet, and tells us to do the same for each other. Thank you Lord for all those who now see us, and who we can now see. Thank you for leading us to kneel before the least of your children, and for teaching us how to pour living water over their feet. Help us to accept the humility, and servitude of those of position who humble themselves by cleansing ours. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who not only sent your Son to redeem us with His very life, but to kneel and wash our feet. Praised be your name for every foot we are presented with, and for the love, and humility, you have taught us to show as we wash it. Merciful are you who loved us while we were yet sinners, and sent Jesus to cleanse us of every speck of dust… that is our sin. Your grace is sufficient for us as Jesus pours it out on us like oil, and an ointment that heals us. Hear our prayers Father, and forgive us. Find us worthy when we stand before you in judgement… washed in the blood of Christ, our thirst quenched by living water. Seat us at your table and call us your children, and by name.
Rich Forbes