After a busy four-day Easter weekend, it is natural to pause and reflect on the events just experienced as well as the basis for them, the meanings behind all the celebrations. Most Christian churches observe baptism in some form, and many observe the Lord's Supper or Communion in some way. But relatively few observe the ordinance of feet-washing. For a lot of honest, sincere Christians believe the ceremonial washing of feet is an outdated and unnecessary ritual that has little if any significance in modern church life.
In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. I had my associate pastor deliver some remarks on the Lord's Supper section of the special Maundy Thursday service, then I gave some of my thoughts on why I believe the washing of feet is still an integral part of the spiritual life of the individual and fellowship of believers, and what the ordinance means. These were extemporaneous remarks, but I want to put them down in a more permanent form, in order to share them with you, the reader, as well as preserve them for posterity.
Why should we observe feet-washing as an ordinance of Jesus? Well, first of all if we are indeed Christians, a name that itself means "Christ-like," we should want to be like Christ, to follow His pattern and the examples He gave. He took the time to bow down in a humble way and wash the feet of His disciples, arguably the dirtiest part of their bodies. That God in the flesh, the Creator, the Master of all would, in the eyes of some, degrade and humiliate Himself in this fashion is almost unbelievable. Jesus Himself said that if we were to do this, we would be blessed or, in a better translation, happy.
Where is the extra symbolism? Well, just think for a moment. In the ancient world, the dirtiest part of a person would (arguably) be the feet. Walking in most places, with sandals, over dirt roads, one would not be able to help but have dirty feet. It's one thing to wash your own hands or face when they're dirty, because they rarely get "filthy." But the feet, especially then, would be encrusted with layers of dirt after not a very long time. Jesus chose to wrap Himself with a towel after dinner and voluntarily wash the dirtiest part of His disciples, a part that would, in theory, need lots of scrubbing to get clean.
Now we notice something interesting. Peter, the bombastic disciple, watched Jesus bowing down and washing the feet of his colleagues, horrified that the Master would lower Himself to this level. When Jesus comes to him, Peter says, "Jesus, there's no way You're touching my feet." Was it personal pride? Was it out of concern for protecting the dignity of this great Man? Was it because he felt unworthy? Doesn't really matter, because in the final analysis, he was going against the wishes of Jesus; ergo, disobedience was creeping in. Jesus looks at Peter and says, "If I don't wash your feet, then you have no part with Me."
This sobered Peter up in a hurry. He changes his tune by saying, "In that case, don't stop at the feet! Wash my hands and my head as well!" In other words, Peter was willing to undergo a head-to-toe dunking and scrubbing if it meant he could remain in that special spiritual relationship with Jesus. But Jesus told him that it wasn't necessary, that if Peter's feet were washed by Jesus, then he would be clean all over.
What would this mean? Again, the symbolism comes into play and, in my opinion, shows us in a very compelling way that we should still observe this wonderful ordinance. In Jesus' day the feet were the dirtiest part of the body, essentially picking up all the dirt of the world. By washing the dirtiest part, the person was, in effect, clean. The disciples were believers, as strong in faith as just about anyone (at that point in the story, at least), yet their feet were still dirty. This illustrates that we, even if we're strong believers, can pick up the dirt of this world just by walking through it. Even the best of us need cleansed because we just pick up things in our life that don't need to be there: things we see and hear, things we do when we're weak. It's important that we realize that all of us, no matter who we are or how close to God we are, all need to be cleansed from time to time.
The washing of one another's feet humbles us by showing that we are no better than anyone else, and no one else is better than us. Jesus did it, and so surely we can. But the symbolic washing of feet allows us to contemplate the dust of this world that covers even the most holy of us. No matter how hard we try, we get dirt on our feet, because they're almost always touching the ground. And I can think of no better way to recognize our need for spiritual cleansing than by kneeling at the feet of another and washing them, or having someone wash ours. Just as Jesus washed His disciples' feet, we can have a deeply and spiritually-strengthening experience if we will do the same.
I could go on and on, but trust me when I say that you'll seldom find anything as humbling and gratifying than washing someone's feet. And as long as you're at it, don't forget the toes!
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