This is a post I wrote at the beginning of last month, and this is the first time I’ve had enough wifi to post it!
All the girls on my squad are staying in Swaziland this month. We just arrived here and Easter is just around the corner. A group of girls got together and organized something for us to do on the night of April 2nd, Holy Thursday, which is the day Jesus had the Passover meal with his disciples the night he was betrayed. On that night, it’s recorded in John 13:1-17 when Jesus washes His disciple’s feet. Many often depict this action as one of selfless love; Jesus was their teacher and friend, and he lowered himself to such a place of humility to clean his disciple’s feet. However, when we read this verse out on top of a mountain in Swaziland in southern Africa, I felt unsettled at this being the only “symbolism” of the well known “washing of feet.” I asked Holy Spirit to teach me what it all meant and if there is more to it than just that one act of cleaning his disciple’s feet and instructing them to do the same for each other. I started thinking about how much I detest feet—they’re gross because they’re never clean! I felt the Holy Spirit working through my thoughts as I heard in my thoughts again, “they’re never clean!”
He started teaching me the deeper symbolism, and I began to envision the night Jesus washed his disciple’s feet. Slowly I began to understand the “why” of it all, when I asked, “Why feet?”
Feet are never clean; you can wash your entire body in the shower, but as soon as you step out of the shower, your feet are dirty again. In the same way, you can be “a really good person,” but there’s a part of you still connected to the world. You may have a kind, gentle soul, but your feet still touch the earth. When Jesus cleaned his disciple’s feet, he wiped off the grime onto himself, cleansing them fully from their worldliness. If we are too proud to allow Jesus, the Son of God, to clean our feet and wipe away the filth that comes with being connected to this world, we will never be fully clean.
He then told his disciples, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:14-15)” In the same way, we are to humble ourselves in love for one another to bend down and help each other clean off the grime from each others’ feet. If you see a brother or sister covered in worldliness, Jesus calls us to humble ourselves and help each other remove it.
Have you set apart your pride to let the Savior of the world bend down and clean your feet?
When was the last time you allowed someone to clean the dirt off your own feet?
Or were you too prideful to let them help clean the world off you?
When was the last time you humbled yourself in love to help a brother or sister dealing with worldliness?
“I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (John 13:16)”
Let me help get some of the dirt off your feet and let you know that if you think you’re too good to get down and clean someone’s feet by pointing out what attaches them to this world, you’re calling yourself better than Jesus.
