We’re Clean John 13:1-15
Today we see Jesus just hours before his arrest. He’s in a room with his disciples about to eat the Passover meal, and he does something surprising, shocking, and upsetting to his disciples; he got a towel and a basin of water and started to wash their feet.
The custom was that before you celebrated the Passover meal, you washed. You washed from head to toe so you were clean. But as you went to your host’s home, you walked. And as you were wearing sandals, your feet became covered in dust and dirt. When you arrived at your host’s, he was to provide water and a servant to wash your feet. It wasn’t any servant because this job was considered the lowest of the low. In fact, it was deemed below the Jewish servants, so it was performed by the house’s lowest Gentile servant.
Even now Jesus is teaching his disciples and us by his actions, but what can dirty feet and a clean face teach us? Ezekiel 36:25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities, and from your idols.” Hebrews 9:14, “How much more will the blood of Christ…cleanse our conscience from dead acts to serve the living God!”
When we accept Christ as our savior, we are washed clean, our souls no longer carry the dirt of sin. However, being fallible humans, we still do things that go against God. Our feet become dirty.
Verse 8, “’No,’ said Peter, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’” Traditionally we’re told Peter reacts this way because he knows Jesus is the Messiah, and as he’s taught in society, Jesus’ position is way above this washing. Peter missed the lesson that Jesus is demonstrating; that as his follower no one is beneath us; as his follower, no action or task is beneath us, especially if it helps others, and shows their need for Christ. This scene shows us we must put aside our societal norms and traditions and do God’s work with everyone.
I am not trying to be political, but this is something I have been struggling with a lot lately. Our society today seems to be vilifying many foreigners coming into our country. As a Christian should I go along with it or should I look to God to try to understand why he may be leading them here.
As a Christian I understand that God says getting angry with someone is judged the same as murder. Do I think that to a God that sets such a high standard, he sees a difference between people being persecuted, or living in poverty, coming by plane, walking across a bridge, or across the desert. As an American, I have my opinions about border security. As a Christian, I must work at not letting that interfere with my work, my love, my empathy toward another of God’s children.
I am not trying to tell you how to think about this, I just have been working through this as well as other things lately.
Let’s go back to verse 8, “Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’” Have any of you been to a foot washing ceremony? I have, it’s very humbling. We all think how Jesus, or anyone, must humble themselves to wash someone else’s feet. And as I thought of this I remembered the video from Easter of Pope Francis washing the feet of women in prison, and how the women said it was hard to let him wash them. How at ease would you be if I walked out with water and wanted to wash your feet? I think Peter was embarrassed and unable to humble himself enough to let Jesus wash him.
Peter thought Jesus was above this. There are people who think God is so above them that they are afraid to come before him. How many in the world turn away from Jesus because they don’t think they need him? “I do OK, I live as best as I can, I don’t do anything that bad.” We’ve all heard of the seven deadly sins; pride is one of them. It is our pride that keeps us from coming to Jesus, but it also our greed, our lust, our envy. It’s anything in our life that we value so much we’re afraid Jesus will tell us to leave it behind. One of the hardest things to do is to humble ourselves, but Peter shows us that is exactly what we need to do before Jesus. And when we humble ourselves before Jesus, he will humble himself enough to work in our lives.
The next teaching to see is in verse 10, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet, their whole body is clean…”
We can be made to believe that we have to continuously ask for forgiveness for the same thing. “God, forgive me for what I did when I was twenty. God, remember that time when I was twenty, please forgive me. God, when I was twenty, I sinned, can you forgive me?” Jesus says our body is clean. To continuously ask for forgiveness means we don’t trust God and his grace.
But Jesus says we need to wash our feet. Along with everyone else, I still sin. We must look down at our feet and recognize our mistakes. Now we may not see all our sin, and yes, God has already forgiven them, but as a follower of Jesus we must be cognizant of the fact we make mistakes, and we need to ask Jesus to help us avoid them in the future.
Verse 16, “…no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” God sends us out into the world to work for his kingdom. And there are those who will say, “I’m not going to the refugee camp; I don’t want them here. I’m not giving to the pregnancy support group, some of those women had an abortion.” If Jesus, the creator of the universe, lowered himself to do the absolute lowest job in that society, how can I say I won’t do something?
Here is an example of Jesus teaching us not just with words, but by example; Jesus did a job no other Jew would do, and he did it without care as to what others would think of him. We must work for God and not worry about what others may think. So how can we as Christians help a Muslim, love the woman who had an abortion, befriend the LGBTQ, give aid to the refugee who risked his life to get here? We do these things because our Lord tells us to.
As with most of the scriptures we are looking at in John, there is much more in these verses to see than just what we discussed today, but for now, let’s just review what we’re told today.
Accept Christ and you are clean, and you always remain so. But even so, we keep doing things against God. We keep dirtying our feet. Be aware that you do this even if you’re not sure of the specifics of your sin and ask Jesus to help you avoid sin in your life. Ask him to wash your feet.
We must be humble before God and accept we are sinners and that we need Jesus and the cross. We must be humble before men. We must put aside our pride, envy, and fear, and do what is necessary to help someone.
And to emulate the example of Jesus, stop worrying about what others will think about your actions. Stop worrying about what others think about you. Stop worrying if others think that by your actions you are not living your faith. If your heart is for Jesus, and your motivation is God and for the lifting of his people, you are.
And I believe this to be truth; our inaction is not living our faith.
God bless you,
Amen.