Dirty feet - a Maundy Thursday reflection

Dirty feet

John 13:1-17

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do this.

Walking in sandals on the roads of Israel in the first century was a dirty business making it imperative that feet be washed before a communal meal. People ate reclining at low tables, and feet were very much in evidence. It was the servant of a household's job to wash the feet of incoming guests.

The thing is there weren’t any servants present in the scene that we have just read   - only Jesus and His disciples.

So when He rose from the table and began to wash their feet, He was doing the work of the lowliest of servants. The disciples must have been stunned at this extraordinary act that Jesus, their Rabbi and Master, should be washing their filthy feet.

You see, washing feet was more properly their job, but none of them had thought to  volunteer to do it! A little earlier the discpiles had been busy arguing about who would be the greatest in the coming Kingdom and foot washing was certainly NOT on their agenda.

We now know that Jesus is the King of Kings, but those first disciples hadn’t really grasped that yet, although Peter knew instinctively that it wasn’t right that Jesus should be washing their feet, and, offended by the very suggestion replies “you shall never wash my feet.”

Friends, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, and our King honours smallness, humility, vulnerability, and weakness, above status, productivity, performance, wealth and pride that this world so reveres.

Jesus in Matthew 18:4 says, ‘whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven’.

In His Kingdom, the poor in spirit are rich, the weak are strong, the more we give, the more we receive. The last is the first. His is an upside down Kingdom.

We are also to love our enemies. Do good to those who hate us. Turn the other cheek.Go the extra mile. Forgive the one who has hurt us.

I read a story about a Chinese Christian who owned a rice paddy right next to one owned by his communist neighbour. In order to irrigate his rice paddy, the Christian pumped water out of a nearby canal by using one of those leg-operated water pumps that make the user appear to be seated and riding on a bicycle. And every day, after the Christian had pumped enough water to fill his field, the communist would come out and remove some boards that kept the water in the Christian’s field and let all the water flow down into his own field. That way, he didn’t have to work hard to pump water.

Well, this process continued day after day. Finally, the Christian prayed, “God, if this keeps up, I’m going to lose all my rice and maybe even my field. I’ve got a family to care for. What can I do?”

In answer to his request, God put a thought in his head. So, the next morning he rose in the predawn hours of darkness, and started pumping water into the field of his communist neighbor. Then he replaced the boards and pumped water into his own rice paddy. In a few weeks both fields of rice were doing well, and the communist, experiencing the sacrificial love of the upside down Kingdom of God, became a follower of Jesus.

There are two ways to handle a situation like this one. One way is to become angry, offended and take measures into our own resentful, spiteful hands. The other way is to become a servant, and go low. It’s how to take wrong things and make them right.

And then, here in the upper room in Jerusalem, the upside down Kingdom, again - whoever leads, must serve and of course, whoever wants to truly live, must die.

The prophet Isaiah, years and years before this little scene in Jerusalem, foretold the cleansing power of Jesus,

Isaiah 1:18 says ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”

Jesus’ disciples, acquainted with the ancient scriptures, may have seen this foot washing as symbolic of His cleansing power. Indeed, Peter, with some understanding, says, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!’. In other words, wash the whole of me.

So when Jesus says, ‘you should do as I have done for you’, did He mean that we should literally wash one another’s feet? That is actually sometimes a bit gimmicky, though it can also be a beautiful thing. I don’t think that this is about nice soap, warm water and fluffy white towels.

Let me remind you ..‘The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you ARE clean, but not every one of you.” By those last few words, He meant Judas.

Not Peter who would later betray Him by denying that he even knew Jesus. Not the other disciples who would let him down by falling asleep and then abandoning him, when He really could have done with a friend, leaving Him alone in His greatest hour of need,

No, they are completely clean. Except for their feet. And we all pick up a little dust on our feet from time to time, and dirty feet leave smudges wherever they tread - a dusty trail of resentment, disappointment, irritation, judgement, offense often mark our paths.

Jesus here, I believe, asks that we kneel, metaphorically, and take in our hands the dirty feet of those who have hurt us, let us down, broken sacred promises and offer these ones mercy and the cleansing power of forgiveness in the same way that He Himself did that night, knowing what was ahead.

‘I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you’.

Interestingly, He also says in verse seven, that they won’t understand the significance of the foot washing until later -  later - after denial, betrayal, abandonment.