David Bahn – Reflections

John 13:12-17

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? ¹³  You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on the night he was betrayed. He took the Passover meal and turned it into a new celebration of the New Covenant in his blood. He went from that celebration to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, and was betrayed and arrested there, and taken to Caiaphas’ house. He would go from there to Pilate’s praetorium, on to Golgotha where he would be crucified, and from there to a borrowed grave where he would lay for three days until Sunday morning and his victorious resurrection.

But before these things happened, on the night these things would unfold, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. He also told them that his action was an example for them to follow. In fact Jesus said that we are blessed if we do as he did, serving one another in humility and obedience.

Some churches practice foot washing – a literal obedience to Jesus’ command. Another approach, however, – and one that has much merit – is to practice acts of humble service toward one another within the body of Christ. Foot washing in Jesus’ day was the work of a servant and at least somewhat common not as a religious practice. Today a better example would be to polish someone’s shoes, to provide a shoulder and neck massage or some similar act of genuine benefit.

So if you want a modern day example, you would go to your boss’ house and he ushered you to a bank of shoe-shine chairs, invited you to step up, took out the necessary supplies and proceeded to polish your shoes! Many of us would worry: “What’s he up to now? Am I being set up?”

So how about the church that sends out their members to wash public rest rooms? What of those who regularly go and feed the poor in the community? If those jobs are reserved for only the most zealous social gospel proponents, we have lost Jesus’ command. If, indeed, we are blessed if we actually do the things Jesus’ commands, then we must look for opportunities to take the servant’s towel and serve one another. Where is your servant’s towel hanging today?