Bread is broken and the wine is sipped…
Each heart questioning as the towel is gripped.
Standing, facing each one of those I’ve come to know
Those I’ve watched, learn and grow…
My disciples…
I bow to wash their feet.
Kneeling before Peter, he says, No!
Peter, if you do not let me wash your feet,
You will have no life with me.
“Then Jesus, not just my feet, wash my hands and head as well!”
You are already clean; I only need to wash your dirty feet!
Then you will receive the inheritance with me.
You see,
Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve…
Giving to the poor, he waits at the door
To be welcomed in, he’s a gentleman…
Would you be willing to let Jesus wash your feet?
Would you wash your neighbor’s feet?
Christian brother, Christian sister…
Would you give up your favored seat, to a stranger from the street?
Would you smile beneath the mask that keeps others at arm’s length?
Would you give a few dollars to someone you meet?
The homeless man/woman needing food to eat?
Would you gossip about the unsavory ones the outcasts in society…?
Tell me, is this your reality?
Now some may say, “How dare you judge me.”
But truly, would you wash another’s feet?
Would you wash Jesus’s feet?
God is always teaching us and showing us how we are to treat…
All people, that we meet.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40
Humility is the beginning of surrender.
The one who washes feet and the one who receives the feet washing, both benefit from the experience.
Both become humbled in the process…let go of pride for this is why~
There’s a blessing to receive when we wash our another’s feet!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill November 30, 2020
John 13:1-17 The Passion Translation
Jesus Washes Feet
13 Jesus knew that the night before Passover would be his last night on earth before leaving this world to return to the Father’s side. All throughout his time with his disciples, Jesus had demonstrated a deep and tender love for them. And now he longed to show them the full measure of his love.[a] 2 Before their evening meal had begun, the accuser[b] had already planted betrayal[c] into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
3 Now Jesus was fully aware that the Father had placed all things under his control, for he had come from God and was about to go back to be with him. 4 So he got up from the meal and took off his outer robe, and took a towel and wrapped it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ dirty feet and dry them with his towel.
6 But when Jesus got to Simon Peter, he objected and said, “I can’t let you wash my dirty feet—you’re my Lord!”
7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand yet the meaning of what I’m doing, but soon it will be clear to you.”[d]
8 Peter looked at Jesus and said, “You’ll never wash my dirty feet—never!”
“But Peter, if you don’t allow me to wash your feet,” Jesus responded, “then you will not be able to share life with me.”
9 So Peter said, “Lord, in that case, don’t just wash my feet, wash my hands and my head too!”
10 Jesus said to him, “You are already clean. You’ve been washed completely and you just need your feet to be cleansed—but that can’t be said of all of you.” For Jesus knew which one was about to betray him, 11 and that’s why he told them that not all of them were clean.
12 After washing their feet, he put his robe on and returned to his place at the table.[e] “Do you understand what I just did?” Jesus said. 13 “You’ve called me your teacher and lord, and you’re right, for that’s who I am. 14–15 So if I’m your teacher and lord and have just washed your dirty feet, then you should follow the example that I’ve set for you and wash one another’s dirty feet. Now do for each other what I have just done for you. 16 I speak to you timeless truth: a servant is not superior to his master, and an apostle is never greater than the one who sent him. 17 So now put into practice what I have done for you, and you will experience a life of happiness enriched with untold blessings!”
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Footnotes
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John 13:1 Or “he loved them to the very end.”
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John 13:2 Or “devil.”
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John 13:2 Or “that he should betray Jesus.” The Aramaic is “Satan arose in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus.”
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John 13:7 By removing their sandals and washing their feet, Jesus was showing them that he was granting them a new inheritance—his own. The sandal is often used in covenants of inheritance in Hebrew culture. Every defilement would be removed so that they could “place the sole of their feet” upon the new covenant inheritance. See Josh. 1:3; Ruth 4:1-12. God likewise told Moses to remove his sandals (Ex. 3:5), for he was about to receive a new inheritance—the holiness of God and the authority that came with it.
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John 13:12 There has never been a nobleman, a teacher, or a king that loves and serves his servants like Jesus.
