Wash each other’s feet

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. – John 13.14

I work one day a week teaching literacy to teenagers in Tallaght. As far as I know I am the only Christian on staff and there is only one Christian student I know of. It is far from a spiritual place. But even there God can give us reminders about how we are supposed to live and even challenge us by using people who don’t even claim to know Him.  

The co-ordinator (read boss) is a great example of a servant leader. When I drove into the car park she was picking up nasty rubbish that had blown out on the bin. Later one of the kids had broken a glass with soured milk as she walked by. Before anyone could respond she jumped in to clean it up. Both were dirty jobs. But she was not put off by them even though she is in charge. She is a person who knows how to serve from the top.

When Jesus got down on His hands and knees to wipe off the street grime He did so to set an example or a pattern for us.

‘If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other’s feet.’

I know that there are some churches that take this statement and make feet washing a part of their church practice just like baptism and the Lord’s Table. I have no real issue with that, and it could be a great reminder, but I don’t think that is the real point here.

What Jesus did was to be a servant. What He did was to take on the lowliest of tasks. What He did was to set an example for us.

This kind of thinking would be revolutionary if we all applied it. We would never have to worry about who cleaned the toilets or mopped the floor or made the tea or washed the dishes or made the airport runs or made the hospital visits or so on and so on. We would never worry about the ‘ I've done my bit’ attitude. We would not worry about the slackers and those who didn't do the work.

All we would worry about it washing feet.

I started with an example from the ‘secular’ world. We see this kind of examples all the time. Why is it that there are times when the world puts us to shame when it comes to ‘washing feet?’

How can you and I wash feet today?