We’ve been doing a sermon series going through
the events of Jesus’ life in chronological order. And so, we’re up to the
events of the last couple of days of Jesus’ life. Jesus has gathered the
disciples to celebrate the Passover meal with him. This is the night of
what we now know as the Last Supper.
It seems odd that John’s gospel is the only one that
mentions Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. The others all have the Last
Supper, but they don’t have this part. But it’s no less important for
that, and the lessons it teaches us are no less important, either.
At various times, I’ve asked you to try to imagine yourself
present at various Bible events. I’d like you to do that today.
You’re in the room with Jesus. All the disciples are there with
you. You’re eating a meal. Probably, given the timing of it, the
meal you’re eating is the Seder, the ritual meal eaten in celebration of the
Passover. It’s a very important meal in Jewish tradition.
You’re all eating this meal, and suddenly Jesus gets up.
You probably notice that, but don’t think much of it at first.
Then, Jesus starts taking his clothes off! He walks over to where
there’s a towel and wraps that around his waist. He goes over to where
there’s some water--maybe a pitcher, maybe a bucket, we’re not told where the
water came from. Jesus pours some water into a basin. Then he goes
around to each of the disciples, one by one, starts washing their feet, and
dries them with the towel that’s around his waist.
Are you picturing this? Because to me, one of the
most amazing things about this whole deal is that at this point, none of the
disciples has reacted at all. None of them has said, “What are you
doing?” None of them has said, “Why are you doing that?” None of
them has said, “Here, let me help you.” None of them has said, “Jesus,
wait a minute, you should not have to do that. We’ll find someone else.”
They all just sit there. Maybe they were so taken by surprise they
did not know what to say. Maybe they were scared to say anything.
Maybe they were afraid they’d look stupid if they said or did anything.
We don’t know why. But they all just sit there. Nobody saying
anything. Nobody doing anything. They just sit there and let Jesus
wash their feet.
Until he gets to Peter. We’ll get to that in a
minute, but first let me remind you what foot washing was back then.
We’ve talked about this before, but think of the condition feet were in
back then. People did not wear socks and shoes. Some people had
sandals, but a lot of people went barefoot. And they did not walk on
paved roads, either. They walked on dirt. Or sand. Or fields
with plants on them. And there were animals around, so there were plenty
of things to step in, if you know what I mean.
So feet were, for the most part, just plain ugly and
disgusting. They were filthy. They were calloused. They had
sores and blisters sometimes. Nobody wanted to have to handle feet like
that. It was the one of the lowest, dirtiest jobs around. If you
were the foot washer, you were about as far down on the list as you could be.
So Jesus is doing this lousy, dirty job. And the
disciples just sit there and watch him do it. Until he gets to Peter.
Jesus looks at Peter. Peter looks at Jesus. Peter cannot
believe what’s going on. He says, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus says, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but
later you will understand.”
Peter still cannot believe it. He thinks, I might not
know everything, but I know Jesus--Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, the
Christ, the Son of God--Jesus is not supposed to be washing people’s
feet. So he refuses. He says Jesus will never wash his feet.
Jesus, of course, responds by saying, “Unless I wash you,
you have no part with me.” And Peter, on hearing that, responds in the
most Peter-ish way possible. He says, “Well, then, not just my feet, but
my hands and my head as well.”
John does not say so, but I have to think Jesus would’ve
laughed at that. Maybe some of the other disciples laughed, too.
It’s classic Peter being Peter. It also shows, though, that Peter
still does not understand what Jesus is doing or why. And no one else
there does, either.
Jesus goes around, washing everyone’s feet. Then he
puts his clothes back on and sits back down. And he says, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your
feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that
you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is
greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”
Jesus was telling them, and us, think
about what I just did. You know who I am, and yet I did not try to hold
myself out as any better than you. In fact, I held myself out as worse
than you, because I acted like your servant. So none of you has any business
acting like you think you’re better than anyone else, either. None of you
should think you’re too good to serve others.
Do you remember when we did the sermon
series on the Minor Prophets a couple of years ago? What was the thing
God was always criticizing the people of Israel for? Arrogance.
Thinking they were better than other people. Thinking they were
better than God. Thinking they were so good they did not need God any
more. They were arrogant, and their arrogance brought them down.
Now, hundreds of years later, it’s still a
problem. Jesus is still trying to fight arrogance. He’s telling the
disciples that they are not any better than anyone else, and they should not
act like they are. They should be willing to serve others, just as Jesus
has served them. They should act humbly, just as Jesus has acted humbly.
They should show humility, just as Jesus has shown humility.
It is really
easy for us human beings to become arrogant. We slide into it without
even thinking about it. We slide into it without even realizing it.
We slide into it with the best of intentions, sometimes. But we
still have it. Any time we think we’re better than someone else, we’ve
fallen into arrogance. Any time we think we’re more valuable than someone
else, we’ve fallen into arrogance. Any time we think we’re more important
than someone else, we’ve fallen into arrogance. Any time we think our
feelings, our opinions, our wants, needs, or desires are better or more
important than those of someone else, we’ve fallen into arrogance.
Now, that’s not to say that we should not
recognize our own talents and abilities. It’s okay for us to realize that
we’re better at some things than other people are. God has given each of
us certain talents and abilities, and God wants us to use them. But the
fact that I might be better than you at something does not mean I’m better than
you as a person. You’re better than I am at a lot of things, too.
The point is that, in God’s eyes, we’re
all equal. God does not have a rating system for our sins, and decide
that some of us are lesser sinners than others. In God’s eyes, we’re all
sinners in need of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation. And one of our
goals should be to see people as God sees them, to the extent we can.
That means we need to try to see all people as equal as well. Of
equal value, of equal worth, and equally deserving of our love.
And of course, that includes people we
disagree with. It includes people who don’t like us. It includes
people who treat us like dirt. After all, this same Jesus who washed the
disciples’ feet said that we are supposed to love our enemies and pray for
those who persecute us. He said that if someone takes our coat, we should
give them our shirt, too. All of those people are equal to us in God’s
eyes. And we need to see them as equal to us, too. Any time we
don’t, we failing to do what Jesus told us to do.
Is it easy to do those things? Of
course not. But look at the people whose feet Jesus was washing.
They included Judas, who was going to betray Jesus. They included
Peter, who was going to deny three times that he even knew who Jesus was.
They included all the other disciples, who were all going to run away and
abandon Jesus. And Jesus knew all that. Jesus knew exactly who the
disciples were and what they were going to do. And yet, even though Jesus
truly was better than any of them, he did not behave that way. He acted
as their servant, and washed their feet.
Jesus told the disciples, “I have set an
example for you.” He said, if I can do this for you, then you can do this
for others. If I don’t consider myself any better than you, then you have
no right to consider yourself better than anyone else.
When we’re tempted to think of ourselves
as better than someone else--and we all are; when we’re tempted to think of
ourselves as too good to do certain things--and we all are; when we’re tempted
to feel arrogant and superior--and we all are; let’s remember the example of
Jesus. Let’s remember that Jesus, the divine Son of God, gave us the
ultimate example of humility.
The Apostle Paul told us that we are
supposed to imitators of Christ. This is one of the best ways we can do
that. Let’s do everything we can to practice humility. Let’s do
everything we can to serve others. Let’s follow the example of Jesus
Christ.
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