"No", Peter protested, "You will never ever wash my feet!" Jesus replied, "Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me."
Peter's reaction is a really strong one. He is horrified. Don't wash my feet, wash everything. Maybe Peter feels it is easier to accept a ceremonial washing then a menial slaves act of washing feet. The religious act would be acceptable he thinks. This servile act is really uncomfortable.
Put yourself in Peter's shoes, er... his sandals. Here is the longed for Christ whose miracles he has witnessed. Whose teaching he has followed. Who leadership he has walked under.
He is God incarnate. He is the Christ. He makes universes with His word.
HE IS WASHING MY FEEEEETTTT!
He is touching my feet. He is putting water between them. He is rubbing them. He is drying them. He is God.
This is not a moral issue. A sermonette on the importance of service.
This is God breaking back into human life. A God who receives the washing of His feet with a prostitutes hair. A God who endures birth. A God who is whipped and beaten and crucified and humiliated... A God who washes my feet. He is a God who will allow no human barrier to get between Him and relationship. No barrier to get between Him and His love.
He pushes every boundary for love. Let us do likewise.
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"Go and do likewise!" Is this a command? Should I take this literally or figuratively? Either way I am not convinced I am following through. Lord, please help me to serve others with the same attitude you displayed as you washed your disciples feet.
No matter what position we have in this world, or how influential we are, or how important we perceive ourselves, we must be prepared to lay it all down and become humble and serve.
"The first will become last and the greatest will be the least"
Speaking from some recent experience, it can be tough to lay down position and importance in order to find a new position in the kingdom. The biggest struggle is not necessarily ego but of comparative significance and that is where our value system is completely flawed.
Jesus washing the disciples feet is a great example of turning values and cultural systems on their head.
What might the father be challenging us today with regard to our perception of value systems?
"biggest struggle is not necessarily ego but of comparative significance and that is where our value system is completely flawed"
Great line....
The King of Kings - The Washer of Feet.
What greater drop in significance could one have?
"What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Jesus' comment to the disciples about his washing their feet could well be said of much of life, right?! So much we don't understand now.
Gary, you said "the biggest struggle is not necessarily ego but of comparative significance." I think that is so true. I have thought about that a lot recently--about how for instance, Brother Yun of Heavenly Man spent years of his life in prison. Or how Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martrys, spent 14 years of his life in prison, and I think 3 in solitary confinement.
And if it were me, I know I would be thinking, WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS? I'm not being used. There's nothing significant going on here.
But what we don't understand now, we will later. For some, like Yun and Wurmbrand, we can see this side of the veil how God used those "insignificant", quiet times to accomplish His purposes for the Kingdom. For many others, not known to us, who I'm sure have spent decades in prison or doing tiresome, seemingly insignificant work, we will someday understand.
And for me, in the insignificant tasks or the days I can't do the significant tasks I want to do, I want to remember, I will someday understand.
And isn't it nice that He cares that we understand? I mean, it's His kingdom. Why do I need to understand? He could just say, "because I said so, that's why!". But He has said that someday, we will indeed understand.
Funny - I read Peters response to Jesus words: "Unless I wash you, you will have no part of me" as being -
"If that is the case - wash ALL of me - I want to be completely part of you!"
It is often echoed in me... TAKE ALL OF ME.
Ah - and Cindy - that whole thing of us not seeing where things are leading... that came to me when reading again today.. The whole Lazarus event was pivotal in the Palm Sunday event... in the decision of Judas to go to the Pharisees after Mary's loving extravagance, in Jesus betrayal. And yet it started with Jesus far away - apparently delaying doing what others around him would have thought he should do!
We see things so dimly! Simply trusting day by day is where I have to remember to be at!
"Brother Yun of Heavenly Man spent years of his life in prison. Or how Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martrys, spent 14 years of his life in prison, and I think 3 in solitary confinement.
And if it were me, I know I would be thinking, WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS? I'm not being used. There's nothing significant going on here."
This is great Cindy. More and more I realize I have bought a lie that says who I am in Christ is found in my doing not my being.
He is so much more interested in my being. After all I am a participant in His doing not the author...
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