Jesus, in the upper room, illustrated pure humility as he washed the feet of his disciples. How about us? Are we sometimes uncertain about our responsibility in this respect?
How we wash feet
This is how we wash the feet of the saints:
- By feeding those who are hungering after righteousness, and thirsting after fellowship, yet not quite able to find it; by helping them to set their feet more firmly on the path to the kingdom.
- By comforting and nurturing those who feel as strangers among saints.
- By clothing those who fall vulnerable to sin, to the world, and to their own human weaknesses; by helping them to find comfort and confidence in the word of God, and by praying for them.
- By consoling those who are physically sick, by visiting them at home or in the hospital; and those who are spiritually sick by listening, empathizing, and praying with them, remembering that we also have our own times of discouragement.
- And what about those who are imprisoned by the human condition, held fast by all kinds of life circumstances way beyond their control, whether by debilitating bad habits which threaten their salvation, or perhaps falling away and losing faith, or feeling rejected by being shunned. Rebuff, whether real or imagined, feels like being put away. These prisoners of life need most of all the comforts wherewith we were comforted by the presence of the Father and Son in our
The easy path in washing feet is to ignore those who are irritating, not really our favorite people. Yet washing the feet of the saints will certainly involve you with brothers and sisters you may like the least; the very ones Jesus called the “least of these my brothers and sisters,”
The good Samaritan
We remember the story Jesus told about the good Samaritan (Lk. 10:30 RSV), who implicated himself in the rescue of the man who had barely escaped with his life after being robbed. He lay naked and bloodied in the ditch.
Those who should have helped him, and knew it, passed by on the other side of the road. They were afraid of becoming involved, and defiled. But the Samaritan, (with whom the Jews would have no dealings) interrupted his journey and, in compassion, began the task of cleaning the filth from the wounds, pouring in his own oil and wine, and binding them up. He took the wretched man on his own beast, and brought him to an inn where he arranged to pay for his room and board for as long as needed.
The Samaritan had obviously learned well the lesson of having a deep regard for others, and in spite of the blood and mud, had willingly given his time and compassion for a total stranger. He had washed the feet of another human being.
When retelling Jesus’ story of the good Samaritan, I can’t help but think of it in terms of our “Learning to Read the Bible Effectively” seminars. We have, I believe, learned the lesson well of being compassionate toward those who seek to know God and His word. We will do what the good Samaritan did: he touched the man, washed his wounds, poured in oil and wine and bound them with his own cloth, and saw to it that he was given care.
A right heart — washing feet
We will not have the humility to rightly wash one another’s feet unless our heart is right before God. The Bible has a lot to say about the heart; not the physical heart, but the spiritual heart, where our conscience and emotions begin.
God said of rebellious Israel, that their heart was not right toward Him; they vacillated between God and the weakness of their own will. Peter, too, in his encounter with Simon the magician who badly wanted the power of the Holy Spirit for his own personal gain, said to him, “You have no part in this matter, for your heart is not right before God” (Acts 8:20,21).
David, you will remember, was consistently responsible in his relationship , with God and prayed fervently about this (Psa. 119:80): “Let my heart be blameless in thy statutes, that I may not be put to shame!” David demonstrated to us in lucid terms the distance we must go to do God’s will. Jesus, too, manifested the kind of life we must live in order to appropriately wash the saint’s feet.
It is a constant lifelong struggle to make our hearts right, and it can only be done if we will ask our Father for help. Only then will we begin to know what it means to wash the disciple’s feet — to touch the lives of fellow-saints.
Jesus put his fingers into the ears of the deaf, and the eyes of the blind, and touched the tongue of the dumb; he touched the lame and the sick, the cripple and the deformed; he touched the flesh of lepers, and the dead; and with his heart he touched the sinner who lay imprisoned in sinful flesh. He has touched us!
His feet trod the rough, stony roads of Judah and he climbed the steep slopes of the mountains. His feet stood on the grassy banks as he preached the Gospel of salvation and he walked on the surface of the sea and stretched out his hand and lifted Peter from its perilous depths. But, praise God, his feet will once again touch this blighted planet, when he shall stand that day, soon, upon the Mount of Olives. Then we shall bow down before his feet, and see him as he is — for we shall be like him.
The importance of faith
A quality no less important than humility, justice and mercy is faith. We have many illustrations in the Bible of ardent faith resulting in humble action pleasing to God.
We think of the leper who knelt before Jesus and said in great faith, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean” (Mt. 8:2 RSV) and of the centurion who in faith pleaded for his servant. Jesus said that in this Roman soldier he had found more faith than in Israel (8:5-10).
When the people brought a paralytic and laid him at Jesus’ feet, he perceived their faith and healed him (Mt. 9:2). Again, when a woman who had been in torment for 12 years touched the fringe of his garment Jesus turned and said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well” (Mt. 9:20-22). Two blind men, in faith, asked Jesus to heal them. “According to your faith,” he said, “be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened (Mt. 9:27-31).
Of the ten lepers who were cleansed by Jesus only one bothered to turn back, and in a loud voice he praised God and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, and thanked him. It was he, who was called “this foreigner” by Jesus, who demonstrated most clearly the quality of faith required to please God (Lk. 17:11-18).
Hebrews 11 epitomizes the significance of the relationship between faith and pleasing God. Hebrews 11:1,6 RSV: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.”
To do the will of God must be the fulfilment of our hope; and to be in the kingdom of God our conviction of what we do not now see.
Faith makes possible our pleasing the Father and empowers us to draw near to Him. He alone is the rewarder of the faithful seeker.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One