Feet

There is a passage in scripture I have been pondering lately. It is a tad lengthy, and, if you are like me, you have read it before and are likely to skip or skim it. Please don't. Read it. Listen for His voice as you do. Take a minute from your crazy, busy life, and focus on the Logos. The Word. Jesus.


John 13:3-17 (English Standard Version)
3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." 8 Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." 9Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" 10Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean."

12When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.


If we are born again, walking with Jesus, we are clean. But our feet get dirty. I have read that it is symbolic of the earth- this world. It gets on you.

This says a couple things to me. First of all, we are supposed
to be in this world. Interacting. Blessing. Loving. We are salt and light. We are not supposed to isolate ourselves, hide our light under a bushel.

That doesn't mean, of course, that we are supposed to participate in sinful activities. We are clean. Washed in the Spirit. But, as we walk through this world, we are confronted with all the world entails. Not just sinful things. Earthly things. Worldly things.

Remember how we're supposed to keep our minds on Heavenly things, not things of this earth? How to be a friend of this world actually makes us an enemy of God??? How we are supposed to constantly renew our minds, so we are not conformed to this world, but transformed? I am reminding myself in these words...

Set apart. Holy. And yet, as I walk through this world, my feet get dusty. Child of the King. He gives me a place to be washed. In Him. And in one another. We are to wash one another's feet.

As I take the basin, I realize it is about more than just humility. It is about renewal. Cleansing. Forgiveness. Reequipping. Let us linger long as the basin. And then go forth, cleansed, to continue to minster His love to others.