To begin John 13, Jesus uses one last dinner before his death as an opportunity to wash his disciples’ feet. After doing so, he asks them, “Do you know what I have done to you?” What a haunting question. We confess we don’t really know what Jesus has just done to us. We’ll spend our whole lives trying to understand what Jesus has done to us with just the simple act of washing a few feet.
Jesus knows his hour has come. The time for miracles and debates is over. Now comes the cross, and his arrest is mere hours away. So what is the final, lasting impression he wants to leave on his disciples? He wraps a towel around his waist, fills a bowl with water, bends down and begins washing his disciples’ feet one by one.
Do they know what Jesus has just done to them?
Now is also the moment when the enemy is gearing up for his decisive move against Jesus. The devil himself has crawled inside the heart of Judas, planting seeds of greed and resentment sprouting up into a fully grown act of betrayal. As Jesus and his followers are enjoying a meal together, the enemy is present like a predator hiding in the tall grass ready to pounce. Jesus is not ignorant to all this. He knows exactly who is present in the heart of Judas. He knows exactly what Judas is getting ready to do. He knows the enemy is ready to pounce. And what is his response? He wraps a towel around his waist, fills a bowl with water, bends down and begins washing his disciples’ feet one by one.
Do we know what Jesus has just done to us?
Jesus doesn’t do this because he’s powerless to stop it. Just the opposite. In this moment, Jesus knows that “the Father has given all things into his hands.” There is nothing Jesus is powerless to stop. It is illness and death that are powerless to stop him. But what good is all this power if one doesn’t use it to fend off one’s enemies? That’s how all powerful people throughout human history have used their power. So what does Jesus do with all this power? He wraps a towel around his waist, fills a bowl with water, bends down and begins washing his disciples’ feet one by one.
Do we know what Jesus has just done to us?
These expectations of how power is supposed to be used are voiced by Peter himself. “Lord, are you going to wash my feet? You will never wash my feet!” That’s not a very Lordly thing to do, is it? You’re Lord, you’re king, you’re the boss! We should be lining up to wash your feet, not the other way around. So Jesus answers the haunting question before he’s even asked it. “You do not know what I’m doing,” Jesus says. “But someday you will.” Peter, if this whole feet washing thing looks upside down to you, it actually means that you’re the one who’s upside down. “Unless I wash you,” Jesus goes on, “you have no share with me.” If we’re only capable thinking how Peter thinks about power and authority, we will find ourselves on the outside looking in, having forfeited our share in Jesus’ ministry, kingdom and eternal life, because Jesus was so strange and upside down to us that we gave up on him the moment he wrapped a towel around his waist, filled a bowl with water, bent down and began washing our feet one by one.
Do we know what Jesus has done to us?
“You call me Teacher and Lord,” Jesus goes on to say, “and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” We will try. We will find more and more opportunities to bend down and take the form of a servant. And as we do, this question, “Do we know what Jesus has done to us?” will linger and haunt us, and the more it does, the more we will discover ways of answering it.
0 Comments