Throughout his gospel so far, John has been mentioning every once in a while that Jesus’ time had not yet come to do the main thing he came to do. But now, with the Passover at hand, the time has come. Israel had high expectations for what the God of all power would do when the time came. Surely he would obliterate all evildoers and injustice with a snap of his fingers! Yet to everyone’s immense shock, he did just the opposite. Even with all the power of God the Father given to him, Christ the King got his hands dirty and did the work of the lowliest servant.
Jesus our Savior washed his disciples’ feet. The craziness of that fact must not be lost on us. In Jewish culture, this was a dishonorable task that only Gentile slaves were expected to carry out. The disciples probably wouldn’t have even done it for one another. This was as far from the common idea of a divine king as you could possibly get—and yet the divine King himself washed his disciples’ feet. That completely flips on its head everything we think we know about honor and greatness.
Why would a king stoop that low? Because he loved his disciples so immensely. In fact love is the primary ethic of God, not honor or greatness. God exists in perfect other-centered thought that always seeks to honor someone else and is never worried about one’s own reputation. It’s our world that flips it and gets it wrong! But while most of us are anxious about climbing as high up the greatness ladder as possible, Jesus vividly shows his followers what it looks like to do the opposite. Jesus loved his own to the end; so if we are to be like Christ, we will love just as much.
Washing feet was one of the most powerful, revolutionary things Jesus did. It was a display of his own great love, a symbol of how he cleanses us, and a mighty example of how to follow his ethic of humility, all at the same time. And that means we get to follow in his footsteps and take on the same radical humility. If we’re going to love like Jesus loves, much of our idea of human honor will have to go. But this rethinking could not be more worthwhile.
