What was up with Jesus washing the apostle’s feet? Was this an idealistic “Jesus” moment or an analogy which was never meant to be followed?
John 13:1-13
From reading these verses it seems very plain to me that Jesus was speaking both of spiritual and physical matters. I’m not sure what Jesus meant by: “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean.” The only interpretation I can come up with is found in Isaiah 52:7 & Romans 10:14-15. These verses refer to the beauty of the feet of those who bring the good news that proclaims the salvation bought by Jesus Christ. I also know that the feet were a pretty stenchy mess back in the day as folks walked to and fro in the dirt and whatever excrement happened to be mixed in with the dirt. So perhaps Jesus was referring to cleaning the worst part of the body, or in a spiritual sense cleaning out the worst part of our hearts where sin resides? I don't know. This seems like a stretch. Either way this was definitely the most humbling thing Jesus Christ could've done for his apostles.
Now I’d like to take a look at some verses I believe must be interpreted through John 13:1-13. Acts 6:1-7 would seem to indicate that it is acceptable for church leaders to neglect the daily concerns of the congregation in order to focus on studying the word and praying. From my perspective this seems to be the interpretation most church leaders have adopted in their “hands off” approach to leadership. However, this is most definitely not the correct interpretation of these verses. What the apostles did here was delegate some of their authority to others and these others then taught and discipled still others. The apostles were overwhelmed and so they did the right thing and delegated so that the good news of Jesus Christ could continue to spread and the needs of the congregation could be met. This is most definitely not an example to follow in how distant church leadership should be from the congregation. Yes one person can only be involved in so many folks lives, but no one should ever allow themselves to get caught up in the prideful belief that their time in the word or in prayer should supersede their responsibility to be “hands on” with the congregation or that their time is more valuable then anyone else’s.
We should all follow Jesus Christ’s example who washed the apostles feet and then willingly died (as a public spectacle) on the cross for our sins. Philippians 2:1-11
2 comments:
Regarding the 'washing the feet', notice that he says "A person who HAS HAD a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean." Christ was saying that Peter had already had a bath, so he didn't need to wash anything except the feet that had walked on the dirty floor between the bathroom and the passover dining room.
The spiritual meaning though is still a little ambiguous. It seems to me that Jesus is saying that he had ALREADY washed Peter (so when peter said, 'you will never wash my feet!', and then "wash all of me!" then Jesus corrected him by essentially saying he already did.)
Good point, with regards to the flesh meaning. I took my best guess at the spiritual meaning, as it relates to the Great Commission, per the verses I quoted in the article, but I'm not sure.
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