Wash... and Be Washed

John 13:5-7
After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this” (NKJV).

The picture of humility and selfless sacrifice we see in Jesus’ act of washing His disciples’ feet stirs us to serve others with comparable authenticity. But is there another, secondary picture here as well? When Peter reacts to Jesus as He approaches to wash his feet, He does so with the adamant declaration “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus responds, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” (8). Peter counters, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head” (9)! Jesus corrects him once again, saying, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean…” (10).

We have been made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. In a once-for-all cleansing, our sins were renewed through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). We have been bathed in the blood of God. We do not need to be saved again; baptized again; redeemed wholly again. All that remains is for us to wash our feet – to come continually to Christ for cleansing of those very human, very broken parts of us that continue their walk through a sin-dirtied world. In the process of living out our time on earth, our feet get dirty; so we allow Jesus to wash them, making us completely clean again.

There is that first element to the picture to consider, however. When Jesus had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (12-15). The immediate application is, again, humble service. But there is an additional concept here as well. Jesus commands us as believers to let Him wash our feet, dirtied by every-day living; and He also instructs us to wash each other’s feet. Contrary to pop religion’s individualistic ideology, cleansing does not take place solely “between me and Jesus.” I am called as a member of the body of Christ to wash, and be washed by, others. The writer James puts it this way: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (5:16).

How important are these washings, by Christ and my brothers and sisters in His body? According to Jesus, if, after washing my spirit, soul and body in salvation, He does not wash my feet, I “have no part with Him.” And if I do not wash the feet of others, offering my prayers and counsel to those whose feet, like mine, often became muddied by the world’s priorities and passions, I forfeit Christ’s blessing (17).

Are your feet dirty? You may not have strayed from the faith, but are there smudges of selfishness, materialism, and lust on the areas of your life that make the most consistent contact with the world around you? Let Christ wash them so you may be completely clean, and give your spiritual sister or brother the opportunity as well to obey Christ’s command and wash the filth away.

I wash another’s feet when I confront them in love about an evil they are entertaining; I wash another’s feet when I correct them in love regarding an attitude they are embracing; I wash another’s feet when I care more about our mutual cleanliness spiritually than I do about my (or their) ego, agenda, or privacy. It is never easy to wash or to be washed; but it ensures that we will be without spot or blemish as we await the return of Christ.

If you do not let Him wash you, you have no part in Him. And if you do not wash others, you give them no chance to have a part in you. Wash… and be washed.