He 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.” (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 13:6–7)
In John 13, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet to teach them humility. There’s not a person on the planet who doesn’t need a lesson in humility. Very few people are intentionally arrogant. Arrogance is a result of our brokenness. It’s our complex. When our dysfunctions and wounds become the point of reference for thinking about ourselves, we feel we have to make up for these things. We know we’re small, so we become arrogant. Ironic, right?
There are two ways Jesus’ lesson in humility works on the hearts of his disciples. First, and most obviously, Jesus models humility by washing their feet even though he’s the King. King’s don’t wash feet. With this, Jesus not only models humility, but he also models royal behavior according to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus can serve selflessly because there is no fear in giving himself away because there’s nothing broken in him that can be found out through giving himself away.
The second way the lesson works on the hearts of the disciples is the challenge to allow Jesus to wash their feet. Peter protests Jesus’ attempt to wash his feet out of his arrogance. How does this work? Peter thinks that there are certain roles for certain people. As noted above, kings do not wash feet. Lowly people wash feet. Ah! See, there is Peter’s problem. He, like all of us, see a fixed hierarchy in society. Lowly jobs, for lowly people, and lofty jobs for lofty people. It’s only a certain type of person who is eligible to wash Peter’s feet: a servant. Peter is sure that Jesus is not a servant. This is the sort of thinking that Jesus is attempting to correct. Jesus wants them to understand that he is a servant and that servants are at the top of the hierarchy in the Kingdom.
It is the one who is fearless in giving oneself away because of the assurance of the cleansing blood of Jesus who can maintain a posture of humility.
Will you let Jesus wash your feet? He says, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (Jn 13:8).
Jesus wants to reshape our thinking. His desire is for his cleansing work to replace our brokenness as our central point of reference. This gives us freedom to give ourselves away because there’s nothing to hide for those abiding in Christ. When we arrive here, arrogance is supplanted with genuine humility.
