Let your feet be washed!
Have you ever imagined what it would be like if Jesus washed your feet? We read in the Gospel of John 13:4-10:
So he got up from the table, removed his outer clothes, took a towel, and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that he had tied around his waist. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered Peter, “You don’t know now what I’m doing. You will understand later.” Peter told Jesus, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus replied to Peter, “If I don’t wash you, you don’t belong to me.” Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, don’t wash only my feet. Wash my hands and my head too!” Jesus told Peter, “People who have washed are completely clean. They need to have only their feet washed…”
I find this an interesting story and I have to chuckle at Peter’s reaction. When his turn comes, he has the feeling that this is not right! Jesus is his master and Son of God, he cannot wash Peter’s feet and serve him like a simple servant! But Jesus tells him that Peter will not have fellowship with Him if he doesn’t let himself be served. What does that mean? What does washing feet have to do with fellowship?
Jesus also says: “Whoever has taken a bath is completely clean; he only needs to wash his feet later.” Jesus uses the example of washing in a figurative sense for the cleansing of sins. Through his death and resurrection, all who believe in Jesus are cleansed from their sins, that is, they have taken a bath and are clean. This hasn’t happened, so the disciples can’t understand it yet. But he also says that after they’ve taken a bath they still have to wash their feet. Because there the daily street dust accumulates. If it is not washed off, there can be caking of dust and dirt, callouses, or injuries.
This happens in our everyday life, negative experiences and hurts accumulate, you can imagine this as daily road dust in your mind. And Jesus wants to wash it out of our minds and souls in fellowship with him. He wants to go through life with us and help us to wash off the daily crap, so that we can go forward into the next day clean and unburdened. Otherwise it can happen that we get used to the dirt. When our feet or rather our soul is encrusted with the dust of everyday life, it is no longer sensitive and becomes dull.
The other day someone treated me as if I was worthless, ignored me and hurt me with that. It was like a tiny pointed stone on the sole of my foot. It was small, but it hurt. I went to Jesus with it in my mind and asked him what he wanted to tell me. In my mind he beamed at me, took me in his arms and showed me without words that I was important to him. This was an experience deep in my heart like healing balm! That was all I needed to be able to forgive. With that, the dust and the stone were washed away and I could go on again with peace in my heart.
In his presence we get a different perspective on life. In the fellowship with him there is peace and joy in our heart! We may and should come to Jesus daily and talk about our everyday life, about the beautiful and of course the difficult moments. He thereby washes away false, burdensome thoughts and brings peace into our thinking.
He directs my focus back to the kingdom of God. Then I know again: Yes, right, Jesus is for me, I am washed and clean, I am safe, loved and belong to him. And because I belong to him, he invites me: Come to me, I will wash the everyday worries from your soul!