Clean Feet

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

We have traveled through 38 of our 40 days of Lent. And today our journey brings us to Maundy Thursday. Today Jesus begins to say goodbye before he journeys to the cross. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood, is the last thing Jesus did with his disciples before his death. However, in the book of John we do not get that story. Instead the way that Jesus says goodbye to his disciples is to reinforce one of his most important lessons. He washes their feet and gives them a new commandment to love others.

I remember when I was in high school I received a phone call from my pastor. He wanted to do a symbolic foot washing at our Maundy Thursday worship service. And he wanted to wash my feet. I remember being very surprised by this and wondering why he wanted to wash my feet. Even as a high school student it was a moving experience, to have my pastor kneeling down to wash my feet. I think that is when I started to have a greater appreciation for foot washing.

While I was a camp counselor I typically read this text of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and washed my campers’ feet. They were always a bit nervous about it, but inevitably by the end of the foot washing one of my campers would come to me and ask to wash my feet. And then I would let some young girl kneel beside my bed and wash my feet. And my feet were never very clean; after all I was a camp counselor. I wore sandals everyday and walked around on dusty and dirty paths and my daily one minute showers never seemed to get my feet clean.

I imagine that the disciples’ feet were not very clean either. After all they walked around in sandals day after day following their teacher Jesus. They walked on dirty paths in the heat of the day and even when they bathed I am sure their feet didn’t come very clean. It was typical when one visited the home of a friend to be greeted with hospitality. Typical hospitality would include washing the feet of the visitors who had usually walked a great distance to reach their destination. Usually the servant would wash the visitors’ feet. But Jesus turns this act of hospitality upside down. He, the master, kneels at the feet of his friends and washes their dirty, tired feet.

Today Jesus kneels in front of us and asks to wash our feet. That requires us to become vulnerable and to show a part of us that we often keep covered up. That requires us to take off our socks and our shoes and show our Savior our dirty, calloused feet. Jesus wants to touch our feet regardless of what they look like or how they smell. Jesus wants to cleanse our feet so that we can follow him and walk with him to the cross. He does not want to walk alone. He is requesting our company on the rest of the journey.

Our feet have the potential for good and for evil. If left alone, our feet can lead us to follow our own wants and desires. Our feet are the way in which we put our thoughts, feelings, and ideas into action. If we want to walk with Jesus for the rest of journey, if we want to go the way Jesus goes, which is the way of service and love, we need to allow him to wash our feet. To allow Jesus to cleanse our feet is to remove all that prevents us from using our feet to follow him, to scrub away our insecurities, to wash away our weariness, to buff off our bitterness. After letting Jesus wash our feet we are able to accompany him on the journey to the cross.

Jesus is also inviting the disciples to follow his example. After washing the disciples’ feet he tells them to wash one another’s feet. And then he gives them a new commandment, to love one another as Jesus had loved them. Jesus invites us to follow his example, too. He tells us to wash one another’s feet. He gives us a new commandment, to love one another as Jesus has loved us.

Today people who live on the streets of Philadelphia gathered outside for worship, communion, and foot washing. Many of them are served by the ministry of The Welcome Church, an ELCA congregation in downtown Philadelphia. Several doctors, students, and administrators from the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine who plan to begin a program of regular foot care and treatment for homeless people this summer will join the community for this service of foot washing. Towels and socks will be handed out at worship, too. I think this community is really living what it means to love others as Jesus loves us. They are literally washing the feet of others and showing a great deal of love while doing it.

“You also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” May we have the courage to follow the example of Jesus in both word and deed: washing the feet of others, helping others buff off what keeps them from following Jesus, smiling at strangers, praying for our enemies, feeding the hungry, speaking out against injustice, and loving others as Jesus has loved us. And as we prepare to accompany Jesus on his journey may we allow him to scrub our feet and our hearts clean, too. Amen.