Home Church

I had the assignment of tackling John 13 today, the story of a Jesus who--knowing the sacrifice He must soon make--washes the disciples' feet as a way of showing that leaders, masters, and teachers in the Kingdom of God must also be servants.

...Suburban Inland Empire feet probably don't compare to the kind of feet that were stomping around the Holy Land 2,000 years ago.

I once saw this ritual re-enacted in a Catholic church, nearly twenty years ago. A few parishioners took off their shoes and socks, near the altar, and the priest washed their bare feet. It was a good object lesson, I suppose, but suburban Inland Empire feet probably don't compare to the kind of feet that were stomping around the Holy Land 2000 years ago. Think about it: donkeys and sheep and goats and cows being tethered around Jerusalem, outbreaks of leprosy, chamber pots being thrown out second floor tenements. Open toed sandals. Ancient feet were probably pretty intimidating.

Peter wasn't going to have any part of that. He wasn't going to make his teacher and Lord wash his dirty dogs. No way. That sort of thing is humbling not just for the washer, but the washee. I know I wouldn't be very proud to have my feet, and particularly my toenails, examined. Disgusting. And then Jesus tells him--and by extension us: "If I wash thee not, thou has no part with me."

The master goes on, of course, to say that we must love each other as He loved us. And He loves us enough to be, in effect, our nurse, our caretaker. He loves us the way a mother loves a child. He washes our feet. But it isn't just a sanitized ritual: It's tough love too. He makes an ultimatum, "..unless I wash you--son, daughter--you aren't mine."



Whenever I ask Lizzy, my daughter, for toast in the morning, she says, "I'll get it, Dad, but no guilt trips." Even though I'm turning the example of service on its head, I don't feel so bad anymore. Jesus is the essence of ultimatum. He doesn't say, "suit yourself, Peter. Let me wash your feet or not. You're still part of me whatever you decide."



No. He says, "If I wash thee not, thou has no part with me."

Jesus loves by rebuking too. Peter claims he would lay down his life for Jesus, and Jesus doesn't just smile patiently and ignore his boast. He sets the big fisherman straight: Peter is told that he will deny Jesus three times before morning comes. We re-read those lines, calloused to how harsh they must have sounded, but it's important to know that patient flattery, and false indulgence, constitute no part of Christ's love. He tells the truth.

The picture Jesus paints of "Love," then, isn't just as simple as being a silent chamber maid in the meek service of dirty travelers. It's more of a father, who wipes the grime from our brow, giving instruction and rebuke at the same time, even as he prepares to defend us--to the death.

That's family. That's covenant. That is church--or at least a picture of what it might be.