Foot washing, the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of that word is shower time. But foot washing can be a symbol of worship. The very first example of foot washing was given to us by Jesus Himself. In John 13 the disciple John describes the Last Supper, while all the men were being served their dinner Jesus got up from the table took off his outer clothes filled a basin with water and proceeded to wash His disciples feet. The son of God washed the feet of his friends. This freaked them out; it would freak me out if Jesus tried to wash my feet. Jesus did what at that time was one of the lowest jobs on the totem pole for slaves. But he did it willingly, and the disciple’s feet were not clean, they walked everywhere, in the dirt. Jesus washed dirty, sweaty nasty feet, to show how much He loved his disciples and to show them that he did not consider himself better than them. Jesus commanded his disciples to likewise. I think this is an element of worship that we have lost in the Church now days. Washing feet is not done where I got to church nor is it really talked about, yet it was part of the Lords Supper, the original one. What better way to show our Christian brothers and sisters that we love them and are willing to serve them, then by washing their feet? If we can’t humble ourselves enough to wash the feet of our friends, people we live with, go to church with, see every week; then how can we say we are willing to serve those on the mission field? If we are to go into the world and give others the Gospel then we are going to be faced with some very humiliating circumstances at some point. I think in our Churches we should start now and wash the feet of those around us. We need to put aside our pride and willingly become like the lowly slave on the totem pole whose job was to wash nasty feet. Once we get in that mindset, there is really no job that looks to dirty or disgusting and I think our ministry will become a whole lot easier. I think we should do this often in our Churches to remind ourselves we are no better than any other person sitting in the pew next to us.
