be great. Pride, ambition, and the lust for power are here exposed as the motive of world history. How many thriving countrysides have been laid waste, how much blood, how many tears have been shed simply because the mighty of the earth want to rule! Similar sins are to be found in smaller circles and in many families as well. Children rise up against their parents, subjects against their superiors – because each wants to be lord himself. Christ, on the other hand, emphasizes that to serve in humility is an essential principle of his kingdom. The Lord himself, for whom all the crowns of this world are too paltry, whom the angels of heaven worship, became the servant of all. His whole life on earth was continual serving.
He obeyed his parents; he helped the most wretched of the poor; he washed the feet of his disciples; he bore the heaviest and most infamous of all burdens, the curse of our sin, in inconceivable degradation. And we, pitiable human beings, want to give ourselves airs and in beggarly pride place ourselves above others! We do not become small and humble until under Christ’s burden (that is, under the heavy load of our own sin and guilt and under the wonderful load of his compassion) the heart of our old nature is broken. When we become humble the Lord will become our highest and loveliest, our all in all. Only then can a beam of the comfort that he gave his ashamed disciples rise upon us too. He accepted the faithfulness that they had shown him, such as it was, and looking ahead regarded it as perfected and assured them that they would have full share in the kingdom of his future glory.
The time they spent with him was also a school of humility, a daily lesson in becoming smaller. We too must go through the true school of humility in the discipleship of Christ; then our whole life and work become self-sacrificing service. Blessed is the Christian who bears others, even the most unworthy of them, in love for his Savior’s sake! Blessed is the king who in all his ruling strives only to serve his people! In view of the glory that the Lord promises his faithful followers, it must become clear to us that it is contemptuous folly to risk eternal happiness for the passing honors of this world. In the final, perfect kingdom the most humble one will be the first – Christ, the eternal king. All the redeemed will be close him, but those who resembled him most in humility will be closest of all. Free from all envy, each will rejoice at the honoring of the others, and all will know that it is only out of grace that they wear the crown of life.
20
Friday Evening
Foot Washing as Symbol
He rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 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.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
John 13:4–10
“I AM AMONG YOU as one who serves,” the Lord had just said (Luke 22:27). Now he arose and gave proof of this word in deed by washing the feet of all those sitting at table, a service that had been neglected. The Lord of glory, who knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, knelt down in front of his sinful disciples and washed their dusty feet. This moving act is symbolic of his spiritual work of love upon his disciples.
Judas is cold and silent as he allows this menial service to be done to him. The other disciples are amazed and ashamed yet submit to what their Lord is doing. When, however, he approaches Peter with the basin, the disciple draws his feet away in alarm and cries out, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Here once more the impulsive disciple gives such lovable expression to natural feeling! Nothing can humble him more deeply than such a service done by the Master. But this bitter humiliation is a wholesome medicine that the Lord cannot spare his Peter. He seeks to calm his resistance with friendly words of encouragement, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” But Peter cannot be quiet and cries more vehemently, “Never!” Then the Lord overcomes his resistance with the severe words, “If I do not wash you, you have no share in me.” No share in him? Peter cannot bear that. Where could he go if he were to have no share in him who is his life, his all? He is completely disarmed and softened. He also begins to sense the significance of the washing, and in a flood of emotion he calls out, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” But here he has misfired again. At this time the Lord wants only to wash his feet. For whoever has had a bath – as was the custom before the festival – needs only to have his dusty feet washed in order to be clean.
