“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:12-17NIV)
One of our sisters in church recently asked me why Jesus once told Peter that unless he allowed Him to wash his feet, he would not continue to be one of His own people. And I said it all had to do with possessing a willingness to serve others, even those that we have some measure of authority over.
As the account goes, our Lord Jesus, when the time came for His earthly ministry to end, decided to wash the feet of his disciples. But at that time and in that clime feet washing was done mainly by servants. Sometimes, people also did it for guests or strangers that they considered honourable to them. That was because it was a show of respect and honour to others. (Cf. Gen 18:4; Gem 19:2; 1Sam 25:41)
You can, then, imagine how those disciples of the Lord must have felt when He stooped to their level to wash their feet. They were just not comfortable with it. And while others kept quiet and allowed Him to wash their feet, not understanding why He had to do so, Peter could not just resist the urge to protest. He told the Lord that he would not allow Him to condescend to the level of a servant and wash his feet. In other words, he believed that he was the one that was supposed to be washing His feet and not the other way round.
But the Lord’s firm and frank response to that shocked him and the other disciples there. He told him that if he would not allow Him to wash his feet, then, he should consider himself disowned. Why? It is because in His kingdom, it is not only the subjects that serve; their Lord Himself also serves. That was why He lived all His earthly life serving men. (Cf. Mark 10:42-45)
Now serving men, of course, is not always about taking the position of a slave or a lowly person. I mean that you don’t have to be in a lowly position to serve others. In fact, a lot of lowly people don’t serve others or understand service. That is because they think of serving others only in terms of doing things for those who are greater than us. But people don’t have to be greater or more honourable than us for us to serve them. That is because service is all about using our position, resources, time and skill to do good to others, make life easier and better for them and also make them happy, regardless of their relationship or our relationship with them.
That was the way our Lord functioned when He was here on earth. The bible says He went everywhere doing good and healing all those who were oppressed of the devil because God was with Him (Acts 10:38). And when all had been said and done, He gave His life as a ransom for all humanity. That is the height of service.
Then, towards the end of His earthly ministry, He began to show His disciples how seriously they too must take serving one another and all the people He would be entrusting to them. He did that by washing their feet. And He told them that any one of them that was not ready to act similarly, to humble himself to do even menial jobs for those below him in the kingdom of God, at home, at work, in the neighbourhood or elsewhere should not consider himself as one of His people.
You can now see why all the apostles of old used their lives, knowledge, spiritual gifts, time and even resources to serve people. Yes, they too, like Jesus, went everywhere doing good, healing all those who were oppressed of the devil and making the world a better place. Also, they taught the brethren to act similarly, to cultivate the culture of serving others, regardless of their position and where they were, and making the world a place where God could freely move and bless men.
If we too, then, consider ourselves as belonging to our Lord Jesus, we must humble ourselves to serve others and make life easier, better and more enjoyable for them, even if they are lower in class in the society or younger in age than us. Unfortunately, we don’t even want to serve those that have authority over us or that are older than us, if we have our way. We think of it as being used by them or as making life unnecessarily easier for them. That being the case, how can we be expected to serve those that we are on the same plane of life or those younger than us or those that are of lower class in the society than us?
This is why we could, for example, go to a friend’s house and not see anything we could do to help them or ease the burdens they are carrying. Our usual line of thought would be, “At least, I am the guest here. He should be the one running around to care for me and not the other way round.” And if we could reason like that when dealing with our friends, then, one can be sure that our thought would be worse when we are dealing with someone that we consider to be beneath us in one way or the other.
But the Lord is saying to us, “That is not my way. That is not the way of the kingdom. And as long as you continue to function like that, know that you are not one of my own people.” So, if you want to be considered as one of His own, wherever you are, wherever you go and whatever you are, give yourself to serving others. Cultivate the culture of using whatever you have to help others and make their life better, easier and more enjoyable. Don’t let your focus always be on what others can do for you but also on what you can do for them. That way, even if it is few minutes you spend with them, they will know that you have lifted some burdens off their shoulders and made them happier than you met them.
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