Been talking with friends this week about foot washing. Each one who has participated in it has a significant and emotional memory connected to the event. Words like humility, service, worship, and love were repeated. Tenderness was evident in their hearts. J saw the daily opportunities to serve one another as a higher application of Jesus' intent than a ceremony. L struck a deep chord with me as she reflected, "I knew how Peter felt when he tried to refuse to let Jesus wash his feet, and I realized how much pride we have to release in order to admit our needs and let others help us."
Foot washing seems to be another side of the coin of confession, a picture of humbly cleaning another's soul. Confession is bringing something from the darkness into the light, or acknowledging harm I've done, seeking forgiveness, and moving to repair it. Could foot washing be allowing another person close enough access to my life to help me clean up, to take care of an area that is hard for me to see or reach by myself? Can my spouse or my friend have the freedom to cleanse a part of me that I have not washed myself? An area of my body or of my soul? Or am I insulted by the thought? Do I, like Peter, recoil from the approach of one who would touch me that way?
We were not in a theological debate. We were talking about the heart, which is where Jesus seems to do His daily work, touching each one at their point of need and applying the theology as only He can.
Please, God, open my eyes, my ears, my heart, to the truths You were communicating in this tender act of Jesus in His last days.
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