Easter reflection (4.04)
Feet, in my opinion, are kinda’ nasty. Unless you splurge for buffing and pedicures, I don’t want you checking out the tires, you know what I mean? So when I see the episode in today’s Lectio Divina (John 13:1-17) where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, I can only imagine how nasty Simon Peter’s feet are. He was probably wearing Jesus sandals before they were called “Jesus sandals” and no telling what kind of critters and crud would get in between the toes. And in that moment the Lord approaches you with a basin and towels and grabs hold of callouses, athlete’s foot, and broken toenails. It’s a compelling picture, the divine crouch to the feet. First of all, I can’t relate exactly culturally, because I know feet are nasty, having someone take a good look at them makes me feel exposed in a weird way–they can see what’s ugly, calloused, and hidden. Would I have the vulnerability to let someone see what I’d rather hide? Would I be open to a foot-washing kind of relationship, where I depend upon the grace of the one serving me? Or, am I so self-sufficient and self-protective where I never let anyone in because I’m afraid in some way? Maybe I need a humility to show my feet.
The other thing, of course, that’s compelling is that foot-washing then was completely normal in households for “the help” to perform. The humility in that context was that of the foot-washer. It’s nearly become an austere religious image for me except when Jesus asks me “Do you understand what I have done for you?” (v.12) While muttering under my breath while we wash others’ dishes, set up chairs when everyone else is late, shoveling out the parking spot on your street after a blizzard and then another occupies it when you get home, bearing with relational quirks, vacuuming when no one else seems to, there are plenty of tiresome tasks where we secretly think that there’s better, more valuable things that we can be doing with our own time. Maybe we don’t understand. And the Lord asks in those time where being someone else butler/maid/gopher/intern/waterboy is hard as the Creator who came to serve not to be served. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” as he washes feet.