JOHN 13:1-15

13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

5 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.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

8 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.”

9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

10 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.”

11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?

13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

And the Oscar goes to…

How many times did you hear those words last Sunday?  Did you tune in to watch the Oscars?   From what I understand over 40 million people did tune in.  They tuned in to see the beautiful people walk across the red carpet.  They tuned in to see the glitz and glamour, the fashionable and the famous. 

Imagine what it would be like to be the center of all that attention.  If you’re not careful it could go to your head.  Do any of you remember Tom Selleck?  He was the star of a television show many years ago.  The television show was called “Magnum P.I.” and it was about a private investigator who lives and works on the island of Hawaii.   Tom Selleck said that he learned a lesson one day about not letting all the fame go to your head.   He said, “Whenever I get full of myself, I remember the nice, elderly couple who approached me with a camera on a street in Honolulu…When I struck a pose for them, the man said, ‘No. No.  We want you to take a picture of us!”

Tom Brokaw had a similar experience shortly after he was promoted to co-host the Today Show.  He was wandering around Bloomingdale’s and feeling pretty good about himself.  The promotion was the latest step in a distinguished career that took him from Nebraska to Los Angeles and then on to Washington D.C.  While he was in Bloomingdale’s he noticed a man who was staring at him.  Eventually, the man walked up to him and said, “You’re Tom Brokaw, right?”  “That’s right,” Brokaw replied.  “You used to do the morning news on KMTV in Omaha.”  “That’s right,” Brokaw replied with great satisfaction.  “I knew it the minute I saw you,” the man said.  The man then sadly shook his head and asked, “Whatever happened to you?”

What we’re talking about here of course is pride and pride can be a dangerous thing.  It can get you into all kinds of trouble if you’re not careful.  Just look at Peter and all the other disciples.  Let me ask you this question.  After Jesus washed Peter’s feet and the feet of the other disciples why didn’t they wash his feet?   Jesus was their Lord and Teacher but there’s nothing in John’s Gospel to suggest that they washed his feet.  You have to believe that John doesn’t mention it is because it didn’t happen. They didn’t wash his feet.

My guess is they didn’t wash his feet because their pride got in the way.  That’s because washing  someone’s feet back then was something that a lowly servant was supposed to do. 

Richard Tow is a mediator and a former pastor who has an interesting perspective on what may have happened that night.  As the disciples enter the Upper Room they see a towel and a water basin over in the corner of the room but no servant to wash their feet.  So, they sit down at the table and begin to wonder.  Everyone’s a little uncomfortable. Someone ought to at least go over to Jesus and wash his feet. Thomas says to himself, “I’d do it but that would put me at the bottom of the heap and I’d get stuck with that job from now on.”   James is thinking, “I did it last time – it’s Matthew’s turn to do it.”   Down at the other end of the table Thaddeus is grumbling to himself.  “Jesus told Peter and John to make all the arrangements for the Passover.  So, let them do it.”  John, however, is the beloved disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved.  So there was no way he was going to do it.    And Peter?  Peter’s pride isn’t about to let him stoop down and wash those stinky smelly feet even if they did belong to the messiah.  Peter’s thinking,  “Jesus said that I was a rock and that he was going to build his church on this rock. So, it’s obvious that I’m a very important person.  If those flunkeys understood that they’d be over here washing his feet and mine.”

No one washed the feet of God’s only begotten Son on that sacred night because their pride got in the way.  Jesus didn’t have that problem.  In just a few hours he was going to be arrested, beaten and crucified but that didn’t stop him from showing the disciples just how much he loved them. 

In her poem “God In An Apron” Macrina Wiederkehr captures the beauty of the grace filled moment that took place in that Upper Room.  Her poem goes like this:

Supper was special that night…

There was both a heaviness and a holiness hanging in the air

We couldn’t explain the mood.       It was sacred, yet sorrowful.

Gathered around that table….Eating that solemn, holy meal

Seemed to us the most important meal…We had ever sat down to eat.

We were dwelling in the heart of the mystery…Though dark the night

Hope felt right…As if something evil was about to be conquered.

And then suddenly…The One we loved startled us all.

He got up from the table…and put on an apron.

Can you imagine how we felt?

God in an apron!

Tenderness encircled us…As He bowed before us.

He knelt and said,   “I choose to wash your feet because I love you.”

God in an apron, kneeling…I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I was embarrassed…Until his eyes met mine

I sensed my value then.

He touched my feet…He held them in his strong, brown hands

He washed them…I can still feel the water

I can still feel the touch of his hands.

I can still see the look in his eyes.

Then he handed me the towel and said,

“As I have done…so you must do.”

Learn to bow…Learn to kneel.

Let your tenderness encircle everyone you meet

Wash their feet…Not because you have to,

Because you want to.

It seems I’ve stood two thousands years…Holding the towel in my hands,

“As I have done so you must do,”…keeps echoing in my heart.

“There are so many feet to wash,” I keep saying.

“No,” I hear God’s voice resounding through the years

“There are only my feet…What you do for them

You do for me.”

Jesus didn’t let pride keep him from kneeling down and showing the disciples just how much he loved them.  Jesus didn’t let pride keep him from loving the forgotten, the forsaken, the unforgiven and all the people no one else wanted to love.   Jesus is calling to you and me from the Upper Room and his message is simple.  Don’t let pride bottle up the God given love that’s in your heart.  Don’t let pride keep you from loving someone enough to say, “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to hurt you.”  Don’t let pride keep you from loving someone  enough to say, “I forgive you” even when the person doesn’t ask to be forgiven. Don’t let pride keep you from loving the person who pushes your buttons; from loving to the crack addict who can’t help herself; form loving the homeless person who only has himself to blame for his misfortune.  Oh, and don’t forget the other side of the coin.  Don’t let pride keep you from letting someone else wash your feet. Don’t let pride keep you from letting someone else help you.

There’s a story that is told about Booker T. Washington.  Booker T. Washington was a famous African American educator who helped found Tuskegee University back in 1881.  He was the university’s first president.  One day he was walking through a well to do section of town when he was stopped by a wealthy white woman.  The woman didn’t recognize him.  So, she asked him if he would like to earn a few dollars by chopping some wood for her.   Washington didn’t have any pressing business at hand.  So, he rolled his sleeves up and started chopping the wood for her.  He even brought it into her house and stacked it beside the fireplace.  As he was doing that a child recognized him and later revealed his identity to the wealthy woman.  The wealthy woman was horrified and when to Mr. Washington to see Mr. Washington in his office at the school.  After apologizing profusely he did his best to put her at ease.  “Madam,” he said, “It’s perfectly all right.  Occasionally I enjoy a little manual labor.  Besides, it’s always a delight to do something for a friend.”

The disciples didn’t wash the feet of God’s only begotten Son that night but you can and when you do I promise you this: When you bend down it will lift you up so that you feel incredibly blessed.   You know maybe they should make that an award next year.   And the Oscar for foot washing goes to…..maybe you!  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

March 3, 2013