In a recent Bible study we went through the passage where Jesus washes His disciples’ feet (John13-1-17), and as an introduction to the passage I washed the attendees feet.
Their initial reactions to having their feet washed were mixed: some enjoyed having an elevated status over me, some were embarrassed for me, and some didn’t know how to react. Most commented that if they had known I was going to wash their feet they would have washed their feet in advance.
After this we read through the passage, and the question of why Jesus washed their feet was given. Most agreed that He wanted to demonstrate that they should serve one another, and as we continued to dig, more elements of this act came out. The fact that Jesus lowered himself socially below those He served puzzled the studiers in practical application, and 2 members were challenged to enact this submissive humility in their perspective circles (ROTC and people on their dorm floor)—although they were not sure what it looked like.
We then discussed the intimacy that Jesus displayed in cleaning their feet, and after I shared my testimony of someone pursuing me to pray for me and give me love in a place of shame, they were even more challenged in how to extend this love to others. We all agreed it required us to be intentional with our friendships, and when we considered how Peter initially rejected the offer, we went even further to decide that we had to risk our friendships to bring Jesus into them. One of our attendee’s applications was then to risk a friendship he valued (in bringing up things he usually avoids) in order to bring Jesus into them.
They also concluded that they needed to become perceptive of people’s needs and be actively looking for ways to get involved in more meaningful ways in their relationships.
All in all, we never landed on whether we should literally wash people’s feet, but the level of intentional intimacy into people’s area of shame, and the self-lowering of Jesus below the status of his disciples to do so rocked the group’s perception of what “washing feet” can mean. There was more than one long-standing silence in solemn consideration of how to live out these principles.
