The Humility of Service: Unpacking the Act of Foot Washing

Show Notes

Episode 375:
In today's episode, we dove deep into the concept of servant leadership as exemplified by Jesus Christ, particularly through the lens of John chapter 13, verses 1 through 20, where Jesus washes His disciples' feet before the Passover celebration. This act, while common in the culture of the time due to the dusty roads and open sandals, was typically reserved for the lowest of servants. Yet here was Jesus, the Master and Teacher, humbling Himself to perform this service for His disciples.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. We're the best of friends. There you go, we are the best of friends. I don't know what that's from. I just made it up. Okay, well that's even more special. Did you just sing me a song about being best friends? I did? Jeff whoa said jeffy? So that is a perfect segue into we have a segment called the Best Friends Trivia, which, by the way, it's a touch presumptuous, but yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Well the reason why I said those things is because I read it and I go, what this is a brand new segment. We've never done this one. That's right, that's right. So here's what Desire wrote. While there's no duo quite like Jeff and Chris, there are some pretty good best friend duos out there. Yes, So let's see if Chris can determine which popular best friends said each quote. And so I'm going to read the quote and I'll give you the two best friends. Okay, okay, that's by the way. I I this is new to me, and I hope I can or do you want me to give you the best friends and then read the quote, or do you want to try to guess the quote before I even give you the two? You give me the quote and I will see if I know the best friends before, and then then I probably won't. And then you tell me who and then I'll guess the person. Okay, how about that? Hands down? This is the best day of my life and quite possibly the last. Oh. I already know that. I've watched that a thousand that is Olaf says that, jeez, I don't know Olaf's best friend Anna, Annah. There you go Annah. Okay, very good. They chose Wait a minute, Oloff's best friend was Anna. That's that's the that's what she's That's what I didn't write these, dude, I'm just reading them. I got the quote. Take the point, man, it's a win. It's definitely a win. Okay, but I just would not have chose Okay, this one, this one, this one will work. We're a team. Nothing means more to me than our friendship. That could be anyone at any time, in anywhere. We're a team. Nothing means more to me than this friendship. So that's the ones overbearing. I don't know. I don't want to waste somebody or Mike. Oh, that's hilarious. Who is more enthusiastic? Mike would have been more enthusiastic. I'm would say Mike, Mike. It is Michael. Oh good job, good job, you're two for two. All right, Okay, h Only a true friend would say something that cruel and honest. That sounds familiar. It is only a true friend would say something that true and honest, that cruel and honest, cruel and honest. I don't know who's It's either Donkey or Shrek. Oh, that's funny. That would Shrek is the mean one. Donkey there you go. Uh, No, you didn't get me. If you get me, you kill me. I don't know that one. I've never heard that quote, but I know the people. I don't. To be honest, that doesn't embell It's either Joey or Chandler. Okay, and read it again. No you didn't get me. If you get me, you kill me. Okay. I I know Joey and Chandler very very well. Yeah, and just based on the fact that that does not even remotely sound like a Joey quote, I'm gonna say Chandler, Yes, it is Chandler. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the one. That's the logic right there. I didn't know that. I've never don't even know that quote. I don't I know this one. I know this one. Okay. He has gone from completely hopeless to simply miserable. Wow. Yeah, these are tough ones. These are tough. This is why I have to give you the names. You want the names. Yes, it's either Dwight or Jim. Oh that's hilarious. And I know the office very well. Okay, say yeah, he has gone from completely hopeless to simply miserable. It's gone completely that's very mean. And so my guess is that Dwight said about Jeff Dwight. Yes, there you go. You got them all and you piece it together, dude without even knowing. Yeah, yeah, Donnie, I know the first Donkey, Chandler and Dwight. Yeah yeah, and Mike you got Mike too, A piece of them together, fantastic. It's it's your instincts are just that good. You know these, You know these personalities so well. I know that's right, right, Yeah, I do think it's funny. I made that joke about cartoons, and then three of the five were from car cartoons. In the morning, I'm making waffles. There you go, donkey, so funny, there you go. It's good. Okay, So best friends right there, that's what that's all about. And uh apparently we're keeping the show up pretty good because that's right. Thinks we're like best friends. Oh that's pretty that's very sweet. A yeah, how nice. Okay, Oh wait a minute. That is the song We're the Best of Friends, and it's from a cartoon, the Best of Friend. Yes, that is a song sung by Mama Aol in The Fox and the Hound Wow, from nineteen eighty one. There you go. Look how wonderful you are. That's what it is. Friends. Hey, if somebody doubts me, google it. I'm telling you I nailed it. You nailed They were the best of friends. That's what it is. Okay, So you didn't write that song for me in the moment, I sang it to my heart. You sing it from your heart? Yes, okay, okay. We are reading from John chapter thirteen one through twenty, and this is mineing Chris's favorite passage and the entire Gospels. This is this whole story. We just if we could relive this story every day, and you're going to find out why that is not a true statement as soon as we read it. John thirteen one says before the passover celebration, Jesus knew that is Our had come to leave this world and returned to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon, a scariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything that he'd come from God, and we returned to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped the towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. And then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, you don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will. No Peter protested, you will never ever wash my feet. Jesus replied, unless I wash you you won't belong to me, Simon Peter exclaimed, Then wash my hands in my head as well, Lord, not just my feet, Jesus replied. A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash except for the feet to be entirely clean. And you, disciples are clean, but not all of you. For Jesus knew whould betray him. That is what he meant when he said, not all of you are clean. After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, do you understand what I was doing? You call me teacher and lord, and you're right, because that's what I am. And since I your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I've done to you. I tell you the truth. Slaves are not greater than their master, nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. I'm not saying these things to all of you. I know the ones I've chosen. But this fulfills the scripture that says, the one who eats my food has turned against me. I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens, you'll believe that I am the Messiah. I tell you the truth. Anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me. Anyone who welcomes me as well welcoming the father who sent me. Wow, there it is, Okay. It's our favorite because because I hate feet. I hate feet more than the lega side. So my wife's feet are the only feet that can come near me. And even then, if I'm sitting there on the couch and she grabs her bare feet and she puts them up on me, it's every instinct is like, get your feet off of me. Wow. And if she says, hey, just rub my feet or something like, that's cool. It's my wife's feet. I can rub. I can rub her feet, right. And I'm sure my kids have never asked me to do that, but I'm sure if that happened, I'd be fine with it. But feet in general, I just I just well, I loathe feet. I don't just I don't just say not my favorite. I don't like feet like I open toe sandals, all that stuff. If somebody has gnarly nasty feet and and uh, and I've seen people wear like sandals, flip flops, and then they like even put like their nasty feet up on a coffee table. I'm telling you, I'm ready to swing. Wow. I mean, I just I'm I'm just like, I literally can't believe your nasty, crusty feet around that table. So yeah, it's it's really it's really bad for me. Now, however, that's not it's actually not the reason why I don't unlessarily love that passage. Let me let me, let me take away all of my feelings about feet, let me take them all away, okay, and just tell you this. So and I said this right before we read this, is that my son Steve and my daughter Tory, uh, they went to Haiti and two separate occasions, and they did a foot washing ceremony, and they said, outside of their own salvation and baptism, that was the most spiritual experience they've ever had. It was the most meaningful, and it was wonderful. And and they'll they'll even cry talking about it like that's how specially it was, right, And I and I do believe that, by the way, I believe that anything, by the way, not just foot washing, anything can have that effect on you, right, if if you were to teach, like, for instance, the passover meal. Have you ever have you ever been one of those Jews for Jesus sat meal? Yeh, we're getting ready to do on what the elders Yes, yes, says yes, okay, Now you could you could experience that without any teaching and be like, I don't even know what this is, or you can like spend an hour and a half learning this significance of everything on that plate and on that table, and then when you experience it, you could be overwhelmed to the point of tears because it is so special, right, and which, by the way, I've experienced and it could be anything. So so washing feet can be something that's significant if you learn the significance of what it truly means. Because washing feet in and of itself is not special. It's what it represents, right, So unpack what does it represent? Yeah? So, so here's the reason why I'm taking my emotions out of it, of me not liking feet, and I'm saying, what's in agreement with you on yes? Yes, yes, okay? So it was it was number one. Washing feet in that day was something that everybody did all the time because the roads were dusty, and people were sandals in the Middle East and they would be out along a long journey or whatever, you know, working. Most likely they would come in through a home and to sit down and not wash your feet. Not only was it, you know, it was actually ceremonial, right. So the exhaust that came from donkeys and camels, yes, was all over the street. Yes, exhaust is my phrase, my delicate phrase. Yes. And so you're walking into open shoes, yes, and so yeah, you need to get that off your feet while your trips around inside the house. And let's not forget also, tables were close to the ground, which means that they sat down on the floor, oftentimes to eat. So it's not like, you know, you sit at a restaurant table and your feet are just out of sight. You're talking like your feet's going to be touching somebody right there. And so washing feet was we know this according to tradition, it was reserved for the servants. But not just that, but what the lowest, the lowest servant, the lowest job, the lowest job on the totem pole. So if you're in a really rich house and let's just say you have three or four servants assisting the meal. The absolute lowest thing that you can do is wash somebody's feet. Why because it was the most you know, it was the dirtiest job. Yeah right, So therefore the symbolism doesn't make sense today. Nobody washes feet. Today, we all have shoes and socks. The worlds are paved, right, This is not customary, it's not ceremonious. Right, So therefore a thing can be just as special to serve What is the equivalent of serving another person today? What is the lowliest job? Because that's why it was significant. It was significant that the savior of the world, the highest of high, would make himself to be the lowest of low. It just so happened that it was that tradition. That's right, that's right. And they're eating in a rich man's home, and apparently the servants in the rich man's home didn't do it well, or Jesus insisted, yeah, hey, give me that towel. Yeah right, because I couldn't imagine him not providing that service for them. Right, But either way, I'm gonna sneeze. Oh here you go, excuse me, bless you, thank you, he does, but so do I thank you. Thank you. So anyway, the point is is that is that so have I have this thing where I don't like feet. But more than that, I'm not against foot washing in a ceremony at all. I just hope that everybody understands that if you run into somebody a part of a church that says, oh, foot washing is an ordinance in our church, well that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, I guess you could argue that, but you know, Jesus established communion, he established baptism. You know, you could make an argument and say foot washing is something that we do. That's fine. I'm not gonna get upset about that. I'm just saying it's the only thing that's irrelevant. It's one hundred percent irrelevant in our culture. I mean in other places in the world they still have the same kind of situation, but in our culture. So this idea of and this is where I wanted to go with the conversation, is there are nobody argues that Jesus expects his followers to get baptized, right, that's an ordinance of the church. And then the other one is what's what we would call the Lord's Supper or the Last supper communion. Right, Jesus said, do this in remembrance and me. He's telling them. As often as you do it, do it remembers me. Now. Of course they would have done it often because they celebrate the pass over meal every year. Right, So every time you do this, I want you to remember me. Now, just understand that I'm the one. And so we've adopted that as an ordinance, this one. Some churches would say, do as I have done to you, right, as was saying, so I want you to wash each other's feet, And people go, oh my goodness, that that's an ordinance too. We're supposed to wash each other's feet. The difference is here, and it's a significant difference. Jesus said in verse fifteen, I've given you an example. Follow right. So it's not the ordinance of get baptized. It's not the ordinance of observed communion or the lord's supper. This one is follow this example. The most powerful person in the room served everybody else. That's the example. And this was the so's he's setting up an example here, not an ordinance. And there's a big difference between those two things, I think. But hey, you can celebrate it if it's a deeply spiritual thing for you. I'm not going to wash your feet if I don't. If I don't have to, I will never do it, unless unless I'm in a situation where it would be a defense or rude to not do it. Yeah. I've had a couple of times where people were doing it and it was a deeply spiritual thing for all of them, and I always find a way to scoot out of it, you know, back before I was a pastor and stuff. So, but you know, I think there's other ways to serve. You can serve people and let them know I'm choosing to serve you. And this is the way that Christians are supposed to be, is that we serve one another. And that really is that That's what Jesus is saying. Here is the example. The other big piece of this is Peter going, no, no, Jesus, I'm not gonna let you wash my feet, right, And Jesus said, if I don't wash you, you're not even gonna make it to the kingdom, right, And so there's a humility in allowing it, right. And unless you're humble enough to allow Jesus to wash you, you could never get to heaven, and that's a that's the other side of it. So it's kind of funny even Jesus, even Peter's like, nah, dude, you're not touching my head. Yeah, well, I mean, and think about what it symbolizes. Right, So Jesus dies on the cross to pay for our sins. Right. So it's in a way you can say it's a foreshadowing because Jesus not only does he serve humanity, but he's about to serve humanity in a way that is the lowest that you can go, right, You're going to serve. And so Jesus serves us in every way. And so when he says an example, I think the example has depth. I think that you could. I don't think he did it for the purpose of saying the significance was me dying on the cross, I don't think. But what I'm saying is is it's an example of Jesus serving us. What does Philippians to say? He goes from the highest high to the lowest of low. He says, you know, not just any death, but even the death of the cross. Right, So I think I think the concept of the savior of the universe serving us is demonstrated in no greater way than him taking upon our sin and paying for it on the cross, and so and so when he says, hey, if I don't wash you, then you have no part of me. And that's what that's what he's really saying. He's saying, he's saying, if you don't allow me to serve you, right, then you can't be you know, be a part of me and my salvation. And by the way, let me just also say this, because I came down so hard on me not ever doing foot washing. I don't want people to listen, right, So we have I don't know, sometimes roughly a thousand people a day that listen, right, So there are people around the world that listen that you know, we may have taken the wind out of their sails and be like Chris or Jeff don't like foot washing. And yet that's one of the most special things in the world to me. Perfectly fine, It's perfectly fine, like I said, my son and my daughter, right, I mean, I can't get any more than that, right, I mean, I honor and respect and and and love to even hear them talk about it how special it was, which means like just because I personally don't have a preference to do that, and I and I'm trying to, you know, unpack it in a way that says you can serve people other ways because of everything else. It does not mean that if that's something that's really special for you. Maybe you're a foot person, right, maybe you love feet, I don't know, Maybe maybe you just richly it connects you to the action, the literal action that Jesus did, and so therefore that for you is really a connection, right because you're wired that way for some reason, and that's cool. I just I don't want to take away from somebody who says, now, Chris, why are you busting on something that's so important to me? Right, I don't want to. I don't want to take that away from anybody, right right. So I'm just going to say, hey, just because I don't necessarily care for it, let me say it another way. If my team, which the team, the team that you know, the staff that I'm a part of the team, my team on my staff, if they were to come to me and say we want to do a foot washing ritual and we we want to do it at Heritage Church, I wouldn't push back against that I would have conversations with them about it, you know, are you sure you want to do it? You know? But if they wanted to do it, it'd be totally fine. Try to put my stamp of approval on it. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, not against it. Just don't want to do it, yeah, just just it's your preferences, and it's because of So there's a note here in John thirteen in the Life Application Study Bible. Imagine being Peter and watching Jesus wash the other's feet, all while moving closer to you. Seeing his master behave like a slave must have confused Peter, right, he still didn't understand Jesus teaching that to be a leader, a person must first be a servant. This is not a comfortable passage for leaders who find it hard to serve others beneath them. How do you treat those who work under you, whether children, employees, are volunteers. That's the message Jesus is trying toscend, is you serve. The world thinks of it that the boss is above and everybody's below, And Jesus said, no, the boss is the one. The leader is the one who comes in and serves from the bottom up. And so literally from the feet up. So Peter is confused by this, right, it's a normal thing. Though. This would have happened for Peter every time he went into somebody's home. That's right, every time he went into somebody, somebody would have watched his feet. Right. So it wasn't a weird thing for him or an odd thing. It was completely and totally normal. This was not the tradition of washing feet, was not a distinctly spiritual thing at all. Jesus made this moment spiritual, and washing feet's not spiritual. This moment was because he was saying, look at this example. The example is the greatest among us, serve the rest of us. Right. And by the way, I found a note here in the Life Application Study Bible because I referred to that Jesus dying on the cross, and it says when Jesus responded, unless I wash you, you won't belong to me, he may have met Number one that unless he washed away peter sins by his death on the cross, then Peter could have no relationship with him, which is what I said. And then number two that unless Peter submitted to him and allowed Jesus to minister in this way, Peter would never learn the lesson of humility. Either way, Peter seemed to grasp the significance of Jesus's words, for he then wanted to be bathed completely. And then it references what Peter said. Yeah, so there it is. I wasn't too far off there. So that second meaning, you know, he says you won't belong to me. What he's saying is you're not identifying with me, dude, if you refuse the humility that this requires, right, you're never actually going to be a servants, which he's not saying heaven here. So some of theologians would say it is a heaven thing because he's talking about the cross. I'm not sure I entirely believe that's true because it seems like he would have mentioned the cross or his death or you know, my blood, and he doesn't. So it seems like what he's saying is if you can't identify at the servant level, you're never going to identify with me, right, Yeah, And I think that either way it works. But whether or not it's probable or more likely, yeah, I'm totally fine. So the big picture is as we wrap up, the big picture is take Jesus example, and serve the people around you. That's what's right, that's right. And then also to be overwhelmed always with the fact that our Savior not only taught this, but modeled this for us. And by the way, in a time where that was brand new information. Because chances are you grew up and you've heard of servant leadership because Christianity has permeated throughout the centuries, right, so you've heard of it. It's not a new concept. But imagine in the first century that was like, like you know, for for somebody to say, don't look down on a servant in order to lead, you must be a servant first and last and exalted and humbled. All that was paradoxal and brand new information. Even to love your enemies, serve your enemies, pray for them, that was brand new. So so the so the the the unbelievable teaching here that Peter had to have wrapped his mind around, and the others. Uh, we should never take that for granted because it's it's an it's a revolutionary concept. So all right, well, that's all our time for today, and so hopefully we'll see you next week. On the Bible guys,