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Washing the Feet
By Jeff Reed
Last year I entered a local film festival. I had created a short film with my brother and our small production team. It was our first narrative short film and I felt confident going in that we should receive at least one prize. I figured it would be hard for someone to make a film better than ours, but I thought there might be a remote possibility. The first film premiered. “Ours was better,” I thought and I felt even more confident. Then it happened. They played a film that was better than ours. It was actually much better. Next they played a film that was better than that one. Several more films played, and then our film followed.
We weren’t the filmmaking geniuses that we had imagined ourselves to be. In fact, we still had a lot to learn. It was a very humbling experience. There is an African proverb that says, “Whatever accomplishment you boast of in the world, there is someone better than you.” This is very true. There will always be someone smarter, more talented, better looking, with more money, and a better job than you. Accepting this inevitable fact gives us a type of human humility. But this is not the humility that God expects us to have.
Jesus Christ was the most powerful man ever to walk the face of the earth. There was no one better than Him. He was the Creator of the universe, owner of everything, a member of the Godhead who chose to become flesh and blood. Yet, He was also the most humble man who ever lived.
Paul, writing to the Philippians, expressed Christ’s humility by writing, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8). The ultimate expression of His humility was His selfless death for us. The goal of His life was to make it possible for us to inherit eternal life. He was not seeking His own glory but because of this “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The humility of Christ was present because of His total commitment to serving others. He states this clearly in Matthew 20:28: “[The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” There are several examples in the gospels where we can see this humility displayed.
The greatest example occurs the evening before He was to be betrayed. Jesus shared a Passover meal with His disciples. During the meal He filled up a basin with water and wrapped a towel around Himself. He began washing each of his disciples’ feet and dried them with the towel. This was a service that would normally be done by the least trained servants. Because of this, it was considered one of the lowliest duties a servant could perform. Here we have the God of the universe performing a nasty, stinking job that was reserved for the least competent servant. It wasn’t merely a ritualistic or symbolic foot washing. I imagine that when He was finished, the disciples had extremely clean feet—I would guess the cleanest their feet ever were. Afterward He said, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
We are to be like Christ in how we serve others. By serving, we will learn true humility.
I had the opportunity to visit with the local Infuse group in Detroit and visit an urban garden they are responsible for. It was planted in an abandoned lot and the produce is available for anyone in the neighborhood to take. It takes them considerable time and dedication to maintain the garden. By doing this they are essentially “washing the feet” of the community. Service leads to humility.
Before Paul gave the example of Christ in Philippians, he tells us, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Let us all follow that example. i
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