SHOULD WE TAKE JESUS’ TEACHING ABOUT FOOT-WASHING LITERALLY?

Jesus taught in figurative (parabolic, hyperbolic) language. He taught that if our eye causes us to sin, we should pluck it out, and if our hand causes us to sin, we should cut it off. Fortunately, no one takes this literally, and our resulting blindness would dishonor the faith.

It seems that Jesus’ teaching about foot-washing was also figurative and even culturally relative in some respects. After Peter protested against Jesus washing his feet, He responded:

·       “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” (John 13:7 ESV)

If Jesus had been giving them literal instructions about washing feet, they would have understood. Evidently, Jesus had a more spiritual lesson in mind than literally washing each other’s feet. After Peter again objected to Jesus abasing Himself in this manner, He responded that “foot-washing” was a matter of sharing in Jesus’ inheritance:

·       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.” (John 13:8)

If taken literally, it sounds like Jesus was making foot-washing a condition of salvation, but this couldn’t be:

·       Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 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.” (John 13:9-10)

As usual, Peter misunderstood our Lord, thinking that foot-washing was a matter of sanctifying through cleansing with soap and water. However, elsewhere in the Gospel of John, Jesus had made it clear that cleansing or sanctification was a matter of the Spirit working through the Word. After the miraculous feeding of the multitude, Jesus had likewise taught:

·       “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53-56)

Are we to take this teaching literally – salvation by eating Jesus? Of course, not! In fact, within this very context, Jesus taught explicitly about the source of salvation and sanctification:

·       For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)

·       It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63)

Even Peter picked up on this after the multitude departed on account of Jesus’ difficult teaching. He asked Peter if he too was going to depart:

·       Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)

Even Peter understood that salvation wasn’t a matter of ingesting Jesus but of believing in His Words. Was salvation, then, a matter of having clean feet? Jesus had declared them clean but on the basis of what – clean feet? If salvation is a matter of cleanliness or clean feet, Judas Iscariot would have also been saved. He too received the foot-washing. Nevertheless, Jesus stated that one of them was not clean (John 13:11, 21). Evidently, salvation doesn’t depend upon clean feet, or Judas too would have been saved (John 17:12).

Then, upon what did cleansing, sanctification, and salvation depend? On the Gospel message:

·       “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26)

·       “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth…And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:17, 19)

These teachings seem to exclude the idea that clean feet literally sanctify. What then should Jesus’ Apostles have taken away from this lesson? What other lessons had been comparable? I think that foot-washing should remind us of another lesson that Jesus had taught His disciples – that the greatest had to be least, the servant of all. He even taught this lesson in the context of the foot-washing:

·       “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” (John 13:14-16)

Does this mean that we should literally wash one another’s feet? I don’t think so. However, washing feet had been considered a very humbling act, and, in that culture, it addressed a real need. In the dusty terrain, feet quickly dirtied, even with sandals. It was not enough, therefore, to remove one’s sandals when entering a home. The feet had to be washed to remove the filth.

However, this is no longer our need. Instead, we are required to be servants to one another. If Jesus came as a servant who died for our sins, even when we were His enemies, we too must be servants.

In the flesh, I find this very distasteful. Like Jesus’ Apostles, I’d rather be reigning than serving. The idea of ministering to people’s basic needs is not pleasant to me. I become impatient and irritated. Lord, we need your help!