FOOT WASHING?

As members of the elder body of our church, Carol and I were asked to come to the church for a special meeting. Upon learning that we were to have our feet washed by senior staff members, I was filled with a slight sense of apprehension. A foot washing!

Because we are normal, in order to prepare for the experience we carefully made sure our toenails were properly trimmed and painted (Carol, not me…give me a break!), we carefully bathed our feet before going, and I put on a clean pair of socks. You can’t go to a foot washing service with dirty, smelly feet—that would not be cool!

It was a wonderfully joyous time with the staff of this busy and famous megachurch. When we arrived we went to one of the rooms off to the side of the sanctuary. As soon as we were seated, one of the senior pastoral staff came with a basin of water and towels and knelt on the floor in front of us. Very quickly he removed our shoes and socks and then very gently washed and dried our feet. Others around the room were performing the same humble act.

It was significant to see these very talented and busy pastors expressing their love and concern by this gracious act of servanthood. What a beautiful and humbling experience, a powerful lesson in true biblical leadership.

In Bible days it was customary for a guest’s feet to be washed as he entered the home he was visiting. Basins of water were set near the door and often a servant would be there to actually wash the feet of the visitor, the most menial task of the household.

Travelling was never easy in ancient times. Most people walked everywhere although some, more fortunate, would ride a donkey or a horse. The unpaved roads were dusty and littered with manure and if it rained, the whole surface of the road became a mud patch of filth and dirt. Foot washing was both a custom and a necessity to keep the filth of the streets out of homes and places of business.

In John 13 we are given an intimate look at Jesus in the days just before His crucifixion. At a private dinner with His disciples, Jesus suddenly stood and disrobed. He took off his outer garments, took a basin of water, and then gently and patiently washed and dried the feet of each of His disciples. Peter, reacting like many of us would, looked at Jesus and said, “This is not cool. You are the Son of God and it’s humiliating to have you doing something like this. You are not going to wash my feet.”

Jesus looked at Peter and said, “I know you don’t understand this now, but you will. If I don’t wash you then you have no part with me.” Peter’s emotional pendulum then swung completely in the opposite direction and he said, “Don’t wash just my feet but my hands and my head, as well.”

Jesus was not instituting a new church ordinance (water baptism or communion), he was demonstrating that while He was God’s Son, He was also a humble servant. He was demonstrating the heart of leadership in the Kingdom of God. What happened here was a clash between the arrogance of the world’s system of leadership and the humility of the Kingdom of God’s leadership style. The world’s system, which is based on arrogance and personal ambition, will always react in anger to the humility of biblical leadership. Peter and the others had not yet come to fully understand the Kingdom that Jesus was revealing; they kept waiting for Him to rise up in rebellion against the Romans and establish a worldly kingdom. Peter’s reaction was an indicator of his lack of spiritual perception at this point.

I don’t know that the world ever needs to have another foot washing service but I do know that the church, and specifically leadership, needs to reexamine the scriptural qualities of leadership. Among the most important qualities of leadership is servanthood. No one can truly be a leader in the Kingdom of God without being a servant at heart. The arrogance of the world system does not find a home in God’s Kingdom; arrogance and biblical leadership cannot peacefully co-exist in the Kingdom of God.

All of us who have embraced Jesus Christ as savior are sons and daughters of the King, but all of us also are to follow His example and be servants. True biblical leadership is characterized with the heart of servanthood. That is why Paul, quite possibly the greatest leader of the New Testament church, began several of his letters with the statement, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1 and Philippians 1:1). Peter got the message! He begins 2 Peter, “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle” (v. 1).