On feet (for Maundy Thursday)

 

 

Psalm 116

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

 

I think we should talk about feet.

They can sometimes be a bit smelly, but they seem to matter.

 

This meal in John chapter 13, closely parallels the meal in John chapter 12.

Both are in the context of the Passover and there’s talk of Jesus’ death.

Both contain a symbol action relating to Jesus and feet.

Here Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.

And in the previous chapter Mary anointed Jesus’ feet.

 

In fact, in John chapter 11, Mary had fallen at Jesus’ feet and called him “Lord”.

There is the call of the gospel:

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Will you fall at his feet?

Will you humble yourself before him, worship him, and pledge your allegiance to him, and look to him for his mercy?

 

Further, in Luke chapter 10, we find Mary sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.

Sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to his word, is the place of discipleship:

Some would have said that a woman’s place was in the kitchen, but Mary was at her Lord’s feet learning from his word.

You may remember the incident.

Mary’s sister, Martha, is distracted by all the preparations that have to be made for hosting Jesus and his disciples.

Martha is resentful.

She complains to Jesus: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?

Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.

 Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

 

Jesus is Lord.

He will put all his enemies under his feet and make them his footstool.

 

But what kind of Lord is he?

 

It’s worth saying that Jesus himself would of course have had smelly dirty feet.

At another meal in Luke chapter 7, a sinful woman had washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

Jesus pointed out that no one had given him water for his feet.

 

Jesus is the down to earth God.

He got his hands and his feet dirty.

He was truly made man, made flesh.

 

Jesus didn’t float around above the muck and the grime.

He mucked in.

 

In the Bible the earth is under God’s curse because of human sin.

The serpent has to crawl on his belly and eat the dust.

Human beings are taken from the ground and return to the ground.

“Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

 

And Jesus is made mortal.

Jesus too is heading for the grave and that anointing in John 12 was in preparation for his burial.

He was anointed both as king and corpse.

He comes to take on himself the curse of sin, to share in and un-do the dust of death.

 

Influenced by Satan, Judas will lift up his heal against Jesus.

But Jesus will crush Satan’s head under his foot.

 

Jesus will of course triumph over sin and Satan and death.

The LORD will deliver his soul from death, his eyes from tears, his feet from stumbling, that he may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

 

Our chapter is one that speaks of comings and goings.

And Jesus washing his disciples’ feet is an acted parable of his incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension.

He has come from God his Father and is returning to him.

Jesus goes from his place at the table and back to it, just as he has come from heaven and will return to heaven.

And Jesus takes off his outer garment and wraps himself in a towel.

Jesus laid aside his glory and was clothed in human flesh.  

Jesus will be stripped for his crucifixion and wrapped in clothes for his burial.

He will lay down his life only to take it up again.

He has come from the Father and will return to the Father.

 

In chapter 12, you may remember, Judas objected to the expense of the anointing of Jesus’ feet.

But Jesus will pour out not expensive perfume, but himself, his own precious blood, to make his disciples clean.

 

By making his apparently pious objection to the Lord Jesus washing his feet, Peter is becoming like Judas in the previous chapter.

Judas is going to betray Jesus.

Peter is going to deny him.

Both Judas and Peter stand as warnings to us not to resist the necessity of Jesus’ death and burial.

 

For Peter, his conversation with Jesus must have recalled his conversation with Jesus at Caesarea Philippi where Jesus had said that he must suffer and die.

Peter had dared to rebuke Jesus about the cross, and had been rebuked in turn.

This rejection of the cross and of the foot washing is another “get behind me, Satan”, moment.

 

Jesus is extraordinarily strong and particular with Peter here.

Jesus absolutely insists on washing Peter’s feet and says:

“Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

 

So we must fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

We must sit at Jesus’ feet as his disciples and learn his word.

He calls us to serve him:

We must go his way.

But first we must allow him to serve us.

We must admit our need of him.

We must let him wash our feet and make us clean.

We must learn this vital lesson that the Christian faith is about what Jesus has DONE for us, before it’s what we DO for him.

Jesus must be our crucified Saviour, before he can be our risen Lord.

Jesus must cleanse us before we can serve him.

We must trust him and then obey him.  

 

Jesus’ life must be poured out for us.

His blood must make us clean.

The way of the cross is essential:

Without it there is no cleansing, no fellowship, no discipleship, no part in Jesus, no resurrection, no glory.

 

We cannot have a cost-less, cross-less, cosy, comfortable Christianity.

The Christian message is not you’re all right and I’m all right.

It insists that Jesus must wash us and make us clean.

It’s appropriate, then, that a baptismal wash is always the beginning of a Christian life.

The Christian faith is humiliating.

It says to you and me that we are dirty and we need a wash!

Jesus insists on it.

Get your feet out!

Yes, they smell, but Jesus must wash them.

There is no other way.

 

But with all that in place, Jesus does then show us what to do.

He calls us to follow in his way.

He gives us our marching orders:

“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.”

 

Jesus’ cross is far more than an example, but it is an example.

 

The position of Lord, Messiah and Saviour of the World is taken.

But Jesus the Lord of all and the servant of all calls on us to serve too.

The one who died for us says we must be willing to die for him.

The crucified one calls us to take up our cross.  

 

Jesus called himself the Way and he calls us to come and follow him.

The Christian faith is often described as a race or a pilgrimage.

The Bible speaks of our walk as the way we live.

And so Jesus calls on us afresh to put our feet on his way, to walk with him.

 

2 John takes up Jesus’ command that we love one another and speaks of it as walking in Jesus’ commandments:

John says to the church:

 ^“It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 

⁵ And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. 

I ask that we love one another. 

⁶ And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. 

As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

 

May we fall afresh at Jesus’ feet, which have borne the dust of the earth and the curse of sin for us.

We give thanks that Jesus has crushed the serpent’s head and that he is putting all his enemies under his feet.

But we are also thankful that he came as one who serves.

We admit our need of him.

We allow him to wash our feet and make us clean.

It is Jesus’ service of us which allows us to serve others.

Jesus’ love enables us to love.

We commit ourselves afresh today to walking with Jesus in his way, in the way of the cross which is also the way of life.

And we pray that we might stand firm with our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Amen.