Imagine this scene with me for a moment: You’ve just spent the day treading the hot, dusty streets of a bustling city in your sandals. The dirt and sweat has formed a thin layer of grime between your toes and on the soles of your feet. It’s possible you stepped in animal droppings at some point during the day (after all, it is the Feast of the Passover and Jerusalem echoes with the bleating of lambs). And let’s not even talk about the smell… Odor Eaters hasn’t been invented yet, so you and the other men in your group are going au naturale, as it were. But you’ve just discovered that the house in which you are to dine has provided water, a basin and a towel, but no servant to wash those smelly, grubby, caked-with-dirt feet of yours before you all sit down to dinner. Gasp! Guess you and your friends will just have to hold your noses during the meal, because nobody—and I mean nobody—wants that job.
You all settle in for the feast, politely ignoring each other’s blackened, pungent toes. Everything seems to be going well until halfway through the meal the Teacher gets up. Conversation dwindles and stops as you all watch Him remove his robe, fold it up and place it carefully on the floor. Smiles fade as He wraps the towel around his waist and fills the stone basin with water. What He does next causes the hunk of bread you’ve been chewing on to momentarily become lodged in your throat. The Teacher, the one you’ve come to call “Lord” and recognize as God’s Messiah, begins washing your feet. Yes, your grubby, stinking feet that now you’re sure came into contact with sheep dung earlier that day!
This situation may be comical to read but if we really stop and think about the reality of it, of someone we respect, admire and view as our superior performing such a task for any one of us, well, I can think of a few words that might describe it… Shocking. Embarrassing. Humbling. Uncomfortable. And I’m willing to bet our feet are likely much cleaner and nicer smelling than the disciples’ were that evening. But the real kicker is this: More than an incentive to serve one another and humble ourselves to tasks we may not enjoy, Jesus’ demonstration when He washed the disciples’ feet that night was a living parable of the despised and lowly service of the cross.
The prophet Isaiah foretold Jesus as the suffering servant. Listen to his words in chapter 53:
“Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
Most often in our books and movies when a fictional hero or godlike figure comes on the scene, we know it. Think Thor—all beard and bulging muscle and lightning bolts. And yet these verses describe Jesus as “a young plant,” “a root out of dry ground” with no form or majesty or beauty that we should desire Him. He came to serve a world that largely rejected and hated Him, tortured Him and ultimately murdered Him. And yet this was God’s self-revelation: a humble servant sent to bear the iniquity of us all. God, the Creator of the universe, Sustainer of all life, the Almighty, all-knowing and all-powerful Deity deigned to stoop down, take on the form of a servant, and clean up our mess. How incredible!
As quietly as Jesus rose from the comfort of the table, so also did He rise from His throne in Heaven, silently descending to earth as a helpless baby in the womb of a young Jewish girl. Just as He willingly laid aside His garments, so too did he divest Himself of His heavenly glory and put on human flesh. Jesus humbly girded Himself with a towel just as He humbled Himself and took on the form of a servant.He poured out the water as deliberately as He poured out His blood, and He washed the disciples’ feet with the same tender love, compassion, grace and mercy as He did when upon the cross He washed our souls free of sin—white, spotless, without blemish forevermore.
From His position of utmost power and authority, the Son of God chose to take upon Himself the duties of a servant. And in His final precious hours He displayed that servant’s heart not to the crowds of Jerusalem, but to those He loved—His own whom He had chosen out of the world. You see, while Jesus loved and gave Himself up to pay for the sins of the world (John 3:16), only those who respond to Him in faith experience His love to its fullest and richest extent. Remember, even Judas’ feet were washed by Jesus, but his heart remained unclean (John 13:10–11)—blackened by greed and mired in sin. There are some things Jesus has done for all, but it is only for some that Jesus has done all things. Is it so with you? Has the Son washed you clean, beloved? Have you been made spotless by the blood of the Lamb? It may be humbling and even a bit uncomfortable to come before Him with all your dirt and grit and grime, but oh, the joy of a cleansed and unstained soul! Praise God’s suffering Servant who has borne our iniquities and made many to be accounted as righteous!