John 13:1-20
April 15, 2003
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the American Baptist Seminary of the West, Berkeley
A librarian in a nearby seminary had to call for the police to come. The problem was not that someone was talking too loudly. Rather the problem was that a man with extremely smelly feet had decided to take his shoes off while inside the library. Police officers came and removed the man from the building and fined him $250!
During my first quarter in college dorms, I was assigned to a roommate named John. We had nothing in common. He was from a small town and I was from Boston. He was into biology, I was into psychology and philosophy. One thing that I can remember that we did have in common was that we both drove cars with engines in the back. He had a Chevy Corvair and I had a VW Fastback. But the most memorable difference between John and me is that he had smelly feet! At the end of a wintry day, he would place his sweaty socks on the radiator to dry. I should have called the resident director to fine him $250!
Six months ago, our son and daughter-in-law in Boston made us grandparents by bringing into the world our first granddaughter, Evelyn Grace. See these cute pictures! When you touch and smell a baby’s feet, they smell good. You want to put them up to your nose and kiss them with your lips. There are no bunions, corns, calluses, blisters, ingrown toenails, warts. These little feet have not had the chance to walk on this earth yet. They are good smelling feet from heaven. You don’t mind washing these little feet.
Washing the Disciples Feet
In the Scriptures read for tonight, we see that Jesus knew the time has come for him to fulfill his mission in the world. Jesus has loved his disciples from the beginning of his ministry and still loves them as he comes to the end of his ministry. He saw how these disciples walked on this earth as fishermen, laborers, carpenters, homemakers, tax collectors. So out of his love for the world, Jesus walked with them too. The unpaved, uneven, rocky, and dusty roads must have caused these disciples’ feet to be roughed up, sweaty, and smelly. At the end of the day, these are the kind of people who would take off their socks to hang on the radiator to dry.
Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his outer robe, and ties a towel around him. He pours water in a basin and began to wash the disciples’ roughed up, sweaty, dirty, and smelly feet. He dries their feet with the towel tied around him. Some of the disciples must have been shocked. They were mesmerized by what they were seeing. Perhaps some of them were so tired that they enjoyed having their feet washed and massaged by Jesus. Perhaps some of them were so engaged in conversation with each other that they didn’t even noticed that Jesus was kneeling underneath the table washing their feet.
But when Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter noticed. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” He knew that if there was going to be any foot-washing here, he should be washing Jesus’ feet—not Jesus washing his feet. He said to Jesus, “Jesus, you will never wash my feet.”
But Jesus told Peter that in time, he would understand what all of this would mean. Jesus told Peter that “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Unless Jesus was able to teach Peter and the rest of the disciples how to watch over each other, how to clean after each other, how to wash each other’s dirty and stinky feet, how to love each other, they won’t know how to be his disciples.
Feet Washing
We Baptists don’t wash feet. It’s just not our tradition. Maybe we should. Some people think we go overboard and wash everything in sight—Believers Baptism—not only my feet, but my hands and my head too!
But when you are in a baptistry, it’s hard to see what our feet are like. They’re 4 feet underwater. We focus on the top part of the body that’s draped with a white robe. We pastors don’t notice the feet. For the most part, we really don’t need to see them. We can easily imagine by looking at our own feet, how roughed up, dirty, and smelly they are. When our candidates come for baptism we already know what conditions their feet are in. Some of us pastors are glad that we practice immersion instead of foot washing.
Some people have better-looking feet than other people. Some of the most popular models in advertising today are men and women whose faces you’ve probably never seen. Parts models as they are called are models that specialize in showing off a particular part of their body, such as their hands or their feet. Top parts models earn between $150 and $3000 per day. My roommate John would never make it in this industry!
There’s Ellen Sirot, who is considered to be the Cindy Crawford of hand modeling. The job might not be quite as easy as it might sound. Ellen Sirot takes care of her hands 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. She protects them by wearing gloves everyday to shield them from ultraviolet light, cuts, and bruises. She doesn’t cook, she doesn’t clean, she doesn’t take out the garbage, she doesn’t garden, she doesn’t play tennis. She said, “I really don’t do anything.” These are the kinds of hands and feet we don’t mind washing.
Love as Jesus Loved
After Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, put on his robe, and returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?”
Jesus said, “As your Lord and Teacher, I have washed you feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”
It may have been okay for Jesus to wash their feet, but now the disciples are commanded to wash each other’s feet too. Ughhh! We don’t mind washing a baby’s feet or a parts model’s feet, but the feet of my roommate, John. No way! But that’s what Jesus is saying to us today.
Jesus is saying to us that if we want to be his disciples, we need to tie a towel around us and begin washing each other’s feet. When we wash physically or symbolically each other’s feet, we are loving one another as Jesus loved us.
Up to this point, most of what Jesus has said and done is not all that new in the context of the Jewish faith. Many healers, teachers, prophets from Abraham to the time of Jesus had said the same words and done the same sort of acts. Jesus had been very clear that all that he taught ran in a consistent stream from ancient Judaism. Until now.
Jesus breaks with tradition. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” At first glance we might say, “We’ve heard this before in the Great Commandment: love your neighbors as yourself.” The difference here is subtle but crucial; and it flows naturally from the act of foot washing.
Jesus is not saying we should love our neighbors with the same sort of love we have for ourselves. He is ratcheting up the expectations for his disciples. “Love one another as I have loved you.” It will not be enough for them to strive to love one another with a flawed, human love. They are now called, no, they are now commanded to strive to love one another in imitation of Jesus. As Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, they are now to wash each other’s feet. As Jesus loved his disciples, they are to love others with the same kind of God-filled love that Jesus loved. It’s not enough anymore to love each other as we love ourselves.
If you love your neighbors as yourself, the students at ABSW wouldn’t have started a collection of toiletries and clothes to help the people who live in People’s Park. These people have very smelly feet.
If you love your neighbor as yourself, the student body at ABSW would all be people of the same color, background, and language. You see, people from different walks of life and different cultural backgrounds have different kinds of smelly feet.
If you love your neighbor as yourself, you might have a bunch of good friends who tell you what you want to hear but it’s not the Body of Christ. You have not loved as Jesus has loved you. You have not gone out to love one another as Jesus has loved you.
It’s not a surprise that although the devil had already put in the heart of Judas Iscariot the thought to betray him, Judas was there in that room too. Judas was partaking the Lord’s Supper and having his feet washed by Jesus too. Peter who knew that he was unfit to be washed by Jesus, confessed that not only does his feet need to be washed, but his whole body too.
When it comes to loving one another as Jesus loved us, no one is prevented to come to the table of the Lord. Everyone’s feet get washed. And we are commanded to go and wash other’s feet as well.
Have Your Towel Ready
Rarely does the New Testament have much to say about the clothes of Jesus, except toward the end of his life. When Jesus takes on the role of the servant to wash the disciples’ feet, he does so fully, including taking on the attire of a servant.
He takes off his outer robe and ties a towel around him. He wants to make sure there’s no mistake about what he is doing, what his attitude toward them is. He is a household servant—scrubbing, washing, and drying the feet of his disciples.
With a towel around him, he’s able to dry their feet and kiss them like they were a baby’s feet. Don’t we wish that all feet were like our granddaughter’s or a parts model’s? But very soon, Evi will begin to walk and her feet will become roughed up, dirty, and smelly. After a while even gloves can’t keep beautiful hands from growing old or shoes on feet to keep them from getting roughed up.
It is only when we walk on this earth and know the trials and temptations of being a sinner is when we know that not only do we need our feet washed but our entire bodies need to be washed. We come to understand that our sins and the sins of the world are washed cleaned when Jesus was humiliated, bled, and died on the cross. Eventually all of our feet will be smelly and we need the love of Christ to be cleansed once again.
As aspiring ministers, don’t expect to be a high-paid CEO and make 400 times the pay of a production worker. You will be more like the waitress with an apron tied around her collecting tips at a local diner.
As aspiring ministers, don’t expect to have someone else treat you like a parts model afraid of getting your hands bruised and dirtied. You will more likely be sweeping the sidewalk in front of your church or plunging the toilet bowel when it’s stuck.
As aspiring ministers, don’t expect to have your feet washed, but have a towel tied around you ready to wash the tired and damaged feet of the people in the world so that they may be healed and made whole once again.
When we have our towels ready, we are like Jesus who taught us to love one another, not as we love ourselves, but as he loved us. When we love like Jesus, we are to love everyone. Jesus washed and broke bread with Judas too. Was he hoping for a change of heart in Judas? Perhaps this is a message for us to heed, that it’s never too late to hope for someone’s redemption.
Jesus never stopped loving Judas, even when Judas rejected him. Jesus never stops loving us. Even when we might reject him in our lives, Jesus will not reject us in return. Jesus invites us to have our towels ready because there’s a lot of smelly feet out in the world!
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we remember tonight the pain and suffering you endured this week as you make you way toward the cross. Teach us to be like you–willing to serve others as a servant, washing the feet of all people everywhere. Empower us as leaders of your church to love our neighbors as you loved them. It is only when we walk behind you will we know the way to eternal life. Guide us and renew us as your people in faith. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Benediction
Our lives are touched by the ministry of Jesus.
He washes our feet.
Go and love one another as you have been loved.
Go with a towel tied around you
and live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen.