Yes! There is Good News! March 10, 2018

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:53) We ended our previous article by quoting this scripture which comes at the end of John 16. The appearance of these words at this point is quite significant.

But, let’s go back to the very start of this whole episode and see where Luke, the writer of the third gospel, begins. Luke 22:8, “Jesus sent Peter and John saying, ‘Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.’ … When the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them, ‘With eagerness have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’.”

As we piece this story together, we see from John 13 that about the first thing Jesus did, before the Passover meal, was to wash His disciple’s feet. What was meant by this act? Well, when Jesus finished this task, He says in verse 14, “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 for you.” So Jesus sets an example for us.

Today, in the 21st century, we have many means of keeping our feet clean. His admonition to us, who read these words today, must have much more meaning than making sure our brethren have clean feet! Let’s go back and take a deeper look at this activity.

In the process of washing feet, Jesus came to Peter who questioned his Lord’s actions. First of all, in ancient Jewish traditions, this just was not done. A disciple was not to question the actions or motivation of the Rabbi! But Jesus was very gentle with Peter as He answered him, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but after you will understand.”  In today’s vernacular, I suppose we might say that Peter was always quick to “open mouth – insert foot”. Peter replied, “No, you shall never wash my feet.” If questioning a Rabbi was a dubious action, commanding the Rabbi was quite unheard of!

Again Jesus was gentle but firm (Don’t we wish our bosses today were as gentle as the Savior was?), “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Uh-oh! “Don’t stop with my feet, but wash my hands and head as well,” was Peter’s reply.

Many have said that this foot washing was done to show the humility Jesus was exampling for us and there is something to that. This task was to be accomplished by the lowest servant of the house. But I believe that there is more to it. Jesus said to Peter that he had already had a bath (a reference to baptism) and so “his whole body was clean” (13:10). Friends, there is a profound lesson for us here, but we must (God willing) leave it for the next article.

Remember, in Christ Jesus we have PEACE!!