I participated in my first foot washing when I was 24-years-old. That was only 3 short years ago. The United Methodist Church that I had been a part of since I was 8 did not practice foot washing. While I would not have been surprised that the Baptist church that I attended prior to that did in fact practice foot washing, I was too young to remember it.
My home church did in fact talk about foot washing from time to time (while not practicing it). I remember this distinctly because we would talk about how smelly, calloused, dirty, and generally gross the disciples feet must have been and what a wonderfully merciful act Jesus was doing by washing their feet. In fact, as someone who has held the strong belief that feet are pretty much disgusting, my heart always went out to podiatrists everywhere when we came to this Bible passage. I also secretly vowed to avoid this foot washing practice at all costs (great visual from the Bible but not something I wanted to be a part of).
Yet it was on a trip to Haiti 3 years ago, when my feet were washed for the first time that I realized that I had in fact been missing the point about foot washing. We had spent the first day of our trip to Haiti in airports and vans and were generally exhausted by the time that we arrived. I’m sure that I had the general grossness that you feel from traveling and that I was hot and sweaty. Yet when we first arrived we were whisked upstairs to the top of a home for orphaned boys and found ourselves in the midst of my very first foot washing service…. I was horrified. This was partly because I was certain my feet were gross from travel but it was mostly when I met the man who would be washing my feet. That man was my Haitian prayer partner, Bill. Bill was my age but he had grown up a child slave in the poorest slum of Haiti. He finally escaped from this harsh life with the help of a group of Catholic nuns who brought him to live at the boy’s home that I was visiting. Bill had become an international advocate against child slavery (his story is featured in the book A Crime so Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner), an acclaimed drummer, a full-time college student, and the full-time manager of the boy’s home where we were staying. I felt utterly unworthy to have this man wash my feet and I imagine this must have been how the disciples felt.
I had the opportunity to return this gesture later in the trip, not by washing another person’s feet but by massaging the feet of a 100-year-old woman covered in scabies at a medical clinic in Port-au-Prince. Foot washing, both the act of washing someone’s feet and having your own feet washed, will teach you humility. By washing the disciples’ feet, the Son of God, assumed the most humble of roles. In that act, Jesus called on all of us who follow him to strive to live lives as humble servants. Long before MBAs began discussing the concept of “servant leadership,” Jesus called upon his disciples to adopt this lifestyle. “Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13:16-17). Would those who know you describe you as one who in humility seeks to serve others?Lord, you know that, like the disciples, I yearn to be considered great by others. Grant me a servant’s heart that I may discover that trust greatness is found in humility and service to others. Amen.
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