Humility at its Best
In John 13 we find Jesus around a table with His disciples for the last supper. They just came in from a day out ministering and were most likely tired and had dirty feet from walking the streets of Jerusalem.
They had no servants to wash their feet (as was common in those days) when all of a sudden Jesus picks up a towel and some water and decides to be the humble servant. The men in the room knew how inappropriate it was for one of them to touch another’s feet; must less the One who created the world and the angels who praised and served Him. The job of foot washing was for the lowest of the low, the servant of servants, the least important and most poor and under privileged.
In Rabbinic documents we learn that Rabbis and Pharisees in the time of Jesus would treat their disciples as a master treated a slave, except on one thing, they were never, never to touch anyone’s feet. It was too demeaning to any respectable human being. The statement Jesus made by washing His disciple’s feet was so profound and powerful that it will echo through our existence on planet Earth. He told us that greatness came from humbling oneself (Matthew 18:04) now He is showing how it is done. May that same great spirit of humbleness and humility permeate our entire life on planet Earth today; after all it is humility at its best.
In Him,
Pastor Paul Santos