Jesus washing his disciples' feet: a tale of Hils and her verruca

Hi all,

This week's Breathe readings take us to John 13, where Jesus washes his disciples' feet. A passage we all know.... Or do we? Recently I have been wondering what it means to follow Jesus' command and wash each others feet.

I think what comes to most people's mind is the term "service". We are called to serve our brothers and sisters. But I have come to realise that it is something much deeper than that.

A number of years ago in my previous church, there was a Maundy Thursday foot washing service.  I was asked to come along and play the piano in worship, to which I dutifully agreed.  But when the time came to do the foot washing after the service, I decided that I was going to sneak out and miss out on that bit. I was NOT going to get my feet washed. Why? Because I had the mother of all verrucas on my foot, I was about the size of an old 50p and was having babies. Yes. lots of mini verrucas!

As a young 20 something I was deeply ashamed of this. I couldn't wear sandals in the summer, or have pedicures (it's a hard life) or anything like that!

And so the thought of someone washing my feet was just too humiliating for words.  Once I had completed my piano duties I tried to sneak out, but instead got collared by this lady, who announced that she was going to wash my feet.

A bit like Peter in this passage, I protested and told her why. But she was not having any of it. I did end up having my feet washed and I did feel humiliated. And it has stuck with me.

But as I think about this passage I now realise that it is not just about service, it is about intimacy.  I think that a number of us are a bit sensitive about our feet. Exposing them and letting them be washed by others puts us in a vulnerable place. But Jesus calls us to be vulnerable. We are called to love each other, warts and all! (boom boom!)

There are 3 challenges here I think:

1. We need to let Jesus wash our feet: we need to be open about our warts to God and let him wash us and minister to those warts.
   
2. We need to wash the feet of others: we need to create an environment where others can be open about their warts, so that we can love others, warts and all, and minister to them in their warts.
   
3. The thing I often forget: we need to let others wash our feet: to love us, warts and all.  If we just serve others this is one sided and unhealthy, and we end up putting ourselves subconsciously above others.

I was challenged by this recently and the other week in cell we decided to look at this passage together, and have a time of washing each others feet. This was optional but the girls in the group all decided to do this (avec some lovely minty foot scrub and foot butter). Afterwards, amongst the lovely cool aromas, the was such a lovely time of sharing, and everyone, even the people who don't normally share stuff, opened up about some really deep and meaningful stuff about some of our own warts: things that we were worried about or ashamed of... We are now deeper friends as a result, and I really feel as if our  group has strengthened as a result.

Oh. A few years ago God did heal my verruca. It was prayed for in healing prayer after church and it completely disappeared after 10 years of me having it. But that is another story....