Honored to Wash Feet

Do your feet stink?  Do you offend yourself when you take off your shoes at the end of the day?  Is there a special place that you are to put your socks so that their smell won’t affect the rest of the house and infect the rest of the dirty clothes?  I have known of some whose feet I have just described accurately.
 
But, now compound the natural tendency of feet to have a foul odor with a time when everyone wore sandals on unpaved, dirt streets.  Every day meant walking either in mud or dust.  Furthermore, they didn’t even wear socks.  (Socks seem to be a relatively new invention, at least compared to Bible times.)
 
Well, this is the exact scenario Jesus faced when He washed the disciples during that last Passover feast He observed with them (John 13).  Not only did He wash these dirty feet, but these feet were connected to some very interesting characters.  Jesus not only had to overlook the smelly feet, He had to overlook the owners of the feet to wash them.
 
He had spent so much time with them preparing them for the days and years that lay immediately ahead.  Yet, here was Judas who had already decided to betray Jesus that night.  Jesus washed his feet.  Here was Peter who was so smug that he thought he knew all the answers that he refused, initially, to allow Jesus to wash his feet.  Jesus washed his feet.
 
James and John were present.  They had argued over who would get the best places at Jesus’ side in His coming kingdom.  Jesus washed their feet.  There was Thomas who later would challenge Jesus’ resurrection (Jesus already knew that).  He washed his feet.
 
Humility requires us to do things that are not pleasant on the surface.  They may not be pleasant all the way to the core.  But, those who lower themselves to serve others are the real heroes in life.
 
But what was our hero Jesus teaching when He did this?  Was He teaching them to wash each others’ feet?  Was He telling them to set up some kind of foot-washing time in their weekly gatherings?  Was His real emphasis the feet or was He aiming for more of their anatomy?
 
Verse 17 gives us the answer.  “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”  When Jesus washed their feet, He was aiming for their entire bodies.  The Greek word used in this passage translated “know” means “mental awareness.”  There is no doubt but that they were aware mentally that Jesus had washed their feet.  Jesus wanted to know if they were aware that, through this act, He was teaching them to obey and do what His example was calling for—obedient service.  Only then would they have been blessed by His example.