Many religions have washing rituals. We need water to make us physically clean – but water has often come to symbolise something deeper. Think of the millions who gather by the shore of the River Ganges each year for the famous Kumbh Mela ritual. Or the Mikveh bathing rituals which are an important part of the Jewish faith, and which Jesus’ mother Mary, for example, would have had to undergo in the synagogue in Nazareth after each menstrual cycle.
In the Christian faith, of course, we have baptism as the supreme symbol of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, a way of declaring that we are now joined with him in his death and resurrection to new life. This practice dates back to Pentecost, the birth of the church, and even before that to the baptism (literally ‘dipping’) for repentance initiated by John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin. In all of these practices, physical ‘washing’ denotes a deeper reality.
The same is true, but for different reasons, in Jesus’ practice of foot-washing with the disciples. As we observed yesterday, the washing of feet was something usually only undertaken by a household servant, so perhaps it is not surprising the Peter objects to Jesus’ kneeling before them. Jesus, however, is unusually blunt: (v9) ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’
What Jesus means is really three-fold: first, we need washing for salvation. ‘Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,’ David cries out to God in Psalm 51. We all need to be washed i.e. cleansed of all that defiles us before God. This is supremely and wonderfully achieved through Jesus’ death on our behalf: in a striking image in Revelation, the angel tells John that the great multitude he sees ‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ (Rev 7:14)
Jesus is keen to stress, however, that foot-washing is not, in itself, a salvation ritual. ‘You are clean,’ he tells his bemused disciples: (v10) ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet.’ Which brings us to the primary reason for this particular act of Jesus: we also need washing for surrender. To have your feet washed is a powerfully humbling act, and in receiving it, we choose to receive all that Jesus has for us. We accept that we cannot make ourselves right before God, we need Jesus to ‘serve’ us and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Peter wanted to do so much for God; but first, he needed to surrender. To allow Jesus to do for him, what he could not achieve purely through his enthusiasm or his activism.
Finally, we need washing for service. We’ll look at this tomorrow, so hold that thought!
But today, as we reflect on Jesus’ call for Peter to surrender his pride, we can see the same sort of stubborn resistance in ourselves. This is why Jesus is so insistent that Peter must agree to having his feet washed; in the same way, surrender to Jesus is a daily choice for us, too. May the Lord grant us all grace to make that choice, today and every day. Jesus, in loving response, will make all grace available to us, to live out that choice. It is the path to life.