Imagine how you’d react if the Queen of England showed up at your home for afternoon tea, and before you’d even begun to adjust to the realization you had royalty under your roof, she got up from her seat, tied an apron around her waist, and proceeded to make your bed, dust the furniture, clean your toilet, take out the trash, and give your dog a bath. How unthinkable, shocking, and embarrassing would that be! What would you say? Where would you begin?
That example doesn’t even come close to what the disciples experienced as their master, the Messiah, took on the role of a servant and began washing their feet. And John 13:6-11 records Peter’s clumsy, awkward, and inelegant words as he was verbally processing his way through this disorienting episode and trying to make sense of what was happening. But the passage also includes the Lord’s patient replies, and they teach us how to better handle those times when he’s up to things in our lives we don’t yet comprehend.
When Jesus approached him with his wash basin, Peter’s first reaction was to question the appropriateness of what the Lord was doing. The original Greek is very emphatic. He asked him, “Are YOU washing MY feet?” And if you’ve ever been so perplexed by what the Lord seemed to be doing you found yourself challenging his wisdom, I’ll bet you can relate. I know I can.
Isaiah 55:9 tells us that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours. And we need his to be. So, it makes sense that there would be times we’d have trouble comprehending his actions. But the Lord’s response to Peter was both comforting and encouraging. He said, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." And with that statement he was both expressing sensitivity to Peter’s confusion as well as promising to eventually make things clear. And that assurance is for us too.
Peter’s second reaction was unequivocal. He said, “You shall NEVER wash my feet!” But Jesus said, “If I do not…you have no part with me.” And although he was referencing the spiritual cleansing symbolized by the feet washing, he was saying the depth of Peter’s relationship with him was at stake in this.
Have you ever been bewildered by the Lord’s actions or inaction in a situation and found yourself entertaining the thought that a good God would NEVER allow this to happen? Well, the truth is, sometimes he must allow us to experience things we may not understand exactly because he cares so much about our relationship with him. And his willingness to do that despite the confusion it may cause is really one of the greatest expressions of his love. In those times, we need to let go of our insistence he do what we think he should and allow him to draw us closer to himself instead.
Peter’s third reaction was to tell Jesus what more he should be doing. He said, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Does that sound familiar? It saddens me, but I admit there have been times when I’ve accused my Savior of doing less than what the situation called for. The Lord’s reply to Peter was, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet.” And those words were meant to assure him he was doing no less than exactly what was needed. And that’s always true for all of us all the time.
The dialog in this section of the chapter concludes with Jesus drawing a clear distinction between Peter and Judas. And I have a hunch he did that specifically to reassure Peter that verbally processing his confusion was not considered a betrayal of his faith but a confirmation of it. So, let’s take comfort in what that means for us too.