Monday Rewrite Jesus wasn’t insecure. Never needed to do anything for show or to prove himself, or big himself up.
When he washed feet it wasn’t about him. Though it could have been.
‘Right you lot, listen up, can you all see what I’m doing here? Well move then Matthew so you can get a proper view. Now, I’ve got a bowl full of water, can anyone guess what an extraordinary thing I’m about to do? No Thomas I’m not about to throw it over Judas. Pay attention will you. Well, move closer if you need to. Now look at what I’m doing. Look! See? See Peter’s feet, see these appalling examples of walking gear? I’m gonna wash ‘em. Yes, I am! Ohhhhh… yes I am!!! Extraordinary isn’t it? Humble, aren’t I? I mean look at ‘em, look at what they’re covered in, look at what he’s stepped in, have you seen how bad they are underneath? And what they smell like? Plus I don’t think he’s cut his nails since the Roman invaded. Or seen a chiropodist. Appalling, aren’t they? And yet… and yet Andrew, me, yes little old me, I’m going to kneel down and do the job of the lowest slave. Oh yes, I am. Aren’t you impressed? Matthew, eyes on me please. No fidgeting or looking at your iScroll, okay? No James, you can’t have a loo break. This is too important now. I want everybody to take note, and John, write this one down for your new book. And I want it in bold and underlined. Okay?’
Nope.
He was nothing like that. But John did write it down, and he said this:
‘Jesus knew who he was, he knew he could do anything, and had all the power in the world. He knew his father had given him everything, and he was clearsighted about where he had come from and where he was going. So, he was able to take a towel and a bowl and kneel and wash his disciples’ feet…’
You could say he’d been washing feet all his life really, serving the world. With nothing to prove. Firmly rooted in his father, and only concerned to draw us closer to the one who made us and has all the compassion in the world for us. So that we might glimpse who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we are going.
(John 13 v 3)
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