Captain Obvious here: Bob has stinky feet. It’s Spring. Bob the bloodhound has Spring fever. That means I (Tim) have the job of cleaning Bob’s muddy paws every time he comes back into the house. It’s a thankless job. But Bob reminded me on this Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, that for Christians everywhere, stinky feet (and paws!) ministry is anything but a lowly job.

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So, he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”

Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”

Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow.

Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

(John 13:1-17, New Living Translation)

Bob and I often come in from the muddy outdoors and sit down together to read the Bible. One of our favorite ways to reflect on our reading is the S.O.A.P. method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). Here is our “S.O.A.P.” for today….

Scripture

John 13:15 – Jesus said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

Observation

Jesus Christ loves me just as I am, and not as I should be. He loves me even with my dirty stinky feet, my herky-jerky commitment to him, and my pre-meditated sin. Jesus loved even Judas and washed his stinky feet.  Jesus serves people because they need his love, and not so that they will love him back.

I recently read about a man who lives in Paris. His wife has Alzheimer’s. He was an important businessman, and his life was filled with busyness. But he said that when his wife fell sick, “I just couldn’t put her into an institution, so I kept her. I fed her. I bathed her.”

“Through the experience of serving my wife every day, I have changed. I have become more human. The other night, in the middle of the night, my wife woke me up. She came out of the fog for a moment, and she said, ‘Darling, I just want to say thank you for all you are doing for me.’ Then she fell back into the fog. I wept for hours to know this grace.”

Application

Sometimes Christ calls me to love people who either cannot or will not love me in return. They live in the fog of some sort of disability, depression, poverty, or just plain spiritual blindness. As I serve them, I may only receive brief glimpses of gratitude.

Jesus loves me in the midst of my sporadic spiritual confusion by graciously washing my stinky feet. So, I desire to continue loving others by washing their stinky feet, as they walk through whatever fog they’re in.

Anything that doesn’t have to do with the love of God through stinky feet ministry has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which in Christ Jesus.

If God so wants it to be, my life will be useful through my both my words and my actions. If the Lord wants, my life will bear fruit through my prayers, my service, and my love handling people’s stinky feet.

But the usefulness of my life is God’s concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that. I simply desire follow my Lord’s example of washing nasty stinky feet.

Prayer

Loving Lord Jesus, how shocking it was on this Maundy Thursday for your disciples to be served by you in such a humble manner. But I cannot be spiritually cleansed unless I allow you to love me in an almost embarrassing fashion. Help me not to be so proud that I neither refuse your humble loving service toward me, nor neglect to offer that same kind of service to others.

May love be the word, the idea, and the action that governs my every motivation and movement in your most gracious Name, I pray.  Amen.