Washing Our Dirty Feet

Last week I had the pleasure of listening to R. C. Sproul, Jr. teach on John 13.  You know the story:  It's the week of Passover, and Jesus has withdrawn from public ministry to devote himself to his disciples.  After supper in the upper room, Jesus took off his outer garments and tied a towel around his waist to wash his disciples' feet, a demonstrative act of love and humility.  Imagine the Lord of Glory doing the dirty task reserved for the lowliest of servants!  But there's more going on than meets the eye.  Jesus was fully aware that "his hour had come to depart from this world" (v. 1), and, as part of his imminent death, he knew he would endure the outpouring of the wrath of God on behalf of sinful men.  Jesus was about to become the Sacrificial Lamb of God.  

When we know we're going to have a difficult day, or are in the midst of a bad day, our self-centered tendency is to want those around us to cater to our emotional needs.  We want to be treated with extra consideration and compassion.  But no human has ever experienced anything like Jesus did the day he was crucified.  Unlike sinful men, Jesus didn't rally those around him in selfish pity. Rather, he focused on loving his disciples and serving them.  How could Jesus do this?  Verse 3 says, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God."  This verse takes us from his glory to his humiliation to his resurrected glory.  Jesus knew who he really was - God incarnate - and that he had a mission.  The washing of the disciples' feet symbolized the "washing" of sin that was about to take place on the cross, according to the eternal plan of the Trinity. 

The beginning of our own humility is learning to face the reality of our "dirty feet."  I liked what R. C. Sproul, Jr. said about us Calvinists:  we think we have the understanding of our sinfulness down pat because we believe in total depravity.  That's where we begin the doctrines of grace, after all.  But affirming the doctrine, that all mankind is born enslaved to sin as a result of the Fall of Adam, is not the same as understanding the depth of our own sin and humbly crying out, "Lord be merciful to me, a sinner!"  

A simple test of our humility is this:  When we hear someone talking about the sinfulness of man, do we focus on all the ways we've been sinned against, or are we mindful of all the ways we've sinned against God and others?   That's certainly something to take to the Lord in prayer.