In Celebration of
Discipline, Richard Foster uses the story of Jesus washing the disciples’
feet from John 13:1-17 as the ultimate illustration of the spiritual discipline
of service. The context that Foster
gives for this story is the ongoing discussion among the disciples, recorded in
many places in the gospels, about which of them is the greatest and which of
them is the least.
The act of foot washing was not just a ritual or cultural
thing in Jesus’ time; in a desert climate where everybody wore sandals, if any
shoes at all, it was a practical necessity.
As an act of basic hospitality, a host would provide a servant, the
lowest servant in the house, maybe even a child, to wash the feet of the guests
as they arrived. At the very least, the
host would have a basin available for the guest to wash their own feet.
Neither servant nor basin was present as Jesus and the
disciples gathered in the upper room that night, and none of the disciples, who
were all still trying after three years to figure out their pecking order, was
about to volunteer. Of course, if Jesus
had asked one of them to wash feet, I am sure that one would have said, “My
privilege, Lord,” while simultaneously thinking two very different things in
his heart, “Why does Jesus always make me do all the dirty work?” and, “Ha-ha,
guys look who Jesus picked!” (Foster
will go on in the chapter to talk about the difference between selfish and
selfless service.)
Then Jesus himself, who “knew that the Father had put all
things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God
(John 10:3),” got up and performed the service needed. (All true godly service
comes from a secure knowledge of who we are in Christ. Insecure people may try to get attention by
service, but they can never truly serve.)
Peter’s
head almost explodes! Peter is unable to
accept service. Sometimes, it takes as
much humility, or more, to allow other people the opportunity to serve as it
does to serve. In a way, allowing others
to serve us may itself be a form of service.
If service is a spiritual discipline that each of us needs to practice
in order to grow in faith, then how will any of us grow if we do not allow
ourselves to be served sometimes?
Jesus message is simple: my followers serve others. In serving others we build the spiritual
virtue of humility. We serve not because
people need to be served, and certainly not because they deserve it, but
because we need to serve. We do not
serve primarily to “help people” or to “make the world a better place,” and
certainly not to make ourselves, or our church, feel good or look good. We serve because service glorifies God and
makes us better disciples. The fact that
people are helped and the world is made better are blessings that God adds to
our service. So, go and find a person or
a place to serve today. Start small, but
get started.
