FEET WASHING

“He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” John 13:5

As I write, it’s 10:12am and already my feet are almost black.  In a world where most roads aren’t paved and are covered with sand, dirt and garbage, keeping your feet clean is an impossibility.  Even staying home all day, with the wind bringing dust in the window, walking from the shower to the bed coats your feet with a fine layer of dirt.

All that to say…in Africa, feet are DIRTY.  Think camping for a week and living in flip-flops dirty. 

Many of you know that I teach a manicure and pedicure class at the Ruth Center (a center for girls in difficult situations).  I honestly didn’t really think about the foot part of the class until we got to the part where we do the pumus stone.  I told the girls to scrub hard the first time to get all the calluses from years of wearing too small shoes, flip-flops 24/7 and walking everywhere.  They got started.

About a half and hour later, most still weren’t done and were asking me to come and see if “this” can come off.  “This” could be deep, small holes in their foot from I don’t know what (almost like Swiss cheese), big long cracks up their heels, missing toe nails, molds, fungus’, infections and bleeding scrapes.  As Steve Priebe (our visitor this month) said “these people put a lot of mileage on their feet.” 

All that to say – feet here are not pretty. 

After being here, the picture of Jesus washing his disciples feet looks much different and the picture of washing Jesus’ feet with HAIR (!) is even more appalling.  These aren’t pretty feet or pedicured feet.  These are feet that have walked with him through dust, dirt, animal dung, and garbage…these are feet that have farmed, fished, and worked.  These are feet that have scrapes and holes, missing to nails, fungus, callous’, and cuts.  These feet, when you get down to it, are disgusting.  The water in the bucket (or the hair) must have been black and who knows what was in it.   

And this is what Jesus does to our hearts and lives.  He reaches in to the “filthy rags” of sin in our lives and cleans it (Isaiah 64:6).  Put salve on our hurts and our fears, buffs off those callous’ and rough spots, and then looks at us and says He loved us even when we were dirty and ugly (Romans 5:8).