Three Other Interpretive Curveballs - 35
Foot washing, kissing, and hats
The following three texts have made Christians pause in their interpretations. Yet, pausing to consider any Scripture’s relevancy is our obligation. It is good to pause.
What are the three? They have to do with foot washing, kissing, and hats.
Let’s start with foot washing.
The text in question is from John 13:2-17. It says,
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
I’m intentionally giving the fuller context to the two sentences that concern readers most. Those two sentences are:
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Those sentences without their context sound an awful lot like Jesus wants us to take off shoes and socks and wash people’s feet. Given the entire context of the passage, there is still a question as to what the Lord was getting at.
If you think like me, getting my feet washed would be embarrassing. Pretty awkward. I think it would tickle. And then, do I put my dirty socks back on? Or is re-socking your Christian brother or sister part of the procedure? My knee-jerk reaction is, I certainly hope I don’t have to to that or have it done to me!
Fortunately, what I want to do and don’t want to do does not determine truth. If Jesus wants us to be washing feet today, then we should wash them. What was His intention? And were there stipulations involved to determine when to obey? Was He speaking figuratively? Did He intend foot washing to be a third sacrament?
You should spend your time with the passage, but here is how I have learned to interpret Jesus’ words.
First, the emphasis is that Jesus, though He was the disciples’ teacher and lord, humbled himself in service to them. Washing a person’s feet was commonly done by servants. It was a culture and history in which feet often needed washing - for the dust and dirt. Some cultures in modern history still have a need for it.1 However, the point was not the foot washing in itself, the point was servitude. Jesus served his brothers in the most menial way and that is the standard by which He wanted them to serve one another.2
Second, the washing of feet was highlighted while the washing of the whole body was assumed. (Notice how Jesus corrected Peter in his exuberance.) So there seems to be a metaphor at play here. The metaphor, I think, is a comparison between justification and sanctification. What I mean is, the Christian (like Peter) is forgiven for his sins and bears no guilt before God because of the work of Jesus. His body has been washed. That is justification. Whereas, in the course of daily life, we still sin and must confess it and be forgiven. Our feet get dirty, though are body is clean. This is daily. It is ongoing. It is corrective cleaning. That is sanctification.
So when Jesus washed the disciples feet it was an emblematic lesson teaching them the need to correct themselves daily and obey God. Furthermore, they were to help each other become clean in this fashion - as one would stoop to help wash a brother’s feet.
I do not believe foot washing was meant to be some kind of sacramental practice (nor do the Reformers) as some have attempted throughout the history of the Church.3 We see it practiced ceremonially within the Roman Catholic tradition, as Popes have washed the feet of Emporers’ upon ordination, and also washed the feet of new converts on the Church calendar day of Maundy Thursday.
1 Timothy 5:10 mentions that godly widows can be identified by their good works, among which are showing hospitality and having washed the feet of the saints.
A similar argument is that washing of a guest’s feet was an Oriental custom of great antiquity as a mark of hospitality (See Genesis 18:4; Genesis 19:2; Abigail, 1 Samuel 25:41; see also Luke 7:38, 44). Both the slave argument and the hospitality argument make the point of servitude.
See notes found in The Pulpit Commentary on John 13:14.