The account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet at the last supper (John 20:1-20) is one that is told often about the humility and servant heart of Jesus. The message that is shared is that we should be humble and serve others as Jesus served the disciples by washing their feet. In fact, Jesus commands us to do just that, to wash one another’s feet:

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. (John 20:14)

I grew up in a denomination that would hold a “last supper” on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, where we would gather for the lite meal, wash one another’s feet, and then partake of the bread and the cup. It was an interesting, humbling, experience as you washed the feet of the person next to you and then remembered Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for each of us.

I think many miss the point of the message that Jesus is showing us through John’s record of the event. The washing of feet is about being humble and serving one another, just as Jesus did, and that is through forgiveness.

We are baptized by immersion in water, a picture of our death and resurrection with Jesus. Turning from our sinful lives and striving to live for Jesus. When we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again, then we are clean in God’s eyes through the blood of Jesus. When Peter says not just my feet, but all of me, Jesus says that’s not needed, he has been cleaned, but as we walk through our daily lives, we sin, our feet get dirty and we need to have that cleansed. 1 John 1:9 tells us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (ESV). This is writen to believers who, though cleansed, need to confess and have their sins forgiven. Their feet were dirty.

Back to Peter. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him three times, but that after Jesus rose from the dead, that He would give Peter a chance to be restored. Jesus knew Peter’s heart, that Peter was clean, but that He was going to get his feet dirty by denying Jesus, but that Jesus would “wash Peter’s feet”, restoring him through forgiveness.

That is the message of foot washing. If Jesus forgave us, then we ought also to forgive one another. Don’t hold on to the pain and anger. Forgive, even before the other party may seek it. Just as Jesus did by dying on the cross. He forgave, while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), making it available if we accept it. Likewise, we should forgive others, while they are “yet sinners”, so they may be able to accept our forgiveness, if they are willing, just as we may accept God’s forgiveness.

Yes, we are human and it can be hard,  I can testify that it is better to forgive, then to allow a seed of resentment to grow.

So are you following Jesus’ example. Are you forgiving others? This my friends is how they know we are followers of Jesus, by our love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. “

1 John 4:7-11 (ESV) – emphasis added