Jesus didn't just wash his disciples' feet.
There's too much happening around the story for it to just be a lesson on humility. Before Jesus picked up a towel, John tells us something important that Jesus knew. He knew and understood that God "had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God" (John 13:3). Secure in who he was and confident in what God had entrusted to him, Jesus took what had been placed in his hands and used those hands to wash dirty feet.
The room must've been full of tension. Judas had begun to feel his betrayal. Peter was about to object. None of the disciples knew or understood what was unfolding.
The Lord didn't explain what he was about to do. There was no leadership briefing. He simply stood up from the table, wrapped a towel around himself, poured water into a basin, and knelt before the first disciple. One by one, he washed every pair of feet in the room.
Only after they had experienced it did he ask them, "Do you know what I have done to you?"
That's different from asking, "Do you know what I did for you?" or "What did you think about that?" Jesus asks what he has done to them because the act wasn't just about clean feet. He was reshaping their understanding of power, leadership, love, and even God. Yes, washing feet is an act of humility. But it is also an act of hospitality, honor, and blessing. Jesus lowered himself so that others might be lifted up.
Before he called them to follow his example, he wanted them to receive what he had done to them.
Do you know what Jesus has done to you? How his grace has changed you? His love humbled you? His mercy reshaped how you live? The Lord wants you to reach for the towel, but also spend time remembering the One who first knelt before you.
Stay blessed...john
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