Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to His Father. He had loved His disciples during His ministry on earth, and now He loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him. (John 13:1-5)
I was raised in a holiness church, so every New Year’s Eve, during watch night service, we had to wash the feet of our fellow saints. Let me be honest here; it was not one of my favorite parts of the service. You see, as a child (maybe even as an adult), you don’t always realize the significance of washing someone else’s feet. All you see is the condition of the other person’s feet. And then you have to touch those very feet and pray for the person they are attached to? And after that, you have to allow someone else to wash your feet? I remember thinking, “Why in the world do I have to wash somebody else’s feet?”
As children, that moment was lost on us many times. We’d listened to the reading of John 13:1-5 often, but we didn’t fully understand why we were instructed to reenact that significant action every December 31st. And your title didn’t matter; even our pastor washed others’ feet. We were all expected to serve each other. It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I began to get the revelation of the humility that God was requiring in order to meet the needs of His people through service.
The Manna Chef 