Dirty Feet
The internet has been buzzing with discussions over a recent Super Bowl ad featuring Jesus. With all the controversial things in our world, we would expect a commercial about Jesus to unite, right? Wrong!
In the short advertisement, Jesus is seen washing feet, and followers are encouraged to follow His example because “He Gets Us.” Some perceived the ad to have a certain political flavor underneath the religious rhetoric. After all, it shows people washing feet in political backdrops such as abortion clinics and BLM rallies. Others saw the ad as inclusive and intentional about including groups considered to be marginalized. Both sides have lost the forest through the trees. The problem with the ad is dirty feet.
Yes, dirty feet.
See, Jesus did wash feet. Particularly, He washed the feet of His disciples who followed Him up until the night before His death. But this isn't an example of “the oppressor” humbling themselves under “the oppressed” because Jesus is not an oppressor. He is not a sinner. Jesus is sinless, righteous, and never in the wrong. He never oppressed anyone and perfectly loved everyone He came in contact with. Can we say that about ourselves?
Additionally, as He was washing feet, Jesus was only one night's sleep away from being oppressed by a wicked human government. Even more significantly, He died as a sinner, yet without sin, that sinners might be called the righteousness of God (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). The foot washing event cannot be replicated because none of us are like Jesus. None of us are sinless. All of us have dirty feet.
Jesus alone can wash feet because Jesus alone can wash the soul. Peter understood this when He said, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9). Peter longed for Jesus to cleanse him fully. Jesus replied that the true cleansing is of a deeper kind than washing their feet or their face. They were clean by Jesus’ word. Though, not all of them (John 13:10-11).
In fact, the response to the foot washing is instructive. Judas got his feet washed, yet he was still dirty and filled with the evil one (John 13:2). Peter asked to be clean, yet he would go on to deny knowing the man who washed his feet (John 13:38). Judas would get his feet clean, yet trample upon his friend in betrayal. Peter would take the bath, but he would refuse the baptism of fire.
If Jesus can cleanse feet who promptly walk away from Him, what about us? Do we really think we can win the world by washing its feet? The problem is that our feet are dirty, and those we are trying to wash refuse to believe they need a bath.
Just as only the sick need a physician, so only the dirty need to be made clean. But our culture would have us offer washings of affirmation rather than washings of absolvement. They don't want soap, they want a show. Only Jesus washes dirty feet and we must be busy convincing the world that it needs a bath. To put it plainly, only once we speak about sin can true forgiveness be found. Forgiveness is found in the God who humbled Himself not to simply wash feet, but to die for sinners and rise again. Jesus promises to cleanse any and all who turn from sin and trust in Him to save.
It is His followers that Jesus instructs to wash and be washed. His disciples never understood Him to mean taking up the towel and the bowl, but rather taking up His Word and pointing the way toward cleansing the soul. Jesus calls us to return to the gospel time and time again for hope and cleansing for the soul. This is how we obey Jesus' example, “that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:15). We must speak the truth in love, pointing out the dirt of sin and the cleansing power of the gospel just as Jesus did (see John 3:1-21).
Do you have dirty feet? Sure, Jesus gets it. But also He desires to change it. May we find ourselves cleansed “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5, John 3:3).