{"id":1556,"date":"2022-04-12T10:14:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T14:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1556"},"modified":"2022-04-12T10:14:01","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T14:14:01","slug":"washed-by-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/12\/washed-by-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Washed by Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter.\u00a0 Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus.<\/em>


In Bible times, the foot was literally and symbolically\u00a0the dirtiest part of the body.

In the era before Crocs and sneakers, dust, muck, and manure from scores of creatures would cake one’s\u00a0feet on a daily basis.\u00a0

The bottom of the foot came to represent something profoundly disrespectful.\u00a0 A conquering king would be said to \u201cput his enemies under his feet.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes monarchs and generals actually stood on the necks of their foes, who were groveling in the mire.\u00a0 To this day in certain Developing World countries, showing the underside of one’s foot might be received as a grave insult.

When a male guest\u00a0entered\u00a0a home or attended\u00a0a gathering in Jesus’ day, he could expect to receive typical\u00a0Middle Eastern hospitality.\u00a0 That would include\u00a0a basin of cool water and a towel.\u00a0\u00a0

One scholar has written that foot-washing in the ancient world was a “despicable, slave-worthy task.”\u00a0 No righteous Jew would ever ask another Jew to wash the grime off his feet.\u00a0 That would have been dishonoring.\u00a0 Typically, the household servant with the least status – ideally a Gentile, or one of the\u00a0Not-Chosen People\u00a0– would be assigned this task.
\u00a0
It’s hard to imagine a modern equivalent.\u00a0 Perhaps it would be receiving the assignment of Permanent Cat Box Cleaner.\u00a0 Or having a spouse who says, \u201cIf Johnny throws up on himself at 3 am, you\u2019re on call.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

On the night before his death, while his dozen\u00a0spiritual apprentices are reclining\u00a0at the low table where their Passover meal (Jesus’ Last Supper) has been prepared for them, Jesus wraps a towel around his waist, pours water into a basin, and begins to wash the grit and manure from between his disciples’ toes.\u00a0

This is almost certainly a shattering moment for the Twelve.\u00a0\u00a0If Jesus is really the King of kings and Lord of lords, how can he lower himself to such a dishonorable task?\u00a0

For the outspoken and emotional Peter – whose bravado\u00a0frequently exceeds his wisdom \u2013 this is simply too much.\u00a0\u00a0

“Lord, are you actually going to wash my feet?” he asks (John 13:6).\u00a0

Then he makes his feelings crystal clear.\u00a0 Most translations of John 13:8 say something like, “You shall never wash my feet.”\u00a0 The original Greek is far more dramatic.\u00a0 Here’s the literal word order and emphasis:\u00a0 “Not NOT will you EVER wash MY feet – forever!”\u00a0 The word “forever” is actually “into eternity.”\u00a0 Peter is making it clear that under no circumstances will he ever let Jesus stoop (in any\u00a0sense of the word) to such humiliation.\u00a0
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Whereupon Jesus drops a second bomb.

“Unless I wash you, you can\u2019t be part of what I\u2019m doing.”\u00a0 In other words, “If I can’t forgive your sins, if you won\u2019t let me love you, you will never be able to experience my presence.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0

Most of us have felt what Peter felt at one time or another:

“Lord, don’t bother with me today; please help someone who\u2019s really in need.”
“Lord, I’m doing fine;\u00a0I don’t need any special grace right now.”
“Lord, I’m good; I’ve got things under control” (warning: you most certainly don’t).
“Lord, I’m terrified to let you get any closer to me” (now we’re getting nearer\u00a0to the truth).

Martin Luther pointed out that it’s usually not our sin that gets us out of relationship\u00a0with Jesus.\u00a0 It’s our sense of personal righteousness.\u00a0 To put it bluntly, we imagine ourselves to be too humble or\u00a0too “together” to let him love us.\u00a0\u00a0

But Jesus will have none of it.\u00a0 If I can’t wash you, you can’t have\u00a0me<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Peter, swinging like a\u00a0pendulum, immediately replies, “If that’s true, then not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well!”\u00a0 Lord, if you’re really going to wash me, throw me into the dunk tank.\u00a0

But it’s actually enough to make a single, simple choice:
\u00a0
As Easter approaches, let us humbly open our hearts to receive God\u2019s free gift of love.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter.\u00a0 Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus. In Bible times, the foot was literally and symbolically\u00a0the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101,131,421],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grace","tag-humility","tag-peter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}