Springtime has been hovering, gently pushing the winter cold away. Thoughts are of the warm days that are ahead. And for many, those warm days mean sandals, flip flops, and bare feet. Many will be heading to the salons for pedicures to try to make their feet look great in those sandals and flip flops.
But let’s admit, feet are ugly. That’s just the way it is. We lather them with lotions, get expensive pedicures, polish them, decorate them with jewelry and put them in pretty shoes to belie that fact. But without all that, left to their own devices, feet are just downright ugly. They get dirty. They develop calluses, bunions, hammertoes, warts, and corns. Yep, they are ugly.
That is why the scene in John 13 never fails to touch my heart. “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 [Passover] supper…. 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.” [13:1-5 NLT]
Feet remind me of our souls before Christ. They are downright ugly too, but we lather them up, polish them, decorate them, and hide them hoping no one will notice.
On that last Passover evening, Jesus washed the ugly, dirty, callused feet of those He loved. Before that Passover was over, Jesus would by His blood, wash the ugly, dirty, callused souls of man, making them whole and clean and beautiful in the sight of His Father.
