footwashing and easter sunday

As a staff we did something odd and wonderful this week. We washed one another’s feet. 

Our foot-washing was modeled on the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.

It was awkward, honestly. It was awkward for me to wash someone else’s feet. It was even more awkward for me to allow someone else to wash my feet. But then, that was the point of  the exercise.

The early disciples found the first foot-washing awkward, but Jesus wanted them to experience it, nonetheless. His foot-washing was just a tiny picture into how he would serve them in a  much bigger way by dying for them on the cross. It was also a picture of how they were to treat one another in their daily relationships. If they didn't understand the foot washing, they would not get the cross or the Christian life either. 

Jesus has washed our feet. He came “not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). On the cross he “washed our feet” by paying the price for our salvation. On Easter Sunday we see displayed, in full view, what that foot-washing          accomplished for everyone who stakes their hope on Him—a new meaning for living, a new strength for each day, and a wonderful hope for the future.

After washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus got up and put on his robe again. That is a picture too. On Easter Sunday, he put on His incorruptible body, donning the robe of his rightful kingship. Now He is reigning in heaven till the day when all that is promised in the resurrection becomes both a personal and a universal reality. Hallelujah. He is risen!

                                                                                                                 –Pastor Tom

 

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