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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Washing
My Metaphoric Feet John 13
records Jesus washing His disciples' feet.
I do not believe Jesus meant for us to turn this event into a
sacrament, as some think. Jesus
was simply taking a culturally relevant daily practice to use as a
metaphor to help explain His point. After
walking the dusty roads in sandals, people needed to wash their feet in
containers set aside for that purpose.
Peter did not want Jesus
to wash his feet, so Jesus told him that if He did not wash his feet, he
would have no part with Him. In
response Peter offered his hands and head to be washed.
What Jesus said next is important to the Christian community.
John 13:10 reads: "Jesus answered, 'Those
who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is
clean.'" Jesus said that
"those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet."
Few would debate that this bath is a metaphor for one being bathed
in the blood of Jesus that makes him or her perfectly clean in the sight
of God. The verb "have
had" in the phrase "have had a bath" is a perfect middle
Greek participle. Perfect
means that the action of bathing is a one time completed action, never
needing to be repeated. Middle
means that the person being bathed had someone help him bathe.
Participle shifts the attention away from the act of bathing to the
bath's intended purpose, which is, one inherently becoming a bathed one, a
totally clean one. Metaphorically speaking,
the above verb tense tells me that I have been bathed in the blood of
Jesus. God now views me as
being a totally clean one, never needing another bath in Jesus' blood.
If I had understood this while being raised in 1950/60's
Evangelical Christianity it might have alleviated my fears that drove me
to the altar every other Sunday to get resaved. Thinking
you need to be resaved implies starting your Christian life all over.
It makes Christian maturity impossible and shows a misunderstanding
of the concept of being born again.
The verb "to
wash" in the phrase "needs only to wash his feet" is an
aorist middle infinitive Greek verb. Aorist
has no specific designation to time when my feet need to be washed.
Middle means I need some help as I wash my feet.
Infinitive suggests the act of washing my feet is a purpose driven
action whereby my feet are cleaned as expected.
This tells me that since I have been bathed in the blood of Jesus,
from time to time I only need some help to wash the surrounding cultural
dirt from my metaphoric feet. Now
read John 13:14. It's the
punch line to Jesus' point.
"Now
that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash
one another’s feet." Did
you catch who is to help me wash my metaphoric feet?
It's those specific brothers or sisters in the Lord whom Jesus has
placed me alongside in His community we call church.
They help me wash any surrounding cultural dirt off my metaphoric
feet, my life. This is one
important reason why the New Testament views church as a community of
individual Christians whom Jesus has placed alongside other specific
individual Christians in personal, supportive, and functional
relationships. Those whom
Jesus has placed me alongside in church provide encouragement, even
correction if needed, that help me remove any cultural dirt from my life
that I pick up from my cultural surroundings.
It's all about the communal nature of church.
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