How Often Do You Wash Your Feet?

When our little children come to the dinner table, we ask them “Did you wash your hands?” But before we come to the Lord’s Table, He asks “Have you washed your feet?”

The Pharisees criticized Jesus and His disciples for not washing their hands before they ate. Ceremonial hand washing was but one of many self-imposed rituals of t he self-righteous Pharisees (Matt. 15:2, 20). Whenever the Old Testament writers employed the expression of clean hands it was always in reference to a pure heart. New Testament writer James says “Wash your hands, you sinners” (4:8).

Isn’t it curious then that Jesus (who apparently did not practice hand washing before meals) washed the Disciples' feet as part of the the Passover Supper (John 13)? Some commentators construe the “washing” of feet as equivalent to the confession of sins. When the ever passionate Peter said “Lord, wash my hands and my head,” Jesus said “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet” (John 13:10). We who have been cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus do not need to be ‘washed’ again every time we sin. Rather, all we need to do is confess our sins—wash our feet—to be entirely clean again (1 John 1:9).

What an extraordinary paradox—our Divine Parent asks us to keep our hands clean (a pure heart) by washing our feet!