This week a Japanese bank announced it will be installing about a dozen automated teller machines that will scan customers' hands for identity. I have to hand it to the Japanese: they’ve certainly found a handy way to get cash. And besides that, no one will have to worry about their debit card falling into the wrong hands!
If this “hand scanning” thing catches on, it could change our vocabulary. For example, if your wife needs money to go shopping, she’ll say, “can you give me a hand?” And that homeless guy who sits in front of Lucky's will have a sign that reads, “I’m looking for a hand out.” And bank tellers may sound like cops when they say, “put your hands where I can see them.”
Now before this post gets completely out of hand, let me offer a more serious observation. It seems to me this biometric scan has a somewhat apocalyptic ‘feel’ to it. And while it may not be a chip implant, it could advance Antichrist’s agenda toward a global marketplace (“mark of the beast”). But it also occurs to me that the more things in this world get out of hand, the earthlings will be employing technology to take matters into their own hands. But we have peace, knowing that our life and times are in His hand (Ps. 31:15), the one who opens His hands and meets our needs (Ps. 145:16).
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!
When I was a child, my mother reminded me to wash my hands before coming to dinner. Now, with the onslaught of swine flu, even the President of the United States is telling me to wash my hands.
After David had sinned, he entreated God to “wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Ps. 51:7) Have you ever prayed that way? Be careful what you ask for. If you think David was asking for the gentle waters of a whirlpool, you’re wrong. The word ‘wash’ is not the word for bathing one’s body, but for washing one’s clothes. And in those days, as it still is today in the developing world, washing clothes was done by hand in the local river where clothes are beaten against the rocks to “separate” the dirt from the fabric. Our modern washing machines simulate this violent action on our garments.
Technically, we don't need to pray as David did because Jesus has pronounced us clean (Jn. 13:10; 15:3). But even though we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, our hearts can still get soiled by uncrucified flesh. So how can we keep our hearts clean? By washing with the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26). Though we find God's Word comforting, like the gentle action of a “rinse cycle,” at other times, the cleansing is more aggressive. Then the Word becomes like a sword that cuts deep into the fabric of our soul, separating the filthy flesh and purifying our spirit. (Heb. 4:12) But even then, it is done by Jesus with the tenderness of the groom washing His Bride that He might present her in all her glory, without spot or wrinkle. (Eph. 5:27)
When Jesus washed the disciples feet, He said “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean.” (Jn. 13:10). When we were born again, we were cleansed by His blood, separated from the penalty and power of sin. But until we are completely separated from the presence of sin in this world, our hearts— “feet”—are going to get dirty. We will need to wash them in the Word every day. (1 Jn. 1:9) And don’t be surprised if every once in awhile God gives them a more thorough cleansing! I don’t think David was expecting the “gentle wash cycle.”
