ON WASHING ONE ANOTHER’S FEET

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. —Jn. 13:14

Of all the visits I have made to all kinds of churches, both in and out of the Stone-Campbell tradition, I have witnessed only one foot-washing service, and that was at a Seventh Day Adventist Church here in Denton. It was well done, quietly and with dignity. It was part of a love feast, what some would call a church dinner. Those who chose to participate repaired to back rooms, men and women separately. I was invited to witness the men’s service. I was impressed with the humble manner in which it was done: leaders of the church washing each other’s feet, and fathers washing their sons’ feet. There was no ceremony, no words spoken. They quietly washed each other’s feet, drying them with a towel, and that was it, all in the name of the One who washed his disciples’ feet.

I had the feeling that the boys would likely always treasure the experience of their fathers washing their feet at church, and that they would be less likely to fuss at each other at home. And I supposed that elders of the church who washed one another’s feet would be less likely to have confrontations. While I did not have the privilege of witnessing it, it must have been a tender and delicate sight, sisters in Christ washing each other’s feet and mothers washing their daughters’ feet.

Well, that was the Adventists, and we are not Adventists. We always explain such things away with, “It is not a church ordinance.” That may be true, but Jesus said nothing about it being a church ordinance. He simply washed his disciples’ feet and told them to do the same. We’ve always said that the Bible teaches by either command or example. Here we have both an example and a command. But still we explain it away, and that may be all right so long as we have in our hearts and lives what Jesus had in mind, that we show love for each other in humble ways. Perhaps we are washing feet when we visit a shut-in, drive Miss Daisy, take someone a meal, clean a neighbor’s house, or even (and this will do it if you want to be humble!) walk someone’s dog.

That is how I have always understood the passage, for I doubt if in our culture the Lord cares all that much whether we literally wash each other’s feet, not with any great frequency at least. But he is very concerned that we consistently show love for one another, even as he has loved us, and that we do this in ways that are as humble and condescending as washing feet, as opportunity allows.

But this interpretation does not preclude an occasional service of literal washing of feet for its symbolic value, such as at a Maundy Thursday service, which a few denominations around the world practice. It was a practice of the ancient church for the rich to wash the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday before Easter, as our Lord did on the Thursday night before he went to the Cross the next day. Maundy comes from “mandatum,” and refers to the command to “Do this,” that is, wash one another’s feet. Washing of feet might, therefore, be part of a Maundy Thursday service, along with Communion. Whatever symbolic value such a service has, there is no better reason to do it than that Jesus did it.

I am impressed that the oldest “Campbellite” church in the world, the Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City, founded in 1810, had such a service this past Maundy Thursday. I was privileged to read the Order of Worship for the occasion.

The introduction to the service reads:

At this Service we celebrate the institution of Holy Communion at Christ’s last supper with the disciples. Maundy Thursday has also been a time to remember Jesus’ betrayal and desertion by his followers. In keeping with our Lord’s example, we have incorporated the Mandatum (“Do this. . .”), Christ’s Supper of bread and wine and his humbly washing of the disciples’ feet.

After appropriate readings, hymns, prayers, and responses the minister conducted the Mandatum. There was first the washing of the elders’ feet. The elders then, in recognition of their role as servants, donned towels and washed the feet of those in the congregation that chose to file down front at the appropriate place, men and women alike. Those participating were instructed to remove only one shoe and sock; those wearing hose did not need to remove them. Instructions explained that only a small amount of water would be used and it would be immediately toweled away. While the elders washed the feet of their people the chorus chanted antiphons, such as “If I, your Lord and Master have washed your feet, how much more ought ye to wash one another’s,” and “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The congregation then entered into the Communion service.

However biblical a service like this may be, it would be an oddity to most of us in Churches of Christ, mainly because “We’ve never done it that way.” It is for our own good that we realize that there are adventures into meaning and truth, especially in reference to Body life, that we have not yet explored. A meaningful foot-washing service may be one of them. We would not have to make it “a church ordinance,” whatever we make that mean, in order to do it in some manner.

We might start by having a foot-washing ceremony at our next big debate, with the gladiators washing one another’s feet before they start flaying away at each other. But that could be a dangerous innovation. The debate might never come off!

Or we might have a foot-washing unity meeting in which the leaders of all the Church of Christ factions come together and follow the example of Jesus in washing one another’ s feet. We could include all our editors, which might be mostly the same people. I, for one, whether a factional leader or not, would be pleased to participate. Think of it, elders, preachers, editors, professors (let’s include their wives) from all across the Church of Christ brotherhood gathering and washing one another’s feet in a humble and sincere effort to follow the example of Christ! Let’s make it an annual affair —such as on Maundy Thursday —and watch it grow in beauty and meaning with the years. In time we would find ourselves a united people, loving one another even as Christ loves us, for how can you wash a brother’s feet and then reject him? That is how the world will know that we are truly Jesus’ disciples in that we have such love for one another.

That scene in the upper room of Jesus donning a towel and washing the feet of his followers is breathtaking in its beauty and mystery. The sinless Son of God washing the feet of sinful men! What a glorious mystery that he ever did such a thing! He said he did it to set an example. He was the master but he assumed the role of a servant. A servant? We are to be servants to one another, after the order of washing each other’s feet? What a staggering truth! Do we not seriously err if we let it slip by us? —the Editor