FOCUS SCRIPTURE
John 13:1-17; 31b-35
DAILY BYTE
All throughout Lent, we have been pondering the crossroads moments and issues of our lives and the paths we choose to follow. It is, therefore, right and good that as we come to the end of the journey, approaching the ultimate crossroad, that we take a moment to consider the overall picture of our lives and any new paths we may have been called to take.
It is entirely possible that this journey has simply affirmed the paths you had already chosen, celebrating the vision and direction you have had and are deepening through your relationship with Christ and the church.
But if, in some areas of your life, you have discovered a new way of thinking, being, or acting and you are preparing to bury the old way, learning to walk the new way, it is a good time, perhaps, for you to let someone on the journey with you wash your feet.
Our feet carry us on long paths - they get weary and calloused. When our souls find refreshment and new direction, the washing of our feet reminds us symbolically and physically that we humbly are committing ourselves to a new, fresh, clean way of being.
But it is our choice, whether or not we want to be washed clean from the old and prepared for the journey ahead.
During a renewal of marriage vows, a moment in life where my spouse and I chose purposefully to reaffirm our path in relationship with God and one another, we washed each others’ feet. We could have walked into that new segment of our life together carrying remnants of the old life on our heels, but we desired a tangible symbol that we had chosen to walk together in a life where we serve one another the way that Christ first showed us to serve humbly. We wanted to have a share in the path one another chose. We see Christ’s example of this in the passage from John for today.
Jesus says boldly, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus knows that the path we walk with him is difficult. It holds windy, unexpected turns. It demands that every inch of our bodies and souls become shaped to God’s will, and so sometimes in order to prepare ourselves for this challenging adventure, we first need to be washed.
But, Jesus does not expect his disciples to wash others’ feet before Jesus himself washes their own. When we experience Jesus’ powerful, humble, refreshing touch on our own feet - our own paths - we realize with thanks that we are not asked to walk the exact path that he walked. He says “Where I am going, you cannot come.” He walked the path to the cross, felt the nails in his weary feet, all so that a world would be created where we would not have to meet the same fate.
He calls us instead to die to ourselves and walk a path where we “love one another.” He says, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
As you reaffirm old directions and commit yourself to new ones, consider that the path with Christ to the cross requires that we let him wash us and that we then go into the world to wash others’ feet, helping them on their new journey with Christ, as well.
Questions for reflection:
- Before you reach the cross this week, consider what needs to be cleansed from your path. What refreshing and renewing do you still need, as you journey with Christ?
- Whose feet might Christ be asking you to wash? Who do you journey with? Who are you called to serve humbly on this journey?
Lord, I hear and speak the words of Psalm 25 today: Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
As I walk new and old paths, let me share in your washing and share in your loving, O Lord. Amen.
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