Letting someone get close like this? That’s terrifying. I’d rather tuck away all the parts that people could ridicule, the stuff that makes people look at you sideways. Least of all, I’d never want someone seeing all that mess who’s way better than me, cleaner than me, holier than me. Why does God have to come so close?

It was time. Three years back, he’d told his mother it wasn’t time. Then he turned water into wine like it was nothing, and that kicked off everything that led to this moment. (John 2:1-11) Now his hour had come, the clock hit zero.

Slave Labor

If there was anything his friends might expect from Jesus, it would be the uncharacteristic, unanticipated, illogical, the exact opposite of what anybody expected. And he did it again. He removed his outer garment, wrapped a towel around his waist like some house servant, poured water into a basin, and starts washing their feet. Their Lord, Teacher, Rabbi, Master, dressed as a servant or slave, down on the floor, touching the dirt stuck deep in the cracks of their busted, calloused feet.

The water was cool and comforting, his hands massaging, steady and gentle, the towel warm. Stooped low, moving on his knees, he went from one to one, knowing how inadequate they were, disillusioned even, for what would be coming. None was skipped over.

Even to his betrayers, both Judas and Peter, Jesus extended this service. Peter is the only one who protests, but let’s be real; they were all uncomfortable.

Naked Love

It’s hard letting people see the ugly parts of you, exposing the stuff that stinks, the warts, bunions, fungus embedded in the nails. And it’s even harder when the one seeing it is someone you look up to, someone you worship. Such humility can mess with your head. Makes you wonder if you ever really knew them. Worse yet, it makes you worry they see right through you, maybe better than you see yourself. You don’t want their goodness getting mixed up with your grime, the secret knowledge of ourselves.

Lower Than Dirt

Letting someone wash your feet flips the whole power structure upside down, upends structures of hierarchy. It’s threatening. The one kneeling is lower than the one being served. If someone of superior status chooses to kneel, become a servant to others, it’s an act of relinquishing power. And giving up power means opening yourself up—being vulnerable, letting change, an exchange of one’s will for transformation to happen. Change? That’s dangerous.

But a Higher Love

Jesus gets all of this. He finishes, puts his robe back on, stands up as Teacher and Lord again, and tells them straight. “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.”

He breaks it down: no servant is above the master, and no one gets to act like they’re too good to serve somebody else. Everybody’s supposed to look out for everybody. Nobody gets left out. Nobody gets labeled too dirty, too broken, too unworthy.

In itself, permitting exposure and vulnerability can open a person to hurt, abuse. Only in an atmosphere of trust should it be accepted. Jesus gives them one more command to make the first one possible: “So I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

As I have loved, you should love. His kind of love isn’t safe. It’s not polite. It’s not about power. It’s dangerous, intimate, counter-cultural, an act of shared leveling power among all.

For when you humbly serve the ones at the bottom, you start to understand how deeply God loves you. In giving is also receiving.

A greater example was yet to come. Jesus wasn’t done showing them. Laying down his robe was just the warm‑up. Jesus knew it. His kind of love would have him lay down his life.

His hour had come.



John 13: 1-17, 31-35

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The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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