August 10th, 20

 Washed Clean

Today’s reading are Jeremiah 7 – 9 and John 13.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

You have to get washed and He has to wash you.  You have to humbly accept Jesus’ care over your life, as he washes your feet. If you don’t, Jesus says, you’re going to miss him.  You’re not going to get him. There’s a difference between union and communion.  Peter and the Twelve were united with Christ. They were one with Christ.  But, just like you and I, their feet got dirty because they were walking in a fallen, broken, and dirty world. Journeying through this life takes a toll on us and our souls need to be drawn in, over and over again, to our  life with him. We need to be realigned, renewed, refreshed.  We need to be washed clean and come into communion with him again. So Jesus insists on cleaning our feet,.  When he cleans our feet he is reminding us of who we are in Him. You are my son.  You are my daughter, You are one with me.  Jesus insists on caring for us throughout our lives – washing our feet, cleansing us, reminding us of his intimate care and grace, and offering it to us each day.

It’s a humiliating thing for someone to wash our feet but our souls are in need of the humbling reality of Christ serving us in this most intimate of ways.  Our pride, like Peter’s,  wants to rise up and demand otherwise.  You will never ever wash my feet! (Jn 13:8 NLT) The flesh always refuses to be clean.  But the presence of Christ humbles us and teaches us that we need Jesus to cleanse and care for us throughout our lives. We need him and we are one with him.  

Today he continues to wash us, even through his word, through what we’re doing right now.  You may not have noticed this, but while we were hearing the word today, something else was happening.  Christ was washing our feet.  Ephesians 5:25 says,

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.

He’s washing our feet as we listen to and respond to his word each day.  Jesus says to you what he said to Peter, 

Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. (Jn13:10 NIV)  

The water of my Word, washing your feet, is going to be a part of our life together, from here on out.

Don’t let your pride and flesh stand in the way of Christ serving you in this most humbling of ways.  Next time you come to the Word envision Jesus – the creator of all things – washing your feet! Let it be a reminder that you are one with Christ and that you need him to renew, restore, clean you , and that you are loved.  And let that love move beyond you and into the world, to others – so that you can love the way he loved and serve the way he served, and be free.   You walk in a world where your feet get dirty and you need him every day, to make you clean.  Receive the cleansing love of Christ today.

You are loved!