Washing Judas’ Feet
I swear, not everything I write is about football. BUT…
During this year’s NFL championship, the Christian organization He Gets Us ran a commercial showing people washing other people’s feet, referencing Jesus’ example in John 13. You wouldn’t imagine the simple act of service would cause much controversy, but it’s somehow managed to upset just about everyone. Some were upset that the campaign preached love and service while spending ~$21 million on commercials rather than love and service. But the majority of the outrage stems from the ad’s content.
Most of the commercial had little to offend anyone. It showed the people washing the feet of the elderly, immigrants, the poor, the troubled, the “different,” and even those from other religions.
The reactions came to two scenes in particular where, assumably, Christians washed the feet of a woman outside of an abortion clinic and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The criticism boils down to this: does washing someone’s feet condone their actions? And if so, what is this commercial saying about things like abortion, homosexuality, and practicing other religions? I believe the question behind those questions is this: are you saying Jesus supports these things and Christians should, too?
Others pointed out that none of the scenes addressed political differences, such as a liberal person washing the feet of a MAGA-supporting person and vice-versa.
I’m impressed that twelve pictures in less than sixty seconds ticked off millions of people from just about every background. I guess Jesus still makes things interesting even after 2000 years.
I watched it live and found myself weighing my reactions and then reacting to them. And I’ve concluded that almost nothing has changed in the last two millennia. It’s nearly a carbon copy of one episode of Jesus’ life combined with elements from another.
The Point Was Love
There’s a quote that I can’t quite remember and can’t find, but it goes something like this, “if you ask questions the text isn’t asking, you’ll get some wild answers.” It means when you read scripture, do your best to understand the author’s original point, or you may find yourself reading things into the Bible that may not be there. It's easier said than done, but still, we try.
In this case, the Jesus’ foot washing story comes from John 13. Sometimes, we have to carefully piece together a best guess at the author’s intent based on context, historical criticism, and linguistic scholarship. This is not one of those times. Here’s how that story begins:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. John 13:1 ESV (emphasis added)
Directly after this preamble, Jesus washed his disciples' feet. The author frames the story through this lens, one of love. This story is about how Jesus loved his disciples! And what I find astonishing is how he loved all of them.
God put everything into Jesus’ hands at this moment. He knew he would die soon and who would betray him (v.27-30). With this gift of sovereignty over the entire situation, he decided to wield his divine power to [drum roll please]... Wash his disciples’ feet (v.12). All of their feet, including Judas. With full knowledge that Judas would betray him in a matter of hours, he removed his cloak and washed his disciple’s treacherous feet.
Jesus continued:
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (v.12-17)
And finally,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (v.34-35)
Jesus never asked the question, “Should I wash Judas’ feet?” That wasn’t what he was discussing. That’s not what he was commanding. The question was, “Are you willing to stoop and love regardless of what it might do to you? Jesus’ example emphasized that his disciples were not “above” this kind of humiliating loving service because he wasn’t “above” it. Jesus’ real-life parable wasn’t about who deserves it. It was about who was willing to do it.
And the same point goes for us.
Arguing about who deserves it misses the point entirely. That isn’t to say we cannot talk about sin, but Jesus doesn’t say that the world will know them to be his disciples by their unimpeachable ability to discern sinners. He says that the world will know you are my disciples by how they love each other.
This kind of love challenges me because it means I have to value someone I don’t necessarily want to value. I have to serve people I’d rather not serve. And love people I’d rather not love. I’m not talking about the homeless, the immigrants, the members of the LGBTQ+ community, women who have had abortions, or people from other religions. For me, it’s harder to love the people that don’t love those people. It’s so easy to stand on my soapbox with my finger waving in judgment at the people who I believe spew hatred and anger. It feels much better to condemn someone acting like that rather than love. But If Jesus washed the feet of the man selling him to death, how can I refuse to love someone who isn’t doing half of that?
Ask yourself if there is anyone, any kind of person, that you wouldn’t be willing to love.
What Love Costs You
Jesus washed his disciples’ feet in a private upstairs room. There was no public cost to his service at the time. But, in the book of Matthew, we find a very public situation that applies to our discussion.
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:9-13 ESV
Matthew was a tax collector who became rich by exploiting his neighbors at the behest of the Roman authorities. People so despised Jewish tax collectors that they lumped “tax collector” together with “robber,” and the Talmud forbade them from testifying in court (Sanhedrin 25b). And yet Jesus called Matthew to be one of his closest students. He saw Matthew serving an ignoble power and decided that wasn’t enough to prevent him from serving a noble one. Jesus maintained Matthew’s dignity by calling him from a sinful place into a holy one.
Apparently, Matthew decided to celebrate his new life with his friends at home. The first floor of larger homes in the first century, known as atriums, were usually public places where almost anyone could enter and see what was happening inside.(1) People looked at this party and saw Jesus reclining with tax collectors and sinners and began vibrating with indignation. If Jesus was a holy man, they thought, he would never closely associate with sinners.
To this, Jesus simply replies that it is not the healthy that needs a doctor, but the sick. It’s hard to argue with that logic. The simple act of eating with sinners was enough to cost Jesus real social honor. Notice he doesn’t affirm their sin or join in it. Quite the opposite. He acknowledges their sin but affirms their human dignity and worth. The Pharisees insisted that their sin lessened their value. They got themselves sick, so let them fend for themselves. Jesus claims the opposite. Their humanity and dignity guarantee their value, and so demand treatment. Or, put another way, sin doesn’t affect someone’s value to Jesus. But by simply expressing something basic like this, Jesus pays a social price. Those who do not value sinners no longer value Jesus.
Loving people that others want to condemn may destroy your reputation. Spending time with them does not affirm sinful practices, but it does affirm their value.
And so we return to this commercial. I don’t know exactly how Jesus would respond to all of this. I don’t know how he would speak to the imaginary characters in the photographs or the bloggers and YouTubers talking about it. I think, in this case, it’s the wrong question.
To wash the feet of someone is to love them at your own expense. To serve someone self-sacrificially does not endorse all of their choices. Let’s start with stooping to wash someone else's feet to show the world who knows Jesus, rather than trying to do it by yelling the loudest.
Notes
H. F. VOS, “Rome,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 230.
