It was the Passover. Jesus and the Apostles were in a room to observe the meal commemorating God delivering the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. Before the meal began Jesus did something unexpected. He took a basin of water, a towel, and washed the Apostle’s feet (John 13:1-15). This was something the lowest slave did but certainly not the King of Kings… the Christ… the Messiah. Yet Jesus did it.

Jesus wasn’t telling the Apostles to literally wash each other’s feet. He was teaching them the attitude of heart they were to have toward one another. Get that… an attitude of heart. The heart of a servant. Humility. Something the Apostles had a problem getting their arms around (Mt 20:20-24; Mt 18:1-4; Mk 9:33-34)… and so do we.

It is rare that people in churches (Including many ministers) have the attitude Jesus set forth when he washed the Apostle’s feet. It is rare that anyone really gets what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3-7…

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…

“Count others more significant than yourselves” means: Look for ways to build others up, find ways to encourage others, put other people’s needs and wants before your own, take a hit so others don’t have to, forgive over and over and over and over again.

God calls Christians to be wash feet in the metaphorical sense. Thus all Christians are to be servants of everyone else. Every day multiple opportunities are presented to wash someone’s feet. Doing so will cost you time… energy… reputation… financially… among other possibilities. But washing the feet of others results in one day hearing God say, “Well done! Well done good and faithful servant!”