Here's another mind blowing revelation I receive today. It's about washing dirty feet. Yep...I believe we've read the famous last supper story in John 13:1-15. And yes, it's about Jesus washing His disciples' feet. And yes, this passage have been used over and over again to teach us about the servanthood leadership. But why is a mind blowing revelation for me? This is why:
1) There's no servant at all in the dining room
-it is not mention in the bible whether there's a servant who washes Jesus & His disciples' feet. If they have washed they feet before eating, why did Jesus want to wash His disciples feet again?
-for an obvious reason, none of His disciples at that time willing to wash his friend's feet or even Jesus' feet. Why? Because they might think "Nah..they can do it themselves". The disciples are taking each other for granted.
-This is a wake up call for me. My family, my fiance, my leaders & mentor, my friends & RYC...these are the people whom I take for granted. Instead of continue to wash their feet (serve them), I just assume that they don't really need me.
-Jesus knew that His disciples still need to be educated on servanthood 101, so...He did a crash course on that before He return Father.
2) "Lord, are You washing my feet?...You shall never wash my feet!" v6 & v8
-we all know how dirty feet look like, especially when you're wearing sandals..who knows what kind of dirt you picked up. So many times in our christian life, we walk on "dirty path", we get our feet dirty with all sort of sins. And when Jesus want to wash the dirt off our feet, we respond like what Peter did, we say "Jesus! are You seriously gonna wash my dirty feet? You don't deserve to do that, I can wash my own feet..."
-whooaa...look who's talking. "I can wash my own feet.." Well, how many times in our life do we try to wash our own sin with our own good self-righteouss work? We think that if we pray and fast for few days, or when we actively involve in church ministry, we will wash our sins off from our feet.
-but sometimes like Peter, we FORGOT to wash our feet. Eventually the dirt became ticker and ticker and germs starts to spread all over our feet and we fell sick...sick spiritually.
-ONLY God can wash the sins off our life. Stop arguing with Him. period.
3) "What I'm doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.." v7
-Poor Peter, he thought he knew Jesus so well. Like him (Peter), we thought after experience divine encounter with JEsus thru church camps, KKR, retreats, seminar, reading books, devotions..we thought that we know everything about Him.
- Reading this verse i remember 1 quote that struck me few years ago when I'm having difficulties in leadership. "Often understanding comes after obedience"..i still remember that quote. We often assume Jesus will work in certain ways that we know but we forgot that He is God. God wants us to learn to be obedient...to grow our faith..not just knowledge.
- For people who're used to do things ONLY after understand what or why he/she need to do it, this might b a challenge for you. You can't ask God to present you with some paperwork of plans, and only then you will obey Him.
4)"Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!", Jesus said to him. "he who bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you're clean, but not all of you." v10
-This I need to explain it in a more polite way. Sudah lah kena cuci kaki, minta lebih-lebih pula...nda cukup yakin sama apa yang Tuhan sudah buat. Yep...often we ask more and more from God, more sign, more miracles, more blessings...we never feel contented (alias nda pandai merasa bersyukur atau merasa cukup) with what God has done in our life.
-we knew God's promises but yet we still ask for more...just to proove that He is true to His words (nda tau malu & nda sedar diri)
-trust God, when He says our sins is washed away, we must believe that our sins is washed away. When God says "nothing is impossible"..learn to really trust His word.
5) Humility is the way
-Jesus knew that Peter would turn his back on Him. Jesus knew that Judas is selling Him. But yet He still washes their feet. This simple act brings a huge impact into Peter's and Judas' life and we knew, because of this simple act, Peter changed into becoming one of the most radical disciples of Jesus while Judas take his own life.
-sometimes we think that we must be dominant just to make our points clear..we think if we use louder tones or harsh words we can let the other party knows what we trying to say. We often forget that humility is the way.
6) "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." v14
-straight forward and understandable...we ought to wash one another's feet. Not pointing at their feet and shouted "Hey everybody! look at his dirty feet!". When we see our brothers sisters sin, aren't we suppose to help them wash their feet with God's love? not condemning them like some modern day Pharisees and Sadducees in our churches.
God rebuke me over and over again as I type out this post. He remind me how He washes my dirty feet and how I should keep my feet clean. I'm not better than all of you, none of us is better than anybody...all of us have our own dirty feet. Let us let Jesus to wash our feet and be ready to wash one another's feet after that. Happy washing!...err...selamat mencuci kaki.
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