Lord and Master

"Thou shalt never wash my feet." Peter says it to Jesus at the last supper, and of all the reactions in that room, his is at least an honest one.

John sets a remarkable sentence just before that moment: "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself." In the Greek this is one sentence, so the knowing and the towel belong together. Judas has already made up his mind to betray Him. The water goes into the basin, and the man carrying it round the table is the One John has just told you holds all things in His hands.

Luke tells us something else that was happening at that meal, and it helps explain the dirty feet: "And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest." Twelve men had come in from the road and were arguing about rank, and picking up the jug would have felt like losing the argument. So Jesus picked it up. When Peter refused, Jesus' answer went deeper than a lesson in humility: "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."

Then comes the instruction, worded like a debt that is owed: "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet." Both titles stay in. The towel does not take them away; it shows what kind of Lord He is. Three verses later comes the promise, small and exact: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." The happiness is tied to the doing. Most of us have known this story for years. The joy Jesus promised is waiting in the next ordinary kindness you do for someone near you, and He has already knelt there first.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 272 is A Living Hope (1 Peter 1:3-4).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two