John 13

"Then Jesus washed the feet if His disciples..."

What comes to your mind when you read this? What do you think?
Is this weird? Ordinary? Kind? Gross?
What comes to mind?

Well, until yesterday I passed over this section in the bible without much extra thought, "That's cool," or "How sweet," but not much more until I experienced it.
Jesus did this to serve His disciples. As many of you know, feet can be pretty gross, we use them all day, we walk around on them, we walk around barefoot and walk into things, our shoes stink so therefore our feet stink, but Jesus didn't care, He washed their feet to serve them and show them how much He loved them. Jesus humbled himself to wash the most disgusting part of their bodies to show them that there was nothing He couldn't or wouldn't do for them.
Jesus practiced what he preached.
He tells us to humble ourselves, to serve others, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, then He does it.
That is pure love, pure sacrifice, to humble yourself, get on your knees and wash the most rancid part of the body. Why? Because you love them and will do anything for them, You want to show them you care for them and you want to serve them.
This blows me away, I still haven't grasped the gravity of this action, all the love, sacrifice, humility and service behind it.
Here's what happened:
We had Women's Time last night and we started out the evening reading scripture, and praying for the time the Lord was about to give us, then we broke off to spend some alone time with the Lord, journaling, praying and reading His word.
As I started journaling and spending some time with the Lord, Bekah, my discipler, asked me to come and follow her to the back. I was confused and didn't know what to expect, but I followed her. She grabbed my hand and led me to the back of the room, where I started to see wash stations. Then it hit me, she was about to wash my feet. I was overcome. Completely.
I broke down in tears. I couldn't control my emotions and collapsed into her arms. She held me as I cried and shook and told me how much she loved me and how much God loved me.
I was completely overcome.
I have nasty feet, full of callouses and scars from years of dance and being barefoot. Plus, my feet are always dirty, always.
She didn't care, she washed my feet to show me that she loved me. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do for me because she loved me and nothing about me was too gross for her to love.
This was Christ's love in every sense of the word.
When I think about it, Christ washed His disciples' feet not just because He loved them, not just because He wanted to serve them, but because He wanted to wash them clean! Christ wants to wash away our sin, even the nastiest, dirtiest sin we have, He wants to wash it clean, Why? Because to Christ, nothing about us is too gross for Him, nothing about us disgusts Him, there is nothing He doesn't like about us, even our nasty habits, sins and addictions.
He came to wash us clean, even the darkest parts of us, he came to wash clean and he showed that is a physical way by washing the feet of His disciples.
This blows my mind. This shows me how much God loves me and how He shows us that love through other people and through community. God loves me and He loves me enough to wash my feet, no not in a physical way, Jesus didn't walk in the room and wash my feet, but if He wanted to, Jesus could come back and wash my feet because He loves me and wants to wash every part of me clean, even my dirty nasty feet.