Learning from Jesus: the nature of a servant
What Jesus' disciples were too proud to do, Jesus did. Taking on the garb of a servant, he performed a dirty and demeaning task. But Peter's irrepressible pride forced itself up again. 'You shall never wash my feet', he muttered. Unwilling to serve; unwilling to be served.
It is Luke who records the sequel to this intimate scene. After the great symbolic drama of the last supper, the disciples - unbelievably - began to argue about which of them was considered to be greatest (Luke 22:24-30). Would they never learn? Jesus patiently explained, yet again:
'The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.'
The extraordinary propensity of human beings to inflate their own importance is exposed by Jesus as the sham it is. Giving themselves airs, standing on their dignity, pulling rank. 'Wash one another's feet', Jesus said, whether you are a junior clerk or a managing director, church cleaner or bishop. See something that needs to be done, and do it. This is not heroic stuff, but everyday, invisible stuff, that asks for no reward except that of knowing that we are doing his will.
But the form of Jesus' command has a further implication. Washing one another's feet necessarily implies allowing other people to wash ours. Some of us (perhaps women particularly!) find it harder to allow others to do things for us than to do them ourselves. Servanthood has to be a reciprocal ministry, or it can become yet another path to self-righteousness.
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