God on His Knees

 

I spoke once, maybe twice that day.

Given my best, and what energy remained leaked through the cold metal of the folding chair and pooled on the floor.

We sat towards the back of the conference room, and I wanted to be engaged with what the next speaker shared.

But my head hurt, and my feet ached.

And then one of the clergy members seated at my left rose and knelt in front of me.

He removed my shoes and began to massage my feet.

Awkward.

I wanted to pull away.

Sit on my feet.

Hide the calluses and the dirt of the day.

Cover the smell.

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ~John 13:5-14 (NIV)

God on His knees.

Spilling Himself on soiled hearts and dusty feet.

Not to cover the stench or hide the stains but to abolish them.

Do you understand what I have done for you?

Do you understand what I have done for YOU?

Can I grasp the depth and breadth of a God bent in humility?

Who poured Himself out in service and sacrifice?

Who dragged a heavy cross through dusty streets?

Whose blood-bathed feet bear the scars of suffering and selflessness?

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! ~Philippians 2:3-8 (NIV)

Very God of Very God.

Made Himself nothing.

Stooped low for love.

Of me.

And He asks me to do the same.

For you.

For Him.

I am hushed.