Let Him Wash
Your Feet
No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Y'shua answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
John 13:8
"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?” Y'shua replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Y'shua answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
John 13:5-8
Are you letting your Lord and Savior wash your feet? On one particular day, the Lord made this question burn in my own heart through this biblical event written in the book of John. I’ve read this story many times before and though many preachers teach that our Lord was teaching us humility, which is also true, that day this story transformed my heart in a whole new way.
In John 13:1-17 we find our Lord going around the table washing each disciples’ feet. When He comes to Peter, Peter turns Him away by telling Him, “No, you shall never wash my feet.” To what Y'shua responds, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
Peter turned our Lord away from washing his feet because he felt so unworthy and undeserving of this act to be performed on him by our Lord. The Lord showed me I was in the same state of mind as Peter was, and unless I would let Him wash my feet, I would never become whom my Heavenly Father created me to be in Christ.
I understood Peter because this was the same false humility I was living in. This is a false humility the world has taught us all. When Peter turned the Lord away, he reveals that he believed he was not worthy of such an act even if the Lord believed otherwise. To add, Peter is also revealing that his opinion was the one that held more power and truth over anything the Lord may otherwise believe about him.
This is how I lived before the Lord revealed it. I lived in a false humility. I didn’t believe what the Lord believed about me. Instead, I chose to believe in my own opinions about myself. Nowadays, I am finally surrendering to what the Lord says He believes about me. I believe I am who He says I am.
Let the Lord wash your feet. If He says you are worthy and precious in His eyes, believe that you are. Once you learn to surrender to His constant offers to wash your feet, do as He says in John 13:14, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet." In other words, love others like the Lord loves you and live to let others know their true worth and identity in our Lord.