This article is by Ethan Perkins:
On Super Bowl Sunday this year, as millions of Americans cheered, ate, laughed and, if you are a 49ers fan, wept, one ad appeared that gave many people a mixed feeling.
The ad campaign “He Gets Us.” You’ve seen their ads I’m sure. They are well produced and deliver a simple message. As their website says “we hope to remind everyone, including ourselves, that Jesus’ teachings are a warm embrace, not a cold shoulder.”
The ad that ran on Super Bowl Sunday showed people washing other people’s feet. The ad showed a GEN Z bleached blonde dyed hair kid washing an older boomer’s feet. It showed a police officer washing the feet of an African American man. A white man with a native American, a woman in front of an abortion clinic, a person with an immigrant, and even a priest with someone from the LGBTQ community.
The Ad campaign is meant to remind people of who Jesus was, what He has done, and what He is willing to do for anyone and everyone. This is the gospel, and it was preached to millions. Praise God.
But an ad like this, of course, will come with reactions for many Christians. I have no intention to discuss either those in love with the ad or those that hate it. Instead, I’d like to talk about Jesus washing His disciples feet, their reaction, and what it says about the kind of love Jesus showed.
In John 13, just before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus is gathering with his disciples. This is just before Jesus is to be condemned and crucified. This was not lost on Jesus. In John 13:1 it says “Jesus knew His hour had come to depart out of this world.” Jesus knew His time was short with His disciples. He had spent the last three years with rough fishermen and common laborers, and even one not so nice tax collector. As he is preparing to leave them and leave the gospel in their hands, He plans to show them an act of extreme humility and empathy. The washing of the feet was a common practice in the ancient world, but often was given to the lowest of low servants. Roads were not paved. Dust, dirt, mud, and of course, all sorts of animal droppings, littered the streets. To clean someone’s feet was to touch the most detestable part of someone. And this, of course, is exactly the point Jesus was making.
He bent low, humbled himself to the men he was leading, and took on the dirtiest job that anyone could. Twelve men came before him. Twelve sinners that he spent all of His days with. He knew their hearts, knew their sins, and knew how unfit they were to carry the gospel forward. And still, He bowed.
Jesus bent down 12 times, cleaned their feet, and then wrapped them in a towel. This was not the job for the son of God, but it was the desire of God’s heart. Jesus, as always, fulfills what we can not.
And what was the respond from the twelve disciples. Did they see the humility? Did they understand the depths of grace and kindness they had just witnessed? Did they weep for being in the presence of such a good God?
No. They argued. Peter, the Rock on which the church would be built, demanded that Jesus would never wash his feet. I would only assume that this started a chain reaction in which all of the disciples demanded that they were so good that they wouldn’t allow Jesus to wash their feet. I assume this because in Luke 22, during the same dinner, the disciples argued over who was the greatest.
But Jesus, with his perfect love and kindness, simply reminded them that if he did not wash their feet, they did not have anything to do with him. He was showing them that faith reveals itself through the humility to receive a gift.
Among these men was Judas. In John 12:2 we see that Judas had already decided to betray Jesus. That he had his plan and was going to go through it. Jesus did not wash His feet and tell him of what a great sinner He was about to become. He did not mention that the world would only know him as a betrayer. He did not say “change or die.” He held his feet, and lovingly cleaned the dirt.
Jesus showed the essence of the gospel to these 12 men that would help change the world, who would carry the literal flame of the Holy Spirit and happily die rather than stop preaching the good news. These disciples needed to hear Jesus show how all people are in need regardless of how important they think they are.
In a simple act, Jesus displays the message of the gospel. The good news that levels the playing field. The message that says no one is greater, that we are all “the least of these.” The beggars at the foot of God’s door, welcomed in, and made to be son’s and daughter of the king.
This is the message we still have. No one is greater. We are all broken and we all need the cleansing love and kindness of Jesus to fix us.
For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, no servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (Jn 13:15-16)
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This is a very powerful message. My prayer is that all who read it will meditate on the true purpose of Jesus humility in this act as well as His amazing act of total sacrifice for all of us.