Foot washing in the church

The tradition of foot washing following the observance of taking communion has been practiced in many churches for hundreds of years. In all the cases I have observed, the men gather into one room and the women into another and wash each others feet, supplementing the occasion with prayers and hymns. This has been observed by many, but not all of the churches, and is based upon the scriptures in the 13th chapter of the Gos­pel of John.

In the 13th chapter of John, it relates the event as follows: Jesus and His disciples had gathered to eat supper together and when they had finished eating Jesus proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples. When He had finished washing their feet, He said that He had given them an example, to do just as He had done. He told them that they should also wash one another’s feet, as He had done to them.  If this would have been all there was to it, there would be no question as to what He wanted them to do, but because of what else He said to them, there is a question as to what He meant.

When Jesus approached Simon Peter to wash his feet, Peter said to Him, “Lord! You’re going to wash my feet? No, you will never wash my feet,” said Peter. Then Jesus said to him: what I do now you do not understand but you will later on.

 

John 13:7 “Jesus answered and said to him, What I do now, you understand not; but you shall understand hereafter.”

 

  Let’s just picture this if we can. Jesus is washing the feet of His disciples and after He has finished with some of them, with Peter looking on, He tells Peter: you do not understand what I am doing. While Peter thought he knew what Jesus was do­ing, as he observed Him washing everyone’s feet, apparently he really did not. So Jesus must have been doing something that was not obvious to them and the washing of the feet was just symbolic and really had some other meaning.

 

Jesus went on to tell Peter that if He did not wash his feet, then (as Jesus put it) you will have no part with me.

John 13:8 “Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash you not; you have no part with me.”

 

  What did Jesus mean when He told Peter that he could have no part with Him if he would not allow Jesus to wash his feet? It must have meant something pretty serious because, after Jesus said it, Peter told Jesus to not only wash his feet, but also wash him all over.

Peter must have realized what he had previously said to Jesus, that only He had the words of eternal life and if the disci­ples were to share in the inheritance, in the Kingdom of God, they must do what Jesus commanded. So Peter said to Jesus: “wash not only my feet but my hands and my head also.”

John 13:9 “Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

 

But, then Jesus responded with a statement that is just a little difficult to understand because of the words used in the English translation. Jesus said that “he that is washed does not need his feet washed, because he is already clean throughout.”

 

John 13:10 “Jesus said to him, He that is washed needs not rather to wash his feet, but is clean every bit: and you are clean, but not all.”

 I do not believe that Jesus was talking about a person being washed with water, but having something else done to them.

 Let’s look at exactly what has taken place so far between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus had given them an example, in symbolic form, of what He had done to them. He had washed them, Jesus had washed them, the manifested Word of God, which was Jesus, had washed them and the washing by the Word had sanctified them and made them clean and pure. I believe that Jesus was demonstrating to them just exactly what Paul stated to the Ephesians:

 

Eph 5:25-26 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and clean­se it with the washing of water by the word,”

 

Jesus was telling His disciples that as they were cleansed and sanctified by the Word, so should they do to each other. It had nothing to do with washing their feet; clean feet will not save you. It was just a demonstration, an example that they should follow, to sanctify and cleanse the church that was to develop with the Word, for only His Word can save a person.

 Jesus prayed that the church would be sanctified through the truth, which was the Word and through this cleansing, become one with Him, just as He was one with the Father.

 

John 17:17 “Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.”

 

John 17:18-21 “As you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

 

So, I believe that Jesus was telling His disciples to preach the truth of His Word to the people and by them receiving His Word, they would be washed, cleansed, sanctified and purified and prepared to share in the inheritance of eternal life.

 

The Apostle Paul, as he was admonishing the saints in Cor­inth about something they were doing, reminded them that they had been washed and sanctified.

 

1 Cor 6:11 “And such were some of you: but you are washed, and you are sanctified, and you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

 

After Jesus had finished washing their feet, he asked them, “Do you know what I have done?” He had already told them before that they would not understand right away, but yet He asked them if they knew what He had done.” (John 13:12).

 

John 13:12 “So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and had set down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?”

 It’s possible that they either realized what He was talking about or He went on to explain it and it wasn’t recorded in the Scriptures. Why do I say that? If they did not understand, I be­lieve that there would be some other Scriptures in the New Testa­ment where the church practiced foot washing, but there aren’t.

  Nowhere in the New Testament is it recorded that the church prac­ticed foot washing and I truly believe that they did not, be­cause foot washing had absolutely nothing to do with what Jesus did that evening, it was a symbolic gesture that had another meaning.

 Even the Apostle Paul, when he was explaining the taking of communion to the saints at Corinth, made no mention of the wash­ing of feet following the taking of the sacraments, and he stated to them that he had received that word from the Lord.

 

1 Cor 11:23-25 “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered to you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do, as often as you drink it, in remem­brance of me. “

 

There are some that will say that foot washing was practiced and use the Scripture of 1st Timothy 5:10 to justify it. But in this Scripture, Paul was addressing the necessary qualifications for a widow, before the church should furnish support for her. It was in that day normal practice for servants to wash the feet of guests coming into someone’s house and that is what this Scrip­ture is referring to, not ceremonial foot washing as being a commandment of the Lord.

 

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