When Jesus Washes Our Feet: Grace and Belonging

The world often recognizes or organizes itself rather around purity, ideological purity, moral purity, national purity, but the kingdom spreads like yeast. It's quiet. It's hidden. It's transformative. Perhaps we as Christians are meant to are meant to be holy contaminants, not spreading fear or disgostable, spreading humility and grace, not isolating ourselves from messy spaces, but entering them with towers, not building barriers to protect ourselves from dust, but trusting that love is stronger than contamination. [01:08:00] (45 seconds)  #KingdomLikeYeast

So while many of our churches practice that, it's it's it's not just as an empty ritual, but it's embodied theology. It has to do with how we serve each other. So when we kneel for each other, we enact truth. Basically, no one here is above needing grace. No one here is above offering grace. No one here is too dusty to belong. In a world that's structured by higher hierarchy competition and image management, this is a radical idea. The church becomes this alternative community, not organized around dominance, but about mutual service. [01:03:38] (44 seconds)  #EmbodiedTheology

And Peter being overwhelmed swings to the other extreme and says, Lord, not only my feet, but wash my hands and my head. It's a very Peter esque response. If some washing is good, then more has to be better. But Jesus clarifies it. He says, one who has bathed doesn't need to wash except for the feast. You are a grieve, and he still needs to wash. And this, I think, is profoundly comforting. You belong, but you still need grace. You're included, but you still carry dust. And this isn't contradiction. It's discipleship. [01:01:28] (43 seconds)  #IncludedYetDusty

But the gospel reverses this logic. Jesus touches the lepers and he's not defiled. He eats with sinners, but he's not contaminated. He washes dusty feet, and he remains Lord. So instead of a purity spreading to him, wholeness spreads from him. So the kingdom kinda looks like feast. It's a lot of yeast. But yeast basically gets hemmed in its double, but for good. It spreads quietly and visibly and transforms from the end. [00:59:12] (51 seconds)  #WholenessSpreads

But before we can live that way outwardly, we have to allow Christ to confront our internal logic of shame. When people work to overcome phobias, they often use something called exposure therapy. You approach what you fear gradually, safely, and honestly. And often after enough exposure, the person says, oh, that wasn't so bad after all. That fear had grown larger in imagination than in reality. Shame works similarly. We imagine that if this part of us is seeing, everything is going to collapse. [01:00:06] (40 seconds)  #ExposureToGrace

What are the parts that you judge most harshly are not evidence of failure, but evidence of humanity, evidence of trying? Your grief reveals you love. Your fear reveals fear reveals you've you've been been vulnerable. Vulnerable. Your Your anger may reveal a longing for justice. Your neediness reveals that you were never meant to be self sufficient to do everything all by yourself. Either his feet were dusty because he'd been walking. Dust is not his qualification. It's evidence of movement. [01:07:21] (40 seconds)  #HumanityNotFailure

Jesus ends this portion of scripture with a striking line. He says, if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Not if you admire them, not if you theologize about them, not if you post about them if you do them. Christians, I think especially those of us with born anabaptist group or history, have long insisted that faith is obedience. It's not coercive obedience but responsive obedience that is shaped by love. The blessing is not in understanding humility. The blessing is in healing. [01:04:21] (42 seconds)  #FaithAsObedience

So we anticipate rejection. We brace ourselves for exile. But when we're brought into the presence of love, something surprising happens. The relationship doesn't end. The sky doesn't fall. Jesus acted for washing him. It's a spiritual exposure therapy. He gently confronts Peter's resistance. He doesn't shame Peter for his shame. He simply insists unless I watch you. In other words, let me enter the place where you would rather hide. [01:00:45] (42 seconds)  #GraceEntersHiddenPlaces