Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Monday, April 2, 2018 | Reading: Exodus 33:1-11, Exodus 4, Gen 3:1-21
Topic: The Tabernacle of God 397
Scripture: But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building. (Heb 9:11)
Note: Matt 16:18, “And I say also to you, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The three great mandates to the Church given by Christ to His disciples were: washing of the disciples feet as a mark of humility in service; the need to love one another; and remembrance of His death in partaking of the Lord’s table. Jesus didn’t want to leave them alone without giving them the vital keys required for their good and survival.
John 13:14, “If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Jesus used this demonstration of a long standing tradition among Jews where such courtesy is extended to visitors after travelling long distances by servants in the household. Jesus being their Master washed the disciples’ feet at the Upper room prior to the Last Supper. The focus and emphasis of Jesus weren’t to institutionalise a ritual that wouldn’t be of any spiritual significance to the Church, but to teach them the essential truth of humility in service and servanthood.
For Jesus, it was the display of His humility and His servanthood to humanity for which the Church would be expected to exemplify the true Spirit of Christ in her function, essence and relevance to the world, which is watching. For the disciples, the washing of their feet was in direct contrast to their heart attitudes at that time, as they were very much embroiled in positional advantages in the perceived political Kingdom of Christ to be established on earth, a long standing Jewish aspiration for the Messiah.
Walking in sandals on the filthy roads of Palestine in the first century made it imperative that feet be washed before a communal meal, especially since people reclined at a low table and feet were very much in evidence. When Jesus rose from the table and began to wash the feet of the disciples (John 13:4), He was doing the work of the lowliest of servants. The disciples must have been shocked at this act of unusual humility and condescension, that Christ, their Lord and Master, should wash the feet of His disciples, when it was their regular role to have washed His feet.
Food for thought: The symbolic gesture of the washing of feet has been adopted literally by some churches, whose local tradition has nothing in common with washing of feet.
Declaration: Jesus said to Peter, he that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and you are clean but not all. John 13:10
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
