FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
I never thought of it as being a problem until I began to study more carefully. However, I learned it was a problem in some cultures where wives were often called upon to sit and wash their husbands’ feet, but husbands were not allowed to touch their wives’ feet.
I usually set a footbath for my wife or wash her feet and massage them when needed. The exchange is reciprocal; she sets footbaths for me, washes my feet and helps me to relax. She has also taken me often to get pedicures and manicures. I say taken because I might not have gone the first time without her encouragement. And thanks to her and the technicians, when I have gone, it truly feels transforming not only for my feet but for my mind. It makes me feel relaxed.
Not long ago, I was reflecting on podiatrists and pedicurists and wondered about the kind of appreciation they receive in our culture or whether they are placed among the workers doing the jobs that no one else wants to do. I have not questioned them, but I have seen their effectiveness and efficiency in vigorously washing and exfoliating the dead cells from the feet. I have seen their careful effort in dealing with the calluses that settle on people’s feet.
Most people, when they take a bath, pay much attention to their armpits and groin but much less time on their feet, where the dead cells drain down and settle. Further, some people walk around barefoot without recognizing how much pathogens and odor build up on their feet. I have never asked the pedicurists and podiatrists about how many smelly feet they treat, but I would suspect it’s quite a few.
Or I may need to phrase my point to nurses and assistants in hospitals and nursing homes who not only wash patient’s feet but clean those who are unable to help themselves. In my early ministry, I visited an infirmary with my pastoral colleague to serve communion to members from my faith tradition who were in the facility. For whatever reason, a consciousness came over me on how many people have unkempt feet.
When I saw the feet I was about to wash, I paused for a moment and asked myself, “Do I really want to wash those unkempt feet? I did wash the feet of the disadvantaged men, as the deaconess who went with us washed the feet of the women. For many years, after leaving the Infirmary, my thoughts weighed heavily on the scene. Years later, I wrote my first doctoral dissertation on John 13 and the lessons I could learn from washing dirty feet. As I wrote my dissertation, the action and encouragement of Jesus came through most emphatic to me, as John records it:
“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.’” (John 13:12-14 NKJV)
Let’s face it; in our Western culture, it might not be a problem for us to wash the feet of those who are closest to us. And it might be okay to wash the feet of those in our care if we are being paid the right amount of money. I have not asked, but what are the motivations of the pedicurists and podiatrists who are doing the foot care? Or what are the motivations of the nurses and the attendants in the hospitals and nursing homes who have to wash their patient’s feet?
I will allow them to answer for themselves. I know that my wife and I wash each other’s feet because of the love and respect we have for each other. But the feeling I had as I washed the feet of the indigents at that infirmary home was different.
If no more than for a moment, did I feel superior to them? The feeling of superiority has kept many from doing tasks that might benefit others. Superiority is a great challenge in all societies. It is a demonic spell that the devil tries to put upon people for us to think that we are better than one another. In fact, the devil even takes inferiority and turns it into superiority.
Psychologist Alfred Adler states that often, superiority is a reaction to a deep feeling of inferiority. Adler also notes that a superiority complex is the belief that one person’s abilities or accomplishments are somehow dramatically better than other people’s. People with a superiority complex may be condescending, smug, or mean to other people they think are not of their social class or that they disagree with them.
From noting the above, one can see why Jesus used the foot-washing ritual in his Last Supper with his disciples and encouraged them to practice it with another. In the room, there was a lot of jostling and resentment as to who would be in the highest place or who could be Speaker in the House. (You should think of what I mean from observing the political culture of the day).
In seeing what would be needed to change the atmosphere in the room, Jesus introduced the ritual that demonstrated that the master could become the servant. Yes, in the culture of the time, foot washing was the servant’s role. And Jesus sought to make the point that the highest was to be the lowest and servant.
The next time you have to do a task for others, ask yourself what are your motivations or whether or not you are doing it for self-service or to serve and uplift others. Yes, we are called to wash one another’s feet. Not only those we know intimately but the very ones who might resent us and those we could resent.
