Jackson Shepard
Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet is a well-known and beloved story, and rightly so. It is a clear example of the humility of the Son of God, who “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself” (Phil 2:6–7), descending lower and lower—to a creaking manger in the presence of starry-eyed shepherds, to an adolescent life of self-effacing obscurity in a backwoods town, and now to the plot of ground before the stained and sweaty feet of St. Peter.1 Indeed, our Lord descended so low as to be “lifted up” on a tree (John 12:32), His descent simultaneously an ascent. This is the paradox: the descendant of Adam descends into death, which secures the demise of death. The sound of Christ’s vanishing breath sounds the death knell of death itself. The mystery behind the very passion of Christ, therefore, is packed into this narrative of simple feet-washing. This is no mere “nice deed.” There is a surplus of meaning in this story.
It is important that Christ washes the disciples’ feet. Feet are often associated with mission, with a certain goal. They are teleological, indicating whither one is heading. The wicked are described in terms of their feet. “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood” (Prov 1:16, cf. Isa 59:7, Rom 3:15). The feet are a dead giveaway of one’s proclivity toward wrongdoing. In fact, one of the things that the Lord hates is “feet that make haste to run to evil” (Prov 6:18). Feet are the mode of transportation to accomplish deeds of unrighteousness. They carry the sinner to his sin.
It is no wonder, then, that the disciples’ feet must be washed. They have heretofore used their feet to carry out their own missions, not that of God and His Christ. Their feet must be cleansed.
The disciples will now be bearers of a different mission, messengers of a different kingdom. “If I do not wash you,” Christ says, “you have no share with me” (John 13:8). Peter naturally responds, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and head!” (13:9), for he knows well that he possesses not only feet that carry the dust of the kingdoms of men but also “haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov 6:17). Peter knows that he needs to be completely purged, to die and rise again in “newness of life” (Rom 6:4). But Jesus replies by pointing Peter back to his prior washing: “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10).
Jesus reminds Peter of his baptism, the non-repeatable cleansing of sin which he already received.2 Therefore, Christ is not baptizing His disciples in this instance, though the symbolism of the one-time washing is certainly present. Rather, He is preparing them for mission.
After He completes His washing, Jesus teaches them that He has just set an example for them. They are to be humble as He is humble. “A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16). Christ is commissioning His disciples to be His messengers. This washing, thus, is a rite of ordination. Jesus is wiping the old dirt, the soil of their former self-directed mission, and cleansing their feet to carry the message of the kingdom. So far in his life, Peter has dressed himself and walked wherever he wanted. Now, he must be carried where he does not want to go (cf. John 21:18). The feet that are cleansed are carried to a cross (21:19).
In this, St. Peter is only imitating his Lord. Christ’s are the feet of which Isaiah says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news” (52:7). It is His sandals which John the Baptist deems himself unworthy to untie (John 1:27). The sandals are holy because they shelter the feet which have been sanctified for the gospel. The feet that are pierced are those which bring salvation (Ps 22:16). Jesus’ feet have never strayed, never walked “in the counsel of the wicked” (Ps 1:1). “The Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). His feet are not His own. They are feet directed by the Father’s will, carrying out the Triune mission of salvation.
When St. John writes that Christ “began to wash . . . and to wipe” the disciples’ feet (13:5), we should be reminded of Mary’s anointing and wiping of Jesus’ feet, recorded just a chapter earlier. This act is a scandal to Judas, who cannot fathom the sacrifice of earthly goods for the sake of the Son of God’s mission. But Jesus sees things differently. This anointing was for His burial (13:7). His feet are swift, not to shed blood, but to offer His blood to be shed. His feet will lead him to Golgotha, to be pierced upon the mountain in order to bring good news. They are worthy, therefore, of being anointed. Christ’s feet are commissioned by the Father and anointed by the Spirit.
His disciples’ feet must follow the same pattern. They, too, will suffer rejection, and must “shake off the dust from [their] feet” when they depart from a town that refuses the gospel (Matt 10:14). Their feet will also be those which bring good news—and therefore will be pierced as well.
This is all in fulfillment of the most ancient of prophecies. Long ago, it was said that the seed of woman would finally kill the serpent which led humanity astray. The instrument of victory, however, would simultaneously be the instrument of defeat. And this instrument is His foot. “I will put enmity between you and the woman,” the Lord says to the serpent, “and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15, emphasis added).
The entire economy of salvation turns upon the feet of the Son of Man. It is by His pierced feet that He conquers the footless devil, the one who crawls on his belly and eats dust all of his days (cf. Gen 3:14). Though man is also consigned to dust after he is exiled from Eden (cf. 3:19), he is given a leg up—in the most literal sense—on the devil. His feet are planted in the dust, but his head is in the heavens, elevated above the dirt of the earth. St. Gregory of Nyssa puts it well:
Man’s form is upright, and extends aloft towards heaven, and looks upwards: and these are marks of sovereignty which show his royal dignity. For the fact that man alone among existing things is such as this, while all others bow their bodies downwards, clearly points to the difference of dignity between those which stoop beneath his sway and that power which rises above them.3
Though he is an earthly being, his feet dwelling upon the earth, man is given the hope of rising above. But he must direct his feet to the path that leads upwards. He will either dwell in dust all his days, eventually returning to it as his natural home, or he will stomp on the serpent, shaking the dust off his feet, and emerge victorious in “the resurrection of life” (John 5:29).
Christ is this victor. He squashes the serpent’s head and gives His disciples “authority to tread on serpents and scorpions” (Luke 10:19). He defeats the devil in the wilderness by fasting where Adam ate and by debasing Himself where Adam exalted himself. It is by humility that the Son of God wins. He lets the serpent bite His heel, suffering at the hands of demonically inspired humans. But in descending ever further, Christ ascends ever higher. His feet descend into the dust of death to do battle with the venomous adversary, but they emerge in the resurrection of life to walk on the fertile soil of the new creation. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news!
All of this is why Christ’s washing of His disciples’ feet is so crucial. He invites them to participate in His mission, to share in His humility. They will be sent as He was sent (cf. John 20:21). Their feet will bring good news as His did. And their feet will do battle as His did battle. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet,” St. Paul says to the church in Rome (Rom 16:20, emphasis added). The Christological mission is an ecclesial mission.
As Jesus washes the apostles’ feet and explains the content of their mission, He speaks of the coming betrayal of Judas Iscariot. He tells them, “You are clean, but not every one of you” (John 13:10). This He says in reference to Judas. To describe the essence of his treachery, Jesus quotes Psalm 41:9: “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me” (13:18). The bread surely signifies the Eucharist, which Jesus is about to offer to the twelve. Though Judas has been baptized, he is not truly clean (cf. 13:10). And though Judas receives the body of Christ in the bread, he forsakes the light of the world and departs into the dark of the night (13:30). He rejects the revelation which he has received and abandons his Lord.
The very heel which Jesus has just washed is lifted against Him. In an act of Satanic disfiguration, Judas attempts to reverse the prophecy. Instead of the seed of the woman crushing the serpent, Judas—possessed by the serpent (13:27)—lifts his heel to crush the Messiah. Judas rejects the cleansing he has been given. He rejects his new mission and reverts to the old way. He chooses dust over glory, death over life, darkness over light. He takes the bread over which the Son of Man toiled by the sweat of His face and despises the divine presence within it (cf. Gen 3:19).
Judas’ feet are not beautiful, not cleansed of the dust of the kingdoms of earth and of Satanic rebellion. They are ugly and cursed. He does not shake off the dust from his feet, but embraces it, refusing to ascend the mountain of the Lord and be crucified with Christ, choosing rather to descend lower into the dust of death, emerging only to “the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29).
He who uses the feet he has been given to “[trample] underfoot the Son of God” (Heb 10:29) is doomed to crawl on his belly all the days of his life. There are two ways: the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13). Those belonging to the former have feet that are self-directed, autonomous, that go wherever they want to go. Those of the latter have put on “as shoes for [their] feet . . . the readiness given by the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15).
The way of Christ is the way of the cross. It is the way of humility, of self-denial and sacrifice. The very essence of discipleship is shown in the story of Jesus’ washing of His disciples’ feet. We will either be cleansed of our old ways, vowing to walk only in the path of righteousness and forsaking all missions except that of Christ, or we will cling to the dust, lifting our heels against the Son of God, who offers Himself to us in the bread of the Eucharist.
Will you be Peter or Judas? That is the question the account of Christ’s feet-washing poses.
Jackson Shepard is an MTS student at Duke Divinity School studying Patristics. You can follow his writings at jacksonbshepard.com.
Image: Tintoretto, Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet
- ESV used throughout. I have capitalized pronouns used of divine persons.[↩]
- This is the interpretation of Tertullian in On Baptism 12, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on John 6.13.6–13. The latter is quoted in John 11-21, ed. Joel C. Elowsky, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 93.[↩]
- Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man 8.1.[↩]