Warts, bunions, callouses, and all!

You know, I think I would have been a lot like Peter when Jesus came at him with a towel and wash basin ready to wash his feet. Jesus was trying to teach a valuable lesson in humility and servant hood and Peter was like, "HOLD UP! Oh no you don't! You can't wash my feet! Have you seen them? Their all dirty, dry, and scaly and you are the Son of God. You can't touch my filth!!" Of course, that is the "Christy paraphrase version," but I would have probably said the same thing if I were in that situation. Their minds were probably having a difficult time processing what was going on. They had spent all this time with the Messiah and they were fully expecting huge things to take place under his watch. Then there He is performing the acts of a slave and lowering Himself to the floor to clean their dirty, stinky feet. It's hard to comprehend. Why in the world would he do such a thing? It doesn't make sense.

Does. Not. Compute.

However, he did it and they had to accept it. Peter finally conceded when Jesus told him that if he didn't wash his feet, he wouldn't belong to Him. Wanting to belong to Jesus, Peter said, "Then you can wash all of me (again, my paraphrase)." I can also see myself saying that, as foolish as it seems. If there were a need to wash all of him, Jesus would have been doing it. Jesus knew what needed to be done. He knew that the disciples were clean everywhere else except their feet so that's what He washed. However, he knew one of them wasn't clean...Judas. Judas had "left the building" and Satan had entered into him causing him to sell Jesus to "the church" for the going price of a slave. Funny how Jesus then washes their feet like a slave and then tells them to follow His example, huh?

The idea of being treated like a slave didn't scare Jesus like it does us. We demand our rights and reach for perfection as if it means we are more important than others when we reach it. Humans are lethal at times with our ability to crush people who get in our way and it's unfortunate that I've never seen it happen more than in the church. I'm sure it happens elsewhere, but most of my life has been wrapped up in "churchy things" so that's all I've really known. I've seen it in the churches I've attended, the christian school from which I graduated, the churches in which I've worked, and even the church I now attend. And we wonder why pastors, youth pastors, and worship arts pastors never stick around for long!

They are not always the innocent victims, though. As I was studying this passage about Jesus washing the disciples' feet, I found a quote in the Halley's Bible Handbook that I was using. It said, "Oh how the Church has suffered through all the centuries because so many of it's leaders have been consumed by the passion to be great!"

"Oh how the Church has suffered through all the centuries because so many of it's leaders have been consumed by the passion to be great!"

That's an "Amen! Ouch" type of statement. I'm sure we've all suffered from the pride that consumes us and causes us to want to be known for being the best at what we do. But really, I just want to ask "Do it matter?" Does it matter if we preached well, sang well, greeted well, ushered well, directed well, served the board well, taught Sunday School well, or cooked well?

No, people! NO!!

What matters is this:

Did we become servants?
Did we follow Jesus' prideLESS example?
Did we embrace people even in their filth and sin?
Did we show them love and mercy?
Did we let go of everything we thought we knew only to be taught by the Truth and Spirit of God?
Did our lives match up to the Good News we proclaim?

Or did we crush them on our way to the top? Did we gossip about them behind their back? Did we find it more important to save face than embrace our own failures and apologize?

It's hard to accept, but it's Truth found right in the word of God. Read it for yourself in John 13:1-17 and see if it doesn't want to make you do church and life differently. Anybody can crush people and be used by the demons of hell to destroy other people (seriously, that's nothing new). It takes the Spirit of God living in you to help you rise above the pain other "Christians" cause and the betrayals of this world.

We have a higher calling to humble ourselves and serve. We have a call to lower ourselves to NOTHING in the world's eyes. We are not called to play the political church game and I am SO through with it. The church is not our home. It is not our purpose nor our calling. Our calling is follow Jesus. If there is anything standing in the way of you being able to hear Jesus' voice guiding you, GET RID OF IT. This life is short, but eternity is forever. Choose whom you will serve.