On a warm summer’s day, my daughter, Madelein, bathed her younger son of two years. Afterwards she sent him to play outside in the garden with his elder brother. They have a small dog, called Jack, who participates in all their games every time.
As usual, dogs often use the garden for other purposes too and it so happened that the younger stepped into Jack’s poop. Boy, the little boy did not like that! He came running back to his mom, yelling and limping on one leg, trying to step on the heel of the other foot.
Madelein washed his feet and everything returned to normal with one exception, my grandson didn’t call Jack on his name again. He changed his name to “Poop”.
We as grown-up Christians step into bad things from time to time too and need our feet washed as well.
In John 13, Jesus was washing the feet of His disciples when Peter felt uncomfortable having Jesus do this. Jesus told him that if He did not wash his feet, he would have no part with Him.
Upon hearing this, Peter replied, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head”.
Then Jesus answered him, “He who is bathed, needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean… “.
Even if we have bathed, just like my little grandson, we often need to wash our feet some time later.
Many people preach that confession of sins does not belong in the life of a Christian because he has been forgiven by Jesus. Jesus has paid for all our sins, past, present and future.
It is true, but it would also be very rude to step into a place we are not supposed to wander, hurting Jesus and then carry on as if nothing has happened.
When we accidentally bump into someone or step on his toes, we would apologise immediately. Sometimes we ask the person to forgive us. Neglecting to do that would be very rude. Therefore, when we sin, we should also apologise immediately to Jesus, asking Him to forgive us, knowing that He already has.
It is called good manners and it should be done especially when we love the other person. We are clean, but we still need to have our feet washed. At the same time, when we notice the dirty feet of the person who stepped on our toes, to wash his feet also, and forgive him.