Symbols of Service - Part 4 (conclusion)

When we serve one another throughout the year, helping one another in our real needs, we are obeying the spirit of the law of Christ. How about putting the Sermon on the Mount into effect and doing such things as going the second mile, giving to him who would borrow of us, not speaking harshly, treating one another with respect, or forgiving when people don’t deserve it? How about looking to serve instead of looking to be served? How about coming to church hoping to meet others’ spiritual needs instead of focusing on what you get out of it?

We are "washing feet" when we give believers rides to church, when we help them move furniture, when we bring a meal for the sick, when we clean house for the bereaved. We wash feet when we encourage the depressed, are patient with the angry, spend time with the lonely, seek reconciliation of those we have alienated.
There are thousands ways to "wash feet." No, we don’t necessarily wash each other’s feet anymore, but we can sure serve them and meet even their most basic needs. We follow Jesus’ example by providing real service for genuine needs.

We have a lot of symbols in Christianity, and many of them portray power. Power over sin. Power over death. We have the Lion of Judah, the Sword of the Spirit, the triumph of the empty tomb. And those are important, but just as important are the symbols of the Basin and the Towel. The symbols of the Christian life while on this earth. The symbols of servanthood.

We can talk about what we should do and how we can wash other’s feet, but it begins by understanding what Christ has done for us. Spiritually, he has washed all of us. He has cleansed all of our hearts from the stain of sin. The foot-washing account speaks clearly about the need for cleansing. It points to the need to wash the feet of others – to live a life of servanthood based upon Jesus’ model. But it also speaks to the need for all of us to be washed by the saving work of Jesus upon the cross.

We are cleansed by God who, through Christ served us. Philippians 3:6-8 tells us:
“Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

That is the model of a servant. That is the model of our Savior.