John 13:6-7

Everything was surprising about the fact that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. First of all, this was a job for a junior slave, not a rabbi of Jesus’ standing. It was also a job that was done as soon as people entered a house, not when they were sitting down for a meal. So when Jesus approached his disciples to wash their feet, Peter asked what many of the others may well have been thinking. Was Jesus really going to wash their feet?

What I find interesting is that Jesus didn’t offer an explanation. He seemed content with the fact that they couldn’t understand what was going on, and simply reassured them that, one day, they would. Very often, this is the way in which the Lord works in our lives, too. So often we want a complete explanation of the way things happen. When we experience failure or rejection, we want to understand why. Or we face some unexpected good news and just can’t understand that either.

Peter and the disciples needed to learn they could trust Jesus completely. Even though he was doing something completely surprising, and the very opposite of what they would have expected, they needed to accept it. They needed to rest in the fact that Jesus would only act in this way because it was the way of love.

This doesn’t mean we should stop asking questions of God. But it does encourage us to accept that, very often, we have to wait for an explanation. Sometimes it will come much, much later. In this instance, I don’t think it took the disciples very long to work out why Jesus needed
to wash their feet - but that certainly isn’t always the case. We need to trust the Lord that, one day, he will tell us everything we need to know.

QUESTION
Has anything happened in your life recently that you have found difficult to understand?

PRAYER
Loving God, help us to trust you with the whole of our lives, especially when things happen to us which are hard to understand. Amen

Released on 26 Jul 2023