It is interesting, the first time that I ever washed someone’s feet was a long time ago. I think 1986. We had organised a training weekend for youth leaders within the Presbyterian church. Sandra Hart from WEC College was leading the weekend and I was one of the facilitators — involved in the setting up of the weekend. I would have been one of the oldest people there. I have never forgotten that experience. Sandy asked me to do it out of the blue and it took great courage to do that task, to wash the feet of about fifteen or sixteen young people. It was an act of submission and an act of service. And it was hard to do.

It became the theme for the weekend, being a powerful illustration to the young people present of the principles of Christian leadership. Later on, Sandy told me that she had asked me because she thought I was the only one who would do it. (Little did she know the struggle that this set up inside me). It was for me also a powerful illustration of leadership.

In Jesus day, it even meant more. Foot washing was common, as the dusty roads meant that the guests with sandalled feet arrived with them dirty and it was the task of the lowest slave in the household to do this job. A disciple would never wash the feet of the master — this was clearly a job of the servant that of the slave. It is hard to think of the most menial task in our society that would fit the thinking of Jesus time about foot washing.

When we were in Africa, we saw this servant heart in our Parish Priest. One night, there was a special event, and one of the ladies in the choir had a collar which was badly crushed. Father Dawson-Amoah took the collar, went to the iron and ironed it for her and gave it back. As a man, and as a priest, he had done the unthinkable — it was the woman and the layman that should serve him.

If there is an image that the church should use to identify itself, it is that of the basin and the towel. In the simple act of foot-washing Jesus not only demonstrated what it was that he would do for them, but also what their ministry was to be about. Serving one another is an important part of what it means to be a Christian. Indeed if our church family was to focus on serving each other in this way, I think that there would be little need for the sermon — little need to evangelise, for the difference between us and the world that is self-seeking and status conscious would be abundantly clear.

Now it is important to make the distinction between serving another as a servant and as a friend. It is a question of control and power. Many times people do things for others, but these things are done in such a way to maintain control over some one else. The Christian cannot say — you owe me one, for in this way of thinking, service is done in the sense that it obligates the one who is served to repay.

This is not what Jesus was talking about here. Service is to be carried out in the way that cannot be repaid and without expectation of something in return. Even loyalty. Christian service is about what can be done for another without the sense of repayment being required. Indeed the very act of Christian service places us in the position of no power.

So even if we are the most kind and generous person, unless we are doing so without thought of reward and without the conscious or unconscious expectation of power, then we have missed Jesus message. Often we do the right thing, but every now and again, we will find ourselves in the position that we start thinking about the reward that this should give us. And this is the danger sign.

As a church, we have to continue to learn this lesson of sacrificial giving — of putting others ahead of ourselves and it is not an easy ask. To wash each others feet is perhaps the hardest thing that I can ask you to do.

But Jesus gives us the clue how to do it. Did you pick it up? It was there in verse 3.

Jesus had a complete understanding of who he was and what he was to do. He knew God’s plan for him and he knew his special relationship with God. It was not so much that he was self confident, but he was self assured. At the start of this week, I asked you to identify one burden that you were carrying that was slowing you down on your faith journey. I asked you to give it up to God. I asked you to leave that in his hands. It is the hurts that we carry, that will bring us down. The hurts that prevent us from understanding who we are, and what it is that we should be doing. Self image is important and we can only gain that in the truest sense when we are able to stand before God has his child. Our burdens, our hurts, our bitterness are the obstacles to get close to God. There are indeed the very things for which Jesus went to the cross.

If we are to move on as God’s people, we must consign to the Cross these things, and make a new start in our relationship with God and each other. True Servanthood will come when we are confident in ourselves that we are children of God.

When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples he left us a vital image. The dust that would be washed away is the things that are isolating us from God. The things that we are hanging onto in our lives.

Jesus invites us to lay at his feet these things. Will you bring them tomorrow and do so? Will you see the hurt and pain and torture of the cross in terms of the message of forgiveness that it offers?

Jesus asks us to pick up the towel, but we cannot do so until we lay down our burdens. Will you join me in this challenge to serve each other?