“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”
John 13:3-5

Perhaps you took part a few weeks ago in that great annual American ritual: watching the Super Bowl. This year the spectacle of the game was amplified by a particular commercial that has garnered a lot of attention. The ad depicted several scenes of people kneeling to wash the feet of people who were demonstrably different from them. The scenes were culturally evocative and rather controversial. The ad ended with the words, “Jesus…He gets us.”

No matter your opinion of the ad or its message, one thing is clear—it has created an opportunity for people to talk about Jesus, how he related to people, and, importantly for us, how his followers should show up in the world. It brings into focus a question we should be asking ourselves during this season of Lent: “What does it mean to be a servant like Jesus?”

In the scene in John 13, Jesus makes an act of humble service, the washing of feet, the central focus of one of his last meals with his friends before his crucifixion. The act itself was a rite of hospitality and would not have been unexpected in Jewish culture at that time. But the way Jesus went about it broke all kinds of protocols, called into question the honor of cultural norms of his day, and put on display the way that Jesus intends power to be wielded in his kingdom.

In that culture the person of a lower status should be the one to wash the feet of the higher status guest. By lowering himself, removing his garment, and doing the work of a servant, Jesus radically inverted the dynamic of power and status. Peter would have none of it. His response shows how shocking, almost offensive, it was. I think Peter’s reaction is as visceral as perhaps many were to the “He Gets Us” ad. There is something too intimate, too vulnerable, too weak, too uncomfortable about what Jesus is doing here.

And yet, does Jesus really intend for this to be the posture that his followers are to display to the world? Are we to demote ourselves for the sake of others? Are we to find power in weakness and in mutual submission?

The words of the song “The Basin and the Towel” by Michael Card speak to this reshaping of our understanding of power and service:
Their Savior Servant must show them how
Through the will of the water
And the tenderness of the towel
And the call is to community
The impoverished power that sets the soul free
In humility, to take the vow
That day after day we must take up the basin and the towel.

This Lent, we are reminded that we are to be people of the basin and the towel. Through the “impoverishing power” of humble service, we experience the kingdom more fully.

Reflect: Who are those around you and me that we are called to kneel and humbly serve?

–Written by Rob Marsh