Let God Wash Your Feet

A sermon preached by Dr. Peter James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
April 1, 2001

John 13:3-9

Back when I played football, which is roughly the same time equivalent as when the Susan Constant landed at Jamestown, we used to speak of being "high-lowed." That meant that somebody hit a person high and somebody hit them low. It meant that he had been gotten really good or really bad, depending on which team you were on.

The Lord has high-lowed me this week through two of my colleagues. First, Joe Womack, in his recommended spiritual exercises in the Appointment with God book. As part of his exercises he wrote: "As a Lenten exercise determine ways in which you can better listen to the God who listen, who seeks you." Better listen to the God who seeks you. And it dawned on me that I know a whole lot more about seeking God than I do about paying attention to the God who is seeking me.

Then during the Contemplative Service on Thursday night, Lynn Turner read a passage from Henry Nouwen which went like this: "For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life, to pray always, to work for others, to read the Scriptures, to avoid the many temptations that would dissipate myself. Now I wonder if I have sufficiently realized that during all of this time God has been trying to find me, to know me and to love me. The question is not how am I to find God, but how am I to let myself be found by Him?" Now friends, I know a lot about losing things and misplacing them. I even know a little bit about being lost in the snow. I preached a sermon on that once. But I confess I know very little about letting God find me when I'm lost and I don't know it.

Lost not only in the sense that we are lost and haven't been saved and haven't been part of Christ's family and we are found then. That is the beginning point. What we don't understand is how easy it is to get lost in schedules and responsibilities and in family giving and taking, picking up and letting out. When it comes to losing or misplacing something, I realize I have considerable skills there. I am technically advanced. When it comes to misplacing or losing something, I am very sophisticated.

Last Christmas I went to one of the malls to shop around a bit. The huge parking lot was full. I couldn't find a place to park so I drove around until somebody pulled out and I pulled in. I went into the store, bought what I needed, came back… It suddenly dawned on me I had no idea where I had parked. Well, I decided to turn it into a half full situation and after all I needed exercise, right? So I decided to just walk and I walked.

There was a security attendant there and when I had passed him three times he said to me: "You seem to be lost, can I help you?" I quickly said, "I'm not lost, my car is lost." What a dumb statement. Reminds me of the Cherokee Chief who said: "Me not lost, teepee lost."

The attendant who had sounded cheerful and very ready to help said: "A lot of you older folks are having trouble with that these days." With friends like that who needs enemies. Then he became very paternal: "Now sir, if you will just try to remember the first store you went into. Which store did you go into first?" I told him, I remembered. He said: "Sir, you were on the north side of the building and you have parked your car on the south side of the building. There you will probably find it." I did.

I know all about being lost and misplacing things. And as a matter of fact I know a whole lot about seeking the Lord. Isaiah 55 says: "Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near." Jeremiah 29 says: "Seek me and find me and you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart." Jesus addressed his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount in those three statements. You remember: "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened."

It isn't that I don't know how to seek God. I do. The Lord came this week and said, "I want to teach you how to be aware that I'm seeking you."

How about you? Do you have many skills at sensing what God is trying to do?

On the night Jesus was betrayed he teaches us in both symbol and in word what he is about. And it is such an incredible picture that I would hope that when you walk out of here this morning you will take that picture with you and realize it is a way in which God can remind you that he's seeking you. He wants to serve you. He wants to love you. He wants to forgive you. He wants to empower you. He wants to vitalize you. And it isn't a matter of pushing and running and seeking. It's a matter of letting him find you. As a matter of fact he has found you. All he needs is a glance. All he needs is a pause. All he needs is a moment of concentration.

Jesus took a towel and he made it into an apron and he tied it around his waist and then, in oriental servant fashion, he began to wash his disciples' feet. This was a servant job.

When Jesus got to Simon, what do you think Simon said? "Wow, Lord, I'm so glad you're washing our feet. We deserve it. You did a super job. You did a good day's work when you recruited us. We're winners. Special group aren't we. Great self esteem, well adjusted, values in the right place, ready for new challenge. You really did well when you got us around you. No wonder you're washing our feet."

Do you think Simon Peter said that? No. He said, "Lord, wait a minute. There's something wrong with this picture. If there's any foot washing needs to be done around here we ought to be washing your feet, not you washing our feet. Jesus, let me refresh your memory here a little bit. You were the one who walked on the water. I was the one who sank. When you fed the 5,000 you were the one who divided the loaves and the fishes. We picked up the leftovers. At the Mount of Transfiguration and Moses and Elijah came to be with us they came to see you, not us. So Lord, okay, you wash their feet, you'll never do it to me. You sit down, Lord, I'll wash your feet."

Simon Peter was a very discerning man. One of his great gifts was discernment. He was the one who first discerned that Jesus was the Messiah. Now he has discerned that there's something going on that he hadn't worked into his expectation. He understands there's a vast chasm between the Lord and his disciples. For the Lord to be wanting to wash their feet… well it would be like a high school basketball player coaching Michael Jordan. It would be like me with my golf swing coaching Tiger Woods.

What Jesus did is draw a line in the sand and he said, "Simon, if you don't sit down and pay attention and sit still and stop all of your mouthing and let me wash your feet you can't be part of my team. Get out."

I picture silence… Simon silenced before the rebuke. He has a choice, he can either catch on or he can walk out. He can either let the Lord find him or he can go out and get lost. I picture him walking to the window, looking out the window, struggling. Why has the Lord chosen to embarrass me in front of everybody.

And then the discernment light goes on. It isn't one of those "Oh yes, eureka! I've found it, Yes! I've been lost in a half-truth. I'm not only to serve God, I'm to let God serve me. I'm not only to love, God I'm to let God love me. I'm not only to give to God, I'm to let God give to me."

And he says, "Lord, don't only wash my feet, wash my head, it's thinking wrong thoughts. It's lost in it's own importance. Lord, wash my head and wash my heart."

Put your name in Simon's place, just as I will. "Sit down, Jim," says the Lord. "Let me wash your feet. It's my turn. You've given yourself until there's not much more of you to give. Let me love you. Let me energize you. Let me grace you. You will receive a delight and a vitality you didn't even know was there. Be still, sit still, stop, don't move. Let me wash your feet. It is how I put my power in you."

Maybe it's SOS time. SOS: Stop, Open, Savior. Stop, and be opened to the Savior. All three are crucial. You've got to stop. You've got to slow. As the Old Testament text says: "Be still and know that I am God." Open, open yourself to the possibility that the Lord is seeking you, is right there, is just wanting a measure of your attention. Savior, do you think that the only time Jesus wants to save us is when we were converted at the first time when we were twice born, when we accepted Christ as personal Savior? No, this is what he came for. This is what he loves to do. This is his mission. This is what replenishes him to save, be Savior to us. How can he do that if we don't stop and open ourselves to the possibility that the Savior can walk into our lives?

Max Lucado, in his book, The Applause of Heaven, tells of a man whose physical limitations had become very advanced. As they had advanced an amazing alchemy had happened in his spirit. It seemed to flourish. And as the deterioration gathered momentum downward his spiritual vitality seemed to gather momentum upward. In many ways he had lost everything he had valued in a former day. He had lost his health. He had lost his ability to be a shaker and a mover. He had lost his ability to be the builder of his company. He could no longer provide for, protect his family and yet in the midst of all of this here was this spiritual overcoming that came out.

A few days before he died a priest went in to see him at the hospital. He noticed an empty chair by his bed. He said, "somebody been in to see you?" The patient said, "Well no, not exactly. I placed Jesus on that chair and I talk to him." The priest looked puzzled so the man explained. "Several years ago when I was trying to learn how to pray, a friend said to me 'just talk to Jesus as if he were a good friend.' I've done that ever since. And in this room when I'm strong enough on a day I will pull up the chair and I will put it right by me and I'll talk to Jesus and I'll let him talk to me. And because my bed has up and down possibilities, I sometimes put it all the way down to the bottom and I reach out and let him take my hand."

It was a couple of weeks later that the daughter came to the Parish house to inform the priest that her father had died. "I wasn't there," she said. She shook her head in dismay and a tear came down her cheek. "He seemed so content I just left him for a couple of hours but when I got back he was gone. But it was a strange sight, really. When I got back his head wasn't resting on the pillow. His head was resting on a chair by the side of the bed."

The One who seeks was there at just the right time.

Friend, the Lord Jesus is here this morning and if you can hear this in a symbolic fashion, he wants to wash your feet. He wants to wash your feet with his love and his grace and his care, his energy. Will you let him? You've given out. You've shared yourself. Now let the Lord Jesus give himself to you.