What’s your personal enduring image of the whole Easter story?
Of course the cross and resurrection reside at the center of history, but for me a smaller, more intimate moment captures the essence of what Jesus was trying to tell me.
In the midst of the chaos and turmoil and fear, He stopped to wash His disciples’ feet.
It’s difficult for us to get our heads around the significance of foot-washing in first-century cultural context. Men walked unsanitary streets teeming with beggars, diseased folks, and livestock. Foot-washing was a dirty, stinky task, usually consigned to the lowest of servants.
This was the world-famous neurosurgeon performing routine physicals in a remote village, the race track CEO mucking horse stalls, the country club president digging in the mud to repair sprinkler lines—not as a photo op but as a routine act of generosity and service.
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My friend Bob Goff was in Orlando to speak at a conference. When it was time to leave, the organizers arranged a car service to drive him to the airport. During the trip he struck up a conversation and learned the driver was two weeks from retirement. Now Bob’s a bit mischievous, and he had a “Bob thought.”
“Have you ever ridden in the back of this limousine?”
“No, sir.”
“Pull over.”
“I can’t, sir. I’ll get in trouble.”
“Pull over! What are they gonna do, fire you?” Bob thinks like that.
So they changed places. Bob took the man’s limo driver cap and opened the back door for him. The driver settled into the seat he’d never occupied in all those years. And Bob drove him to the airport.
I don’t need to do big stuff to capture this image of Easter. Maybe it’s as simple as letting go of the notion that I’m too good to drive so someone else can relax.
You too?
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:12-17)
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