Doing the Chores

John 13: 1-17, 31b – 35

There are just some chores I despise. I have no rational explanation for why I hate them. They aren’t particularly onerous or messy. They aren’t even particularly difficult. I just don’t like doing them. One of those is unloading the dishwasher. I would rather load the dishwasher any day than unload it.

The church has “chores” that people don’t like doing. It’s why we try to discern gifts and match people to the work of ministry that suits them (or at least work they don’t hate). Some people feel perfectly comfortable singing in the choir; others would hate it. Some love teaching 3-year-olds; others would hate it. Some love cooking for events; others would hate it. We all have chores we despise. Sometimes we can explain it. Sometimes we can’t.

One chore in an ancient Near Eastern household was washing the feet of those who entered the home. Most people wore sandals. Unpaved roads meant plenty of dirt. Add to the dirt the sweat from the heat in that region, and you’ve got some pretty nasty feet. The job of washing someone’s feet always fell to an enslaved person, never the owner of the home. It was seen as beneath anyone but a slave. It was so lowly that some rabbis thought the task was too demeaning for a Jew to do, even if that person was a slave. It was dirty work.

This is why it was so shocking and appalling to the disciples that their rabbi—their master—would do this demeaning task. No wonder Peter was so adamant in refusing it. Surely it was not appropriate for the Son of God to go around washing feet.

What Peter didn’t realize is that in this act of submission, Jesus was modeling the kind of sacrificial love that is at the heart of His saving work. Love doesn’t have hierarchies. Love doesn’t seek power or control. Love does not demand recognition or adulation. Love does not build barriers but widens the circle. As Paul would later remind us, love is patient and kind. It is not rude, arrogant, or boastful. Agape love—this sacrificial love that would lead to the cross—is what is required of us too if we are to follow Christ. Sometimes that kind of love isn’t pretty and isn’t always neat. But it is always Christ-like.

Rev. Dana Ezell