Dirty

Have you ever gone barefoot for a long time? How about days, months, years??
I have strict instructions from my wife to never go barefoot; apparently there is a certain odor that comes off of my feet in the heat of the day. In Jesus' time, feet were dirty. Real dirty. People would walk on roads that were half dirt, half animal waste, and that was normal! And so it was a much needed ritual  for people to have their feet washed at homes to prevent a stinky smell. It was a duty saved for the lowest servant of the household.
So in John chapter 13, as Jesus is grabbing a basin of water and a towel to wash his disciple's feet, there is an obvious push back. There could have been other outspoken disciples, but Peter is highlighted saying, 'No, you shall never wash my feet.' Peter thought he was teaching Jesus something about foot washing-as in, you're not supposed to do it! But Jesus is going to teach something to Peter that will change his life. There was also someone else's feet in that room that night-the feet of Judas.
We view foot washing very differently today. If a pastor has the guts to do it, he will facilitate a foot washing service where there are a bunch of buckets of water with towels everywhere. I've done it before with a group of teenagers. It was awesome, and I'll never forget it. But for the church today, we need to realize that Jesus washed the feet of someone that would help lead to his murder the next day.
Sometimes we get extremely comfortable in our Christian lives (shocker). But especially when it comes to who we evangelize to and to whom we serve.
I truly believe for the church to be genuine and authentic, we need to start serving the people in our lives that annoy us, that make us uncomfortable, that we totally avoid in the hallway at work, that we would rather not talk to. All of those people are far less evil to us than Judas was to Jesus.
And yet what do we do when a pastor challenges us to invite others to church...more importantly who do we talk to about Jesus.
Reading this story for the 1,965th time, I've realized that my evangelism is practically empty unless I start to realize that I have neighbors that need Jesus. And let me define neighbor for you. If you can stand in your driveway and hit their house with a rock-they're your neighbor.
Mark 12:31, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' We need to stop commentating this verse to death, and just do what Jesus is telling us to do.

-PC
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