⁵ Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

Details that fill out the story, on the way to a great moral lesson of serving one another? True, but nothing the Lord did or that has been recorded by inspiration of the Holy Spirit is minor detail for literary purposes only. Some simple observations may be helpful in gaining deeper insights. First, we must notice that Jesus poured the water Himself. There was no regalia of ornate attendants doing His bidding here. No musical accompaniment or pre-washing, so that this Great One would not have to soil His hands. This was not simply a symbolic gesture divorced from the dirt of life. This was not done on a performing stage with the curtain pulled back for a huge audience to applaud. And certainly it was not an ostentatious show of faux-humility. Jesus did not dress up, but rather dressed down as appropriate for the task.

One cannot help but think how this might be played out today, by those who claim to be “servants” of God. The feet of selected worthies would be pre-washed and sanitized and even perfumed, and the event attended with great pomp and vestures created to regale the one who would imitate symbolically the Lord. The pageantry indeed would be great.

Not so, the Lord. In a humble upper room, with a gritty band of fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and others, Jesus handled their dirt caked, earth trodden feet. There was no pre-washing for ceremony. No delegating to those lower on the social order. He even filled the basin Himself.

The Jewish mind might even make the connection with the great bronze laver/bowl outside of the tabernacle in the wilderness where the Jewish priests would wash their hands and feet before going near the altar to offer sacrifices (Ex 30:18-19). Yet, with His hands which needed no ritual cleansing, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet which were muddied by the dirt of the world. Certainly there was about to be a sacrifice, and that of the very one washing their feet.

Finally we observe the towel He used to wipe their feet, taken from around His waist. Like the woman who washed His feet and then wiped them with her hair, that which was her glory (John 12:3), Jesus used the towel that covered His body to wipe the disciples’ feet, a most un-glorious action. The Lord stooped low to be a servant of those whom He highly regarded. Yes, having loved His own, He loved them to the end.

Lord, I am humbled by this example of loving and serving others. I am not worthy to ascend to the position of being served by You. But, here am I, Lord.