¹⁴ “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

Contemporary Christianity is in a backlash mode, like a pendulum swinging away from religious obligations to religious freedoms. After all, if we are saved by grace apart from the works of the Law (Romans 3:28), then we should not be required to live by a NT version of the Law. It seems there is an invisible sort of Christian “Sanhedrin” that has defined what good Christians are to look like. These laws may come as direct statements on moral behavior or innuendo, or through modeling (whether subtly or not) when exhibited by the older generation or leaders of the church. And so people (especially younger people) go searching for a freer atmosphere, where grace and love and freedom predominate rather than the straight-jacket of conformity.

Many times the pendulum of Christian behavior does need to move away from so-called outward legalistic codes. Paul emphatically addressed this when he asked, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘do not handle, do not taste, do not touch’ ” (Col 2:20-21). He goes on to add, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col 2:23).

But we need to be careful, for pendulum swings rarely stop in the middle, but sway to unhealthy extremes. We see from our passage today that being a follower of Christ does carry a non-negotiable obligation: “You ought to wash one another’s feet.” Jesus’ word here is unmistakable: the obligation is similar in nature to a financial debt. If we are going to follow Christ then we must do as He says! Non-optional.

This “ought” of Christ is far more difficult than keeping up with someone’s check list of Christian behaviors, ratings of movies watched, where we draw the line on language that is emphatic, crude or profane, the degree and style of one’s modesty, length of hair, or number of church meetings attended, etc. No, the obligation of following Christ is much more demanding than that. We are to serve one another, humbly, treating others as superior, more worthy than ourselves. We can keep all the Christianized laws perfectly, yet not be a servant like Christ—and thus fail. Which of these do you want?

Lord, I don’t want to waste my time with legalistic codes of behavior; rather I want to be a servant like the Master, treating others as better than myself.