Humility Accepts Humility

“Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” (Joh 13:8 AV)   

 “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.” (Joh 13:10 AV)

Peter expressed a noble but misguided and obviously wrong reaction to the humility of Christ.  In one sense, we get it.  There isn’t a saint who hasn’t, and still does, express an attitude that is uncomfortable with the humility of God.  We are to worship Him.  We are to serve Him.  We are to do as He asks.  We are to wash His feet.  It is awkward when someone whom we hold in very high esteem condescends to our needs.  I can certainly understand Peter’s apprehension.  I would have reacted the same way.  The meaning here is clear.  Even though Peter could wash his own feet, the LORD humbled Himself to prove a point.  Unless the Savior cleanses us, we are not clean.  Not because there might be means to cleanse ourselves.  Rather, in doing so, He requires we humble ourselves.  What a picture of Spirit-led and Spirit-accomplished sanctification.  In Christ, He washes us clean for all of eternity.  It is something only He can do.  We might be able to clean most of what sullies us, but we cannot get those areas we cannot see nor reach.  He must clean us every whit.  Only by the humility of Christ can we be cleansed of all our sins.  Our responsibility is to exercise the same humility as Christ did by accepting His humility towards us.

The other day, some men my age joined me in reminiscing our childhood memories.  We remembered the way it used to be.  Somehow, we got off on the topic of field hygienics.  You know, those times when one needs a bit of hygiene yet the bathroom or sink is nowhere to be found.  We were talking about camping, I think.  I shared an experience at Boy Scout camp.  My father would not allow the camping experience to be an excuse to be filthy.  One summer, we camped at a site that was the furthest from the camp’s communal showers.  The powers that be erected a watering trough.  They had welded a few barrels sawed in half, put a drain at one end, and installed some faucets.  My father had us strip down to our underwear and sponge-bath ourselves.  I remember this because the water was freezing!  As bad as that was, there was one field cleansing that grosses me out to this day.  It is known as the spit-and-wash.  That is when your mother notices a smudge on your face, spits on a Kleenex, and wipes it away.  GROSS!  I know they are called facial tissues.  But I am unaware of any directions for use that says to spit on it and wipe someone’s face with it.  What is worse is when your mother does the same for multiple children without changing the facial tissue.  The point was, there were spots we couldn’t see or didn’t recognize.  We needed someone older and more concerned to wash our faces.  We needed to yield to the hand of our Mother, no matter how humiliating, then go out into public with dirt on our faces.

Jesus wants to make us clean.  We can only do so much.  We can read the Bible.  We can evaluate our lives in light of what the word of God says.  Be we cannot cleanse ourselves.  The humility required for cleansing is the missing ingredient.  Walking humbly with our God means we accept the work of the Holy Spirit in cleansing us from all that displeases God.  If we do not allow the work of the Spirit to cleanse us from all filthiness, then we have no part in Christ.  This starts at salvation.  He is our satisfaction for our transgression.  Christ has paid the penalty for all our sin.  He alone has satisfied the wrath of God.  That complete dependence upon the work of Christ must continue in our daily sanctification.  We must yield to the grace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit that makes us who and what God wants us to be.  If we will not accept the grace of God through humility of the soul, then we have no part with Him.