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Here in the South, we pride ourselves on hospitality, and we should. It is an important thing to make sure our guests are taken care of. It's an important thing to provide what they need.
In Jesus' time, one of the ways to be a good host was to provide water and a basin for guests to wash their feet. They didn't have the same foot covering in those days, so their feet would get much more dirty than ours do now. To be truly clean, you needed to wash your feet.
But Jesus takes this in a much further direction. He Himself washes His disciples' feet. He serves those who should serve Him. He lowers Himself to the lowest station to make them clean.
Why does Jesus do this? Why does He go so far and beyond the accepted act of kindness?
He doesn't do it to be better than us. He doesn't do it to win some prize for kindness. He does it for the same reason that He will die.
Jesus does this completely humbling act because it is what is needed to make the disciples clean and whole, just as He humbles Himself on the Cross to make all of us clean and whole.
He does it out of love- love for us.
Jesus isn't serving us out of obligation or because He is doing the right thing. He has gone way above that. Jesus is serving us purely because He cares. He serves us knowing that if He doesn't get His hands dirty, we will never be clean. Jesus serves us because without Him the stain of sin will never wash away from our souls.
Jesus calls His disciples, and us, to go out and love one another just as He has loved us. What would the world be like if we did that? What would the world be like if we stopped and tried to heal others with our kindness? What would the world be like if we didn't just serve others to be hospitable, but because we really care? What would the world be like if we all were willing to humble ourselves in order to make others whole and clean once more?
What would the world be like if we welcomed others in to be like Jesus too? What would it be like if we make it so everyone could follow Jesus' example? What would this church be like if we were the ones who started to pave the way for that to happen?