First of all I would recommend reading some scriptures concerning foot washing and see what we can find.
(I Timothy 5:9,10)
(Luke 7:36-38 , 44-46)
(John 13:1-17)
These scriptures are all of the New Testament scriptures that we find mentioning "foot washing".
It is essentially held by all churches that claim a biblical foundation that there are two church ordinances. Those two are baptism and the Lord's Supper.Now many of these may disagree on how these are to be carried out and what exactly they mean, but they essentially all would agree that there are two church ordinances.There are a comparative few however that hold just as firmly that there are three church ordinances.They believe that this third ordinance would be foot washing. They also believe that it is of just as great of an importance as the other two. So, we want to look at why they claim this and why we do not practice it. The first thing I want us to do is look at what the nature of a church ordinance is, as the bible describes it. Now first of all we find that a church ordinance testifies of the work of Christ, not what we are and not what we do, but what Christ was and what Christ did. For instance when we go down into the baptismal waters we are testifying of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are testifying that as He was raised from the grave we are also to be raised up to walk in newness of life. So, we see that baptism speaks of what Christ was and what He did.
We find the same thing true concerning the Lord's Supper. It speaks of the giving of the body of Christ and the shedding of the blood of Christ.The unleavened bread speaks of the sinlessness of the body of Christ that was given as a sacrifice on Calvary's Cross. The fruit of the vine in the cup speaks of the shedding of the blood from that sinless body in order to save us from our sins.
So we can find here by looking at these two church ordinances that the nature of a church ordinance is that it testifies to what Christ is and what Christ did. Now what I want to point out also is that foot washing was not a necessary act on Christ's part, but an example for their actions.What I mean by this is for instance had Christ not gone to the cross then His entire life here on earth in the form of a man and essention back into heaven would have been of no real value according to the purpose for which He came. So we find that in the sacrifice of His body, in the shedding of His blood, in His death, burial and resurrection which these ordinances speak of, that they speak of the necessary action on the part of Christ. It was not an example that He gave to us, but the action of the giving of Himself for our salvation. That is what these two ordinances symbolize.You see we don't find this true in the case of foot washing.
It does not fit into the nature of a church ordinance at all.It was not a necessary action upon the part of Christ, but it was simply an example for their action.In other words it was not something that He needed to do, but rather something He did to show them an example of how they were to act one toward another. (John 13:12-15) You see here we find that He says, I have given you an example.He had given them an example of their enter action of one with another.We also find that the church ordinances show the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. This is the very purpose of them.They both have to do with the sacrificial offering of His body unto death.
It's not simply an offering of Himself unto service, but the sacrificial offering of His body unto death.Foot washing just does not fit into this mold that we find here so far as the nature of it is concerned.We find these two church ordinances pointing in the same direction, but not at all so concerning foot washing.So, the nature of a church ordinance is not found in foot washing.
So, let us look at the actual nature of foot washing itself in particular. We find foot washing to be the ministering of a physical and not a spiritual need. That is not to say that there is nothing spiritual about the ministering of that need, because there was indeed a spiritual message in that.
But the washing of the feet as an act itsself is the ministering of a physical need to the human body. The offering of Christ body did something for us spiritually where as the washing of the feet does not. It does something physical. It cleaned the feet. It was indeed to teach humility, but it also was a physical need in that day and time. To kind of help you understand this a little better let me give an example. In that day and time if they wore anything on their feet at all it would have been a sandal as they traveled along walking through dirt and sand. I would rather imagine that more times then not they probably were bare footed. As you read these scriptures you don't actually hear them telling of anyone removing their sandals or anything of this sort. I rather imagine that they were more than likely bare footed. In either case their feet would certainly get quite dirty even in traveling around in an open sandal. Yes, indeed it was to teach humility by humbly putting yourself in the place of a servant and doing a service for your brother that he had a physical need of. Indeed he would have had this physical need because his feet would have been dirty. You see this was a normal custom of that time. A close friend or loved one would out of love for you put themselves in that place of a servant to do this service for you. It was simply a custom of that time to have had a servant to have washed the honored guests of your homes feet for them.You see we can find here that the nature of foot washing is a service. It is a service of humility. We have shoes and socks to keep our feet clean and for someone to offer to wash your feet would not only be a service that you did not need it would actually be an annoyance to you.
Foot washing just could not be looked at as a form of worship. If we could actually wash Christ's feet rather than our brother's then you could call that worship. But, the obvious fact is that we can not wash Christ's feet. When Mary washed Christ's feet it would have went beyond the physical service of getting His feet clean it could have also been a form of worship.
So the entire teaching of foot washing was to teach those disciples to put themselves humbly in the place of service for their brother as far as that love for them was concerned.
We should love our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to humble ourselves to them in a service of physical need. So, what we find today is that this was not a church ordinance and that the physical need to have your feet washed today is gone so it would show nothing.
So, we find that this was done to show Christians that they should seek a place of service rather than Lordship.We should seek to give glory and honor rather than to receive it?
This is what was being taught in this. We realize that the physical need for foot washing no longer exists. We should certainly realize that what was taught by it should greatly be alive in our churches today. Bro. so and so has no physical need of me to wash his feet however, I should still seek to show that humble Christian attitude towards him in all things. I fear that often times Christian humility has all but disappeared. People fight and bicker today to receive honor in stead of to give honor.While foot washing is certainley not a church ordinance we should pray that God would teach us to be humble again.
By His Grace,
Preacher @ Bethel