You Will Never Wash My Feet, a sermon based on John 13: 1-8 preached on April 2, 2026

This week has been an important week. It’s already been a meaningful week. You may know that on Monday at 11:30 in this Sanctuary, the Rev. Dr. Tar-U-Way Bright of Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church preached from this pulpit. Then on Tuesday, it was Eric Beckham of Zion Baptist. Yesterday, the Rev. Brandon Owen of First Baptist preached. Earlier today, it was the Rev. Dr. Harden Hopper III of First United Methodist Church. Each sermon was inspirational. Each lunch, which followed, was delicious. Each day, a crowd of around 200 people attended. Each year that we host these community worship services, the crowds get bigger and there’s more interaction between the members of different churches, but in addition to all these good things, only one of the pastors who preached has a full head of hair. Three have shiny bald heads. And it made me feel so much better. Seeing the beautiful bald heads of those pastors made me feel better about my own receding and retreating hairline. I started to think that if every balding man could see how good those pastors were looking, Rogaine would go out of business. This brings me to my point: You must accept the truth that you are God’s beloved. Peter had to allow the Savior to wash his feet, for His commandment, “Love each other. As I have loved you so you must love one another,” that command, that mandate hinges on what Jesus did on the night He was betrayed. Our ability to love one another hinges on the statement that precedes the command: “As I have loved you,” so you must love one another. Do you believe that He loves you? It’s not easy to love or to accept yourself. If it were easy, people wouldn’t spend so much money covering up how they really look. So much of our economy is built on insecurity. Do you know what I mean by that? How many gyms would close if the members of those gyms woke up each morning, looked in the mirror, and said to themselves, “I am looking good today?” People who look in the mirror and see flaws and folds and wrinkles and lines sign up for gym memberships, pay to have their hair dyed and their faces lifted, but those people who look at themselves in the mirror and say to themselves, “I am looking good” are immune to the commercials. They have the antidote to the insecurity that fuels so much of the beauty product industry. So much of our economy is built on people who look in the mirror and don’t like what they see, yet on the sixth day, God created humankind. Genesis chapter 1 tells us that it was in His image that God created woman and man, and when God saw everything that He had made, indeed, it wasn’t just good. It was very good. That’s what the Bible says. When God created light, it was good. When God created land and ocean, it was good. But when God created humankind, it was very good. Know then that in the eyes of God, you are more majestic than the mountains He created, for He said the mountains were good, but only when He saw you did He say, “very good”. You are more precious than the stars of the sky. More beautiful than the ocean waves. Not for anything other than for you did He sacrifice himself. My friends, you are so worthy of love that Jesus knelt at the feet of Simon Peter, but Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Why not? Maybe you know why Peter wouldn’t let Him. There is an insecurity that creeps inside all our hearts. There is a voice that speaks to us when we are all alone. For some reason, that voice speaks up in middle school, and it keeps on talking, making us self-conscious. The insecurity just stays right with us. I used to think that people grew out of it, but I haven’t. People have started saying to me, “You look just like my proctologist, or my rabbi.” I’ll ask them to show me a picture, and basically, to an awful lot of people, I look a lot like the last bald, white dude they saw. Now, that kind of thing makes me self-conscious. It makes me want to buy a toupée or put on a hat, but my friends, we must fight that kind of insecurity, we must doubt the voice of the evil one, for the Word of God incarnate came not to shame or condemn the world, but to save it; not to make you self-conscious, but to wash your feet. To love you with an undying love. You must allow Him to wash your feet, for those who cannot accept the love of God, seek it out elsewhere. Our world feeds on those who are desperate for love and acceptance. I remember attending a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Tennessee. When we lived there, I’d be invited to these things. Because I was a pastor at an important church, they wanted me there, but I didn’t have any money to contribute, so it was always a little awkward to go to those things. After giving to the church, there just wasn’t much left, so I always felt awkward at those fundraisers because I’d go, but I couldn’t pledge anything. I couldn’t donate much. When they’d give the sales pitch and distribute the pledge cards, I’d excuse myself to the restroom or something, but at the Boys and Girls Club fundraiser, I’ll always remember this moment when the speaker said: I want you to know how important this club is. It’s important because the street will take these children. If they don’t have the Boys and Girls Club, they’ll be left to the street, and the street will take them. If they don’t find direction from us, who will tell them which way to go? If they don’t find acceptance at our club, they’ll find acceptance from gangs. If we don’t feed them, who will offer them food and what will they want in return? It was the most effective fundraising pitch I’d ever heard, and so I made contribution. The check may have bounced, but I had to give something because I knew the man was right. Those who can’t accept themselves go looking for acceptance. Those who don’t feel beautiful will pay top dollar until they do, and so much of our economy is built on insecurity, but I want you to know that Jesus commanded His disciples to “love one another” only after He convinced them that by Him they were loved. How much did He love them? He washed their feet. Now, you may have an image in your mind of what it was like for Jesus to wash the feet of His disciples. It’s possible that the image you have in your mind is based on the state of your neighbor’s feet, or when you think of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, you imagine having to wash a stranger’s feet. My wife, Sara’s, favorite place to shop is Goodwill. She finds all kinds of good stuff at Goodwill, and the day before yesterday, she was so excited because she found me some fancy flip flops that retail new for $90-100. These were not new, though. Someone else’s foot juice was all over them. The gunk from between a stranger’s toes had infected the thong of those flip flops, so I didn’t want them. I didn’t want my feet touching where someone else’s feet had been. It’s not that my feet are perfumed and manicured, so I ask the same question about my feet: What would it have been like for Jesus to wash my feet or your feet? Maybe you’re thinking, who would want to bathe some feet like mine with blisters, bunions, and yellow toenails? Yet remember with me that this is God we’re talking about and not you. What did the Creator God incarnate in Jesus Christ see when He held the feet of those disciples in His hand? What was it like? How did Jesus feel? The closest we can get to imagining how Jesus felt to cradle the disciples’ feet in His hands is if we can remember washing our own baby in the sink. Have you ever bathed a baby? Have you ever put a baby in a sink full of soapy water? Have you ever taken a baby’s fat little foot in your hand, with toes so cute you wanted to take a picture of them to hang on your wall? Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, and it wasn’t any different. The Creator of us all took those feet in His hands, and He said the same words He said in the beginning, “it wasn’t just good, it was very good.” Peter had to let Him because Peter wouldn’t have made it through the rest of his trial without knowing that he was loved. No one makes it through this life whole and complete without the conviction that she is worthy of love. Only those who know that they are worthy of love trust in forgiveness. Only those who know they are worthy of acceptance give people the chance to accept them. My friends, I want you to know that after Peter betrayed Jesus, the only reason he had the courage to seek Jesus out again, pleading for forgiveness, is because Jesus had washed his feet, treated even his feet as precious, and so convinced Peter that the love of His Father in Heaven was something like that of his mother on earth who had held his feet in her hands and kissed them. It’s hard to return home if you don’t trust the love of the father. It’s impossible to proclaim the Gospel that you’ve never allowed yourself to feel. You can’t go on believing in grace unless you’ve experienced it. Before you go paying for some laser treatment or beauty product, know that there is nothing more attractive than confidence, and it is easiest to love those who love themselves. Do you believe it? Would you allow Him to wash your feet? We say it to babies all the time when they’re baptized. We all know that a baby is loved in the sight of God. We all want to wash that baby’s feet. Why would it be any different with you or with me who are and will always be God’s children? Would you let Him wash your feet? My friends, you can’t very well love your neighbor as yourself if you don’t love yourself. You can’t very well love each other unless you know how much He loves you. That was His commandment. That’s His mandate: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. You can only fulfill this mandate, this command, if you know He loves you, so to convince you and assure you, He not only washed the disciples’ feet, but He also prepared them dinner. He took the bread, and He broke it, saying, “This is my body,” broken for you. Then He took the cup, saying, “This cup is poured out of my blood for the forgiveness of sins.” Why would you ever doubt such wonderous love? My friends, taste and see that the Lord is good. His steadfast love for you endures forever. Amen.