Foot Washing as Ancient Hospitality

Foot Washing – Ancient Hospitality

I heard a man that who I felt, had a better than fair understanding of things ancient, struggling to expand on the issue of foot washing.  Perhaps he was trying to bring the issue to a lower level for the sake of others I don’t know.

Anyhow it is almost midnight and I have spent the last hour or so laying in bed rehashing the issue.  I guess that it is something that is best dealt with on the computer rather than in the bed.  So here goes something.

In the ancient cultures of the world hospitality is dealt with as a premium.  There are acceptable ways to entertain guest, or even co-workers.  This is what was at the heart of Jesus stripping down and then proceeding to wash the feet of His followers.  This was how the Hebrew culture had it laid out in the Old Covenant of doing things but as usual Jesus turned the old way on its head.

Foot washing was at its most basic the way of showing your visitors that not only were they welcome but also how much you valued them.  It was a symbolic action that was understood by all.

Having had it written in the law of the land people worked at minimising it to the level that people could.  For instance if you had a servant, or even a slave, it was deemed acceptable to show hospitality by proxy by having the slave do the job.  If you didn’t have a servant then why not use the younger children of your family to do it.  This is how the law was perverted to avoid the humiliation of showing hospitality.  It was even simply ignored in some times.

Imagine if you will that the queen, or president, was coming to your house for a visit.  For starters you would have a conversation with a protocol officer who would tell you what the royal person expected you to do, or not do, on the day of your visit.  I would assume that in the discussion there would be room for asking how the visit might be more satisfying for your visitor, perhaps not. In which case would you go out, or online, to find out yourself?

On the day, you would be decked out in your finest gear and the house would be spick and span.  It would be so immaculate that it would be worth photographing just in case you had plans to sell the house after the visit, or would it?

This is a modern equivalent to the sort of hospitality that Jesus was talking about.  But it was more than that.  Sure we would go out on a limb to welcome such an eminent person.  What about the man who collected your garbage or the down and outer that lived under the bridge a block away?  Perhaps these people would consider a drink out the back as hospitality of the reasonable level.  But what would Jesus say to our efforts?  ‘For just as you do it to one such as these” might be ringing in our/your ears perhaps.

 When we show hospitality to others it must be done with grace otherwise it will be seen as being something that is awkward at best and done with an ill will somewhere up the line.  It would be something that may result in our guests deciding not to return.  Hospitality that is done well can result in people feeling at home in our house and after all that may be a part of our strategy if we are trying to expand our friend base, whether we have a strategy of introducing them to our Friend.