Genuine Service or Self-Serving Theatrics

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This morning’s rant is brought to you by a perfect storm of colliding ideas and temporary irritability…

In training for an Instrument Rating for your pilot’s certificate you are taught that there should be no wasted motion in the cockpit. There are procedures and tasks for every phase of flight. If you start off “behind the airplane” as you taxi out for takeoff you will be behind the airplane the entire trip. Having exposed myself to that reality more than once I can attest to the fact that it is an uncomfortable feeling – and sometimes terrifying!

A recent blog post by Timothy Archer http://www.timothyarcher.com/kitchen/?p=5373, and a subsequent conversation concerning John 13 got me to thinking. How much of what we tie to Jesus washing the disciples’ feet is really service, and how much is simply self-serving theatrics?

Apparently many people look to John 13 as the example par excellance of Christian service. If so, let’s look at the context. Jesus is serving as host at a supper. As host he would be responsible for providing the service of a servant to wash the feet of his guests. Instead, he takes the role of the servant upon himself and washes the disciples feet, thereby teaching them the lesson of real servant leadership. He demonstrated, by washing a bunch of smelly, definitely unhygeinic feet, that if you want to be a leader you had better be willing to assume the most menial of positions.

Segue to 21st century America. Someone wants to demonstrate that they are a “servant.” So they take a bowl, a towel, and some water and ask someone to remove their $75.00 leather shoes and their $10.00 protective socks and roll up their $50.00 tailored pants so that the “servant” can “wash” the perfectly clean and perhaps even pedicured feet of someone who showered not much more than six or eight hours ago. With their conscience thus assuaged, the “servant” can then walk outside and climb in their Cadillac Escalade and drive off, totally oblivious to the homeless person crumpled up on the corner, or the prostitute selling her body for enough money to buy her next fix.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy it. While it would be wrong for a blanket condemnation to be made for every person who wants to wash someone’s feet, I believe that what transpires in the overwhelming majority of these “service” demonstrations is pure theatrics. For those who genuinely are demonstrating their servant mentality I apologize, and this post does not apply to you. While I do seriously question the procedure, I cannot question the intent of the heart.

However, if Jesus was alive today he would not worry about our feet! Our feet are perhaps the most protected and clean part of our bodies. There is no risk in washing someone’s feet today – no chance that you will come into contact with animal or human refuse, of thorns or open wounds. In our antiseptic culture the idea that washing someone’s feet is actually the service of a slave is laughable. So why do we perpetuate the myth?

If you want to ”wash someone’s feet” today go scrub the toilet for someone who is confined to a wheelchair and cannot clean their own home. Change the bedding as wash the clothes for a lonely senior citizen. Mow the lawn and weed the garden of someone who must use a walker or wheelchair to get around their house. Or, if you absolutely must wash someone’s feet, go to the inner city and wash the feet of the homeless, the drug addicted, the panhandlers. And then invite them to your home for a special feast. Remember, Jesus was serving as a host during a very important meal. Don’t imitate half-way! If you are going to use John 13 as your proof text, don’t  just pick the parts that you want to follow and eliminate the rest.

And, by the way, don’t forget that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples just a few hours before he died for them on a cross. Just exactly why is it that we are all so motivated and willing to follow the example of Jesus in John 13, and when John 19 comes around we suddenly have soccer practice or a PTA meeting or a dance recital to attend?

If you want to stay alive when you are flying a plane in the clouds there is no room in the cockpit for theatrics. I don’t think there should be any more room for theatrics in our servant leadership.

End of rant…