Wednesday, April 6, 2011
norman brown - leadership in footwashing
John Maxwell in his book, Developing the Leader within You, makes the statement, “Once the leader has personally changed and discerned the difference be¬tween novel change and needed change, then that leader must become a change agent... the leader must be out in front to encourage change and growth and to show the way to bring it about (pg. 52).” When I read this statement, it reminds me of Jesus implementing a new change to an old institution at the Last Supper when He washes the disciple’s feet. Footwashing is a sacrament instituted by Jesus to enable man to fulfill the law of God...“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt.22:37-40). Footwashing is an ancient Oriental ritual. Jesus was thoroughly familiar with the ritual of footwashing is shown by the story of His encounter with the woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus used the ritual of footwashing to teach His disciples by His own example His message of loving and serving one another. Footwashing also symbolized and demonstrated the way they were to relate to one another as servants. Jesus clearly illustrated the role of a servant-leader. The inward, spiritual work of the Sacrament of Footwashing is the removal of enmity against our brother. Just as baptism removes the enmity in us against God and enables us to love God as He desires, so footwashing removes the enmity in us against our brother and enables us to love our brother as we love ourselves.
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ReplyDeleteI come from a tradition (the Brethren Church) which practices foot washing. I find it interesting how many people are “weired out” by foot washing. But as Dr. Rob Douglas said, “the institution of foot washing by Jesus is not different than the other ordinances that He instituted” yet somehow it often just gets kind of passed over in consideration by many Christians. Now this is not to say that a person has to do foot washing but I have always found it intriguing as to the variety of responses it gets from Christians. As noted, the key is that Jesus clearly illustrated the role of a servant-leader. I think that this is a model that we all must be reminded of and to guard against the temptation to think that we are somehow more important than others because we are in a position of leadership. I find myself often recognizing that I ought to be serving more yet for some reason or another it seems as if the things of daily life come up and take my attention away from this. I think that we must all guard against as we are called to be servants of others and to model the role of a servant-leader.
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