Lord's Supper and Car Wash

There is a story in the Gospel account of John where Jesus does something so bizarre…so astounding…that it leaves some of his followers confused and speechless. Their Rabbi…their teacher…their Lord…gets down on his knees and washes their feet. Then he tells them they will be blessed if they do the same for each other.


Now there is not a single written account of any of the early followers of Jesus washing each other’s feet. The other Gospel writers don’t even bother to mention the event. And there is a good possibility that what Jesus was demonstrating was not proper foot hygiene, but rather, the need to serve each other.

Nevertheless, for most of my life, I participated in an annual “footwashing” ceremony, where I would find myself on my knees pouring water over the foot of some other member of my congregation—usually selected at random. Then (even worse) I would have to let them wash my feet. While I may have learned a degree of humility from this practice, the “creepy” factor usually won out.

This year I gave the leadership team of my church the opportunity to give a thumbs up or thumbs down on a footwashing ceremony during our annual Lord’s Supper celebration. The response was mixed, and there was some amount of debate. But in the middle of it all, one member made an awesome suggestion.

She pointed out the fact that what made Jesus’ act so relevant to his disciples was that their feet were their main form of transportation. Sure, they rode the occasional donkey. But their feet were what carried then through the dusty countryside of Palestine.

Her suggestion was a simple one. If we were to follow Jesus’ example…and make the event relevant to our time and culture…we should wash each other’s car, not their feet. Brilliant! An act of service that actually MEANS something. Few of us wear open sandals and walk on dirt (and other “stuff”). But we all drive cars, and they get dirty.

We couldn’t pull it off this year. Not enough time. But if I have anything to say about it next year, we are seriously going to look into planning our first annual Lord’s Supper and Car Wash. Bread, wine, the Good News story, and buckets of soapy water.

In the meantime, perhaps you might want to follow Jesus’ example yourself. Wash a car. Mow a lawn. Find some way to lay down your life in service to a brother or sister. By this shall they know that you are a follower of Christ…

And I’m sure the promise of blessing if you do this still applies.