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On Sunday morning we spent time considering Jesus’ washing of his disciples' feet. I emphasized that this was the embodiment of God’s character, ultimately displayed on the cross. I skipped over something implied in the text that makes this realization even more profound. This is going to be a brief Covenant Weekly for March 3, 2026.

Jesus, the groundbreaking Rabbi, the thoughtful teacher, the miracle worker, the usual guest of honour takes on the role of host. Jesus, God with us, the one who has been entrusted with all power and authority becomes the slave. He strips down to his undergarments. He wraps a towel around his waste. He fills a basin. He approaches the first disciple and bends low before him. I imagine him wiping the grime from the first disciple, John – too dumbfounded to react. Next he moves to Thomas – can’t believe what is happening. Matthew next – awkward and embarrassed. Finally Peter says what the others can’t. With clarity, but with love, Jesus corrects him and after washing Peter’s smelly soles carefully dries them before moving on.

Can you see it? Can you get the picture? Can you grasp how profound and upside down this is? Not yet. Because Jesus, who knows what is to come, hasn’t gotten through washing all of their feet yet.

I don’t imagine it as the last disciple, but eventually Jesus kneels before Judas–approaching him as a slave. To others in the room, this was no different than the other 11. But they knew. And we know.

The heart of God is to come to the enemy, the violent and greedy, the betrayer and wash his feet. All the while knowing what he is up to.

This is what God was up to in Bethlehem. This is what God was up to on the cross. And this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

In a world at war, I know the objections. I feel them in my soul. But how can we stop a brutal dictator or a supreme leader or a fascist ruler or a violent aggressor? Those are big and challenging questions. But we can’t allow those hard to answer questions to prevent us from embodying what has been clearly modeled and taught to us.

I don’t know how to answer those bigger questions, but I think our imagination can give us hope. For example, can you imagine a world where everyone who claimed the label of Christian - over 30% of the population and over 2.3 billion people - where each of us lived with this kind of love towards each other. How much would the world change overnight if we embodied Jesus’ way of living?

I wonder if we’d get the same response that Paul and Silas got in Thessalonica. When they were arrested there for sharing about Jesus, the accusation against them was, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also.”

With the state of our world today - with all the horrors we witness, the tragedy we experience, the violence that confronts us - maybe that’s the best we could hope for. To live in such a way - to embody this way of Jesus so strongly - that we are accused of turning our world upside down.