On the Thursday of Holy Week, when everything that needed to be done had been done, Jesus, as the saying goes, really had saved the best for last.

In an unprecedented show of love, Jesus got on his hands and knees and washed the feet of his followers.  To show them what love looks like, he broke every cultural protocol and social norm you could think of.

But Jesus was never one to let what you’re supposed to do dictate what He actually did. 

Love does that – love surprises.  In fact, love loves to surprise, to break us out of our boxes, and turn what we think we know upside down and inside out. 

When Jesus grabbed that towel, filled a basin with water, and started washing their feet, no one, absolutely no one saw that coming, even though washing people’s feet wasn’t outside of Jesus’ character.  It was not beyond the realm of reason for the guy who ate with sinners, discipled tax collectors, and even touched lepers to wash feet.  Washing his disciples’ feet wasn’t outside of Jesus’ character, but it was outside of his disciples’ expectations.

On the last night of his life, Jesus chose to upend the expectations of his closest friends and family. 

On the last night of his life, Jesus used his last hours to redefine what love does. 

On the last night of his life, when there was nothing left to do but be together, Jesus washed their feet because love loves to surprise us...

...but that doesn’t mean we love to be surprised.

Just look at Peter – he’s shocked.  More than that, he’s appalled.  “There’s no way I’m letting You wash my feet Lord!  You shouldn’t do this for me – I should be doing this for you! (My paraphrase of John 13:6-8)

Peter doesn’t know what to do or what to make of such humble love.  So, what does he do?  Peter does what so many of us do in response to that kind of love: he resists it. 

If we pay close enough attention, we’ll notice resistance as a pattern in Peter’s life.

·     When Peter first met Jesus, he tried to push Jesus away due to his own sense of unworthiness (Luke 5:8).

·     When Peter first learned that Jesus action would inevitably lead Him to the cross, Peter refused to accept this outcome (Matthew 16:22)

·     And here, on Holy Thursday, when Jesus modeled the servant-nature of God's love, Peter once again resists Jesus. 

Peter’s preference is to follow Jesus on his terms and when Jesus starts getting too close, when things start getting too real, when the way of Jesus fails to align with the expectations of Peter, Peter defaults into his go-to mode of operation: resistance.

But here’s the danger with this sort of patterned resistance to Jesus: so long as we continue to resist God’s love, we’ll never experience the kind of life God intends for us. 

After Peter refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, Jesus immediately responds to Peter’s resistance with these words:

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” ~ John 13:8b (NIV)

Unless is a strong word.  Jesus doesn’t mince words or downplay what’s at risk here.

Unless I wash you

Unless I do this for you

Unless you let me do this Peter…

…You have no part with me.  There’s no ambiguity, gray space, or partiality in Jesus’ words.

Unless Jesus washes us,

Unless Jesus does for us, what we cannot do for ourselves,

Unless and until we let Jesus love us, surprise us, break and shatter all our boxes and expectations, we will never experience the life we were created to enjoy in this life, through Christ, for the glory of God and the sake of this world. 

We cannot have the life we were made for, if we continue to resist the only true Source of life. (See John 10:10)  Or as Augustine of Hippo put it over 1500 years ago, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

So today, as we prepare our hearts for Good Friday and Jesus’ death upon the cross, I invite you to wrestle with the following question:

“Am I, like Peter, resisting Jesus’ love?”

By the grace of God, Peter’s story doesn’t end with resistance but surrender (John 21:15-19).  It took time, but eventually Peter’s walls came down and He let Jesus into his life on Jesus’ terms, rather than his own.

And by the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit, the same can be true for us. 

We don’t have to keep resisting.  We don’t have to keep pushing Love away.  We, too, can let God do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves.  Some boxes, expectations, and norms might need to be smashed in the process, but that’s OK – that’s what God does best.  After all, God is love and love, loves to surprise us.