Do you still believe in/practice foot washing?

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Esaias

I don't understand.

Why the reluctance to just do what he said to do?

Don't want to mess with someone's feet?

Feet stank back then too, just like (or worse than) they do today...

Here's the entire passage...

John 13:12-17 (ESV)
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

This was an example of the manner in which they should serve one another. Christ didn't institute a RITUAL.

[CC1]

Originally Posted by Esaias

I don't understand.

Why the reluctance to just do what he said to do?

Don't want to mess with someone's feet?

Feet stank back then too, just like (or worse than) they do today...

I am sure with no deoderant their BO was so bad the smell of their feet was the least of their worries.

My son told me that when he was a Marine in Iraq they would not take baths for a couple of weeks at a time and that when they did the first few days were miserable because after a days of smelling funky their nose and mind adjusted to it and all of the other horrible smells around them. When they were clean and smelled good their nose adjusted to that and then everything that smelled bad around them was really horrible. I am sure in the Bible days their noses were adjusted to all of the bad BO and it seemed normal.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Ah, name calling. Nice. I knew there was a reason I had previously decided to put you on ignore.

(click)

It's not name calling. It's an observation. I believe that you're ritualizing an example. Jesus also spoke of plucking out one's eye if it caused them to sin. Examples, metaphors, and hyperboles abound in scripture. We mustn't forget to think categorically. Christ was demonstrating servant leadership through washing the disciples feet. And as he was willing to wash their feet... so too should they be willing to wash one another's feet, because none of them is greater than their master. The implication is that... if they are willing to serve one another, as Christ was willing to serve them, they will do well. A mere ritual doesn't capture the essence of Christ's entire point.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by CC1

I am sure with no deoderant their BO was so bad the smell of their feet was the least of their worries.

My son told me that when he was a Marine in Iraq they would not take baths for a couple of weeks at a time and that when they did the first few days were miserable because after a days of smelling funky their nose and mind adjusted to it and all of the other horrible smells around them. When they were clean and smelled good their nose adjusted to that and then everything that smelled bad around them was really horrible. I am sure in the Bible days their noses were adjusted to all of the bad BO and it seemed normal.

Good point. Besides being dusty... having worn sandals, the feet really wouldn't have been all that bad. I know my feet are far sweatier after wearing shoes than sandals.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Aquila

It's not name calling. It's an observation. I believe that you're ritualizing an example. Jesus also spoke of plucking out one's eye if it caused them to sin. Examples, metaphors, and hyperboles abound in scripture. We mustn't forget to think categorically. Christ was demonstrating servant leadership through washing the disciples feet. And as he was willing to wash their feet... so too should they be willing to wash one another's feet, because none of them is greater than their master. The implication is that... if they are willing to serve one another, as Christ was willing to serve them, they will do well. A mere ritual doesn't capture the essence of Christ's entire point.

It must be buried deep in the nature of humans to ritualize things. This need is most likely there for a reason, however it also allows for people to far too easily put the ritual ahead of what it was meant to symbolize in the first place.

There is a very funny scene from The Life of Brian (Monty Python) where Brian is being chased by a large crowd who believes he is the messiah. At one point Brian loses a sandal which causes the crowd to stop and get into an argument where half say they ALL need to remove one of their sandals in order to do his will. Of course the other half argued that they needed to all carry a gourd.

[Real Realism]

I wonder if communion would have been ritualized if there hadn't been examples written about the church participating in that sacrament? That does appear to be one of the specific distinguishing features here. Jesus said to drink the cup and eat the bread in remembrance of him. And we actually have Scriptural example of the church doing so. Not so in the case of foot washing.

I've practiced it. If I attend a church that chooses to institute it, I have no objections. It just seems like a stretch to mandate it since it was clearly symbolic of a much bigger principle with more appropriate applications for today AND we don't have Scripture telling us the early church did so.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Real Realism

I wonder if communion would have been ritualized if there hadn't been examples written about the church participating in that sacrament? That does appear to be one of the specific distinguishing features here. Jesus said to drink the cup and eat the bread in remembrance of him. And we actually have Scriptural example of the church doing so. Not so in the case of foot washing.

I've practiced it. If I attend a church that chooses to institute it, I have no objections. It just seems like a stretch to mandate it since it was clearly symbolic of a much bigger principle with more appropriate applications for today AND we don't have Scripture telling us the early church did so.

Did Jesus command that the disciples wash one another's feet?

Did he command them to teach converts to observe 'whatsoever I have commanded you'?

Do you need a NT example of the church obeying a direct command of Jesus in order for you to consider it applicable to you, us, today?

Where is the 'example' of the elders anointing the sick with oil and praying for their healing? James said to do it, but we have no examples in the NT of it being done, do we?

What about the so called 'Lord's prayer'? Jesus said to pray that way, yet we have no examples of it being done in the rest of the NT.

What about the Lord's command regarding praying in secret, or fasting in secret... do we have NT examples of the church actually doing it that way?

Do we even need examples, when we have a clear command of the Lord?

[Real Realism]

Originally Posted by Esaias

What about the so called 'Lord's prayer'? Jesus said to pray that way, yet we have no examples of it being done in the rest of the NT.

This is actually a wonderful example, that I hope you'll expound upon.

Do you believe we should actually repeat the Lord's Prayer, word-for-word?

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Real Realism

This is actually a wonderful example, that I hope you'll expound upon.

Do you believe we should actually repeat the Lord's Prayer, word-for-word?

Stick to the topic.

Do you believe when Jesus said 'pray thus' He didn't mean it?

[Real Realism]

Hey, dude, you're the one who brought up all the other examples.

If you do believe we should pray the Lord's Prayer word-for-word, I applaud you for your consistency.

I, however, am one who thinks that it is, again, an example of something you should take in the spirit of its intention and applied to your life. Like footwashing.

And, like footwashing, I see nothing wrong with repeating the Lord's Prayer. I just don't think either are a mandate to replicate exactly as was done in their sole mention in the Bible (I know the Lord's prayer is recorded twice, but it's still likely only one instance that occurred and was recorded in two separate gospels).