THE ORDINANCE OF HUMILITY.
IN all the ordinances left by our Lord for His church there are continual and useful lessons. The empty form of even the ordinances of Christ are in themselves nothing. Performing them in faithless round is but an empty mockery. It is hoping for life from a dead form. The ordinance of the Lord’s supper is designed to be an occasional emblem of a continual living fact. Christ is the true bread. His blood is the true life, which, except a man eat thereof, he shall not live. But His flesh, His blood,—His life,—are but setting forth in other terms His Word and His Spirit; for “it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. The true child of God is continually feeding upon the Word, continually drinking in of the life, which Christ died to give. The Lord’s supper is only setting forth in beautiful symbol to all beholders what the believer continually knows, “the Lord’s death till He come.” The ordinance of baptism is the marriage ceremony, uniting before the world the believer to Christ. But unless there is crucifixion of the believer with Christ, unless there is the grasping, the appropriating of the resurrection life of Christ in the victorious life of the believer, the baptismal ceremony is an empty form. There is another, a forgotten ordinance by the great part of Christendom; and that is the ordinance of humility, or feet washing, set forth in John 13. Its lesson is the humble, loving service of true soul fellowship in Christ Jesus. It is not now practised except by a few who wish to be loyal to their Lord. It is considered by scholars a mere act of hospitality. The Sunday School Times, in its issue of January 12, thus states what is generally held:— “In Palestine, in the days of our Lord, feet washing was a necessity, and was an act of common courtesy, to an extent that we can hardly understand now. There were no pavements. None wore stockings. Shoes were removed and were left at the doors of the houses. The hot limestone or chalk dust made the feet burn and feel the need of cooling baths. Therefore feet washing was a necessity; it was so long before the days of Jesus, and one who would consider the comfort of his guests must either have his servant bathe their feet as they entered, or bathe them himself. This never seems to have been deemed a sacrament, as did at all times the sharing of each other’s life, in taking blood or its substitute. But it was an act of considerate regard for the comfort of one’s fellow in the land where it was common and needful. Within those limits it certainly is well to observe it still.” But is this all the chapter teaches? Was our Lord only performing an act of ordinary hospitality? The briefest consideration of the words of the evangelist will show most clearly that the act then performed of Christ meant much more than that. 1. The disciples had all bathed with scrupulous, Jewish fidelity for the Passover occasion. “He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet,” that is, to take part in that ordinance. 2. Peter supposed that Jesus was simply acting as a subservient, kindly host, and told our Lord that He should never wash his feet. Jesus said, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” Verse 7. Now Peter did know if it was only the common act of hospitality that Jesus performed; but if it was the foundation of a new ordinance, he did not know. 3. That it had spiritual significance beyond any mere act of hospitality, is shown in our Saviour’s words to Peter, when that impulsive disciple said, in his regard for his Lord, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Jesus replied, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” Verse 8. Surely He would not have told Peter this for the mere act of refusing an act of hospitality. 4. The positive words of our Lord indicate that the act was more than mere hospitality; they show in fact that His act was but the first of a series in the church. “So when He had washed their feet, . . . He said unto them, Know ye what I have done unto you? Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you. . . . If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them.” Verses 12–17. “Ought” signifies obligation. Feeling the force of all these, we do not wonder that the editor of the Sunday School Times closed his reply with the following words: “Moreover, it is better to overdo ten times in an attempt to conform to the teachings of our Lord’s example than to fall short in one thing where we might do as we have been directed.” But to one who believes in the simple words of Christ, to one who believes that His example means something, there need be no question as to the teaching of John 13. If its teaching had ever been followed, there would have been no castes, no classes, no lord bishops, no reverends and right reverends, no invisible, impassable walls of separation between the professed disciples of the lowly Nazarene. “As often” as they followed His “example,” “as often” as they obeyed His “ye ought also,” there would have been holy, equal fellowship, members of the same body, having the same care one for another. O brethren, come back to the Word, the example, the life, the power of the Gospel of Christ!