Reading: “And Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?”—John 13:6

Daily DevotionalsDo you want some sweet, tender, and more than ordinary view of Jesus to draw out all the finer feelings in love and adoration of your Redeemer? Look at him then in his lowliness and meekness, washing the disciples’ feet. And what tends infinitely more to endear and bring home to the heart this unparalleled condescension and grace of Jesus, is, that it was, as the evangelist relates it, at a time when Jesus knew that all things were given by his Father into his hands—that is, all things relating to his mediatorial kingdom.

Was there ever a more lovely, a more engaging instance shown, than by the great Redeemer of the world, in this condescending act? Well might the astonished apostle cry out, in the contemplation of it, “Lord! dost thou wash my feet?” Pause over the subject, and consider it well; and when you have duly weighed the matter, let it be asked, what condescension, what grace, what love, what mercy, will Jesus think too great for the salvation of poor sinners?

Oh that I had the power of persuasion, with any poor broken-hearted transgressor, to convince him that there is nothing to keep a soul from Jesus but unbelief. I would say to such an one, my brother, Oh! Look only to Jesus’ love. The greater your unworthiness, the greater will be the grace of Jesus. And the lower the Son of God bends down to wash a sinner, the higher surely will he be in the sinner’s love and esteem. Who loves Jesus most, but the sinner to whom Jesus hath forgiven most? Let it be inquired, through the realms of heaven, whose song of redemption is the loudest and the best?—the reply must be, the song of those who were most low upon earth when Jesus first stooped to wash them. Let this be my daily encouragement to come to Jesus, and cry, “Lord, wash not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”