Footwashing – another Easter symbol

Today begins the three days of Easter.

The little-heralded act of Jesus enacting his calling as a servant and washing the feet of his bemused and scandalised disciples is the act that begins the three-day drama of Easter.

He said to them,

‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Alongside the symbol of the cross, itself a scandal, we might well lay the foot-washing basin and towel as a symbol of service for followers of the Way.

Just imagine depictions of the basin and towel adorning church steeples and hanging as pendants around our necks. How would this change the public perception of contemporary Christianity?