Peter is the only one who responds when Jesus washes feet.
Maybe no one noticed it was Jesus. His point wasn’t to call attention to himself, after all, but to call attention to the hearts of the disciples, to the opportunity to serve each other that is always present. So it could be that he was almost invisible, with the cloak of invisibility which accompanies people we think we are better than.
For whatever reason, Peter is the voice. And Peter argues that he doesn’t want Jesus to wash his feet. Jesus explains the necessity. Peter then wants not just his feet washed but his head and hands as well.
Here’s what I just realized.
Peter wants to tell Jesus what to do.
Peter wants to be God.
See, two posts back I talked about Jesus doing only what he was told to do. For Jesus, the voice providing direction was, by definition, the Father. So when Peter decides to tell Jesus what to do and how to do it, he is presuming to be God.
Peter would never see it that way. He would have argued that he was preserving the appropriate hierarchy, that the teacher would never wash the feet of the student. To accept such behavior would be too disruptive of, well, of everything. It just wouldn’t be right. Peter might have to change how he thought of everything.
And so, in the name of humility, Peter demonstrates great pride.
I would guess that among the other eleven (for Judas was still in the room (consider that for a moment–Jesus washed Judas’ feet)), there was similar consternation, similar pride.
I would guess that among other followers millenia later, such consternation still lingers.
“No, Jesus, you don’t have to do that for me.”
Yes, he says, I do.
