If I Wash Thee Not, Thou Hast No Part With Me
As I have been preparing to teach my Sunday School lesson this week, I have spent a lot of time thinking about John 13:6-10. Here are a few of the things I have been thinking about:
In John 13:8, Peter tells the Lord that "thou shalt never wash my feet." As I thought about Peter's statement, I wondered if maybe I sometimes have this same attitude with the Lord. Are there things that I should let the Lord do for me or help me with that I don't? Do I ever depend too much on myself or my own talents and abilities? A line of Hymn #124, Be Still My Soul, came to my mind: "Leave to thy God to order and provide." How often do I fail to do that? Lately I have realized that I sometimes try to take certain aspects of my life into my own hands, when instead I should trust God and let him guide me and provide for my needs. (A topic for another day: how can I do that and still follow the counsel from D&C 58:26-27?)
Approaching this verse from a slightly different direction, do I have sins, pains, doubts, or anything else that I, for whatever reason, am not letting the Lord wash away? Am I letting the Lord wash or heal me as completely as he wants to? Or do I have a favorite sin, or maybe an emotional wound, that I can't give up or get over? The Lord wants to wash me. He wants to heal me. What is stopping me from letting him do that fully?
I think these are important questions to ask myself. Just look at the consequence of not allowing the Lord to wash me,which is also found in John 13:8 - "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."
Peter, after having these consequences made clear, decides that he wants the Lord to wash "not [his] feet only, but also [his] hands and [his] head" (John 13:9). At first, I thought that perhaps Peter was being a bit overzealous. The Lord tells him in the next verse that only his feet needed to be washed. But then I read the JST of verse 10, and from that it is clear that the hands and head also needed to be washed. It wasn't necessary at this time for Peter simply because his hands and his head were already clean. So maybe Peter wasn't necessarily being overzealous - maybe he just wasn't trusting in the washing that had already been done.
Again, I wonder if maybe I am also like Peter in this verse at times. The Lord has forgiven me of many sins in the past; he has washed those parts of me clean. Do I trust in his forgiveness? Or do I allow Satan to cause me guilt and pain for areas of my life that are now clean?
It is easier to feel the Savior's love, and to "love one another," when I let the Lord wash me and heal me completely, and when I trust in his forgiveness and love.
In John 13:8, Peter tells the Lord that "thou shalt never wash my feet." As I thought about Peter's statement, I wondered if maybe I sometimes have this same attitude with the Lord. Are there things that I should let the Lord do for me or help me with that I don't? Do I ever depend too much on myself or my own talents and abilities? A line of Hymn #124, Be Still My Soul, came to my mind: "Leave to thy God to order and provide." How often do I fail to do that? Lately I have realized that I sometimes try to take certain aspects of my life into my own hands, when instead I should trust God and let him guide me and provide for my needs. (A topic for another day: how can I do that and still follow the counsel from D&C 58:26-27?)
Approaching this verse from a slightly different direction, do I have sins, pains, doubts, or anything else that I, for whatever reason, am not letting the Lord wash away? Am I letting the Lord wash or heal me as completely as he wants to? Or do I have a favorite sin, or maybe an emotional wound, that I can't give up or get over? The Lord wants to wash me. He wants to heal me. What is stopping me from letting him do that fully?
I think these are important questions to ask myself. Just look at the consequence of not allowing the Lord to wash me,which is also found in John 13:8 - "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."
Peter, after having these consequences made clear, decides that he wants the Lord to wash "not [his] feet only, but also [his] hands and [his] head" (John 13:9). At first, I thought that perhaps Peter was being a bit overzealous. The Lord tells him in the next verse that only his feet needed to be washed. But then I read the JST of verse 10, and from that it is clear that the hands and head also needed to be washed. It wasn't necessary at this time for Peter simply because his hands and his head were already clean. So maybe Peter wasn't necessarily being overzealous - maybe he just wasn't trusting in the washing that had already been done.
Again, I wonder if maybe I am also like Peter in this verse at times. The Lord has forgiven me of many sins in the past; he has washed those parts of me clean. Do I trust in his forgiveness? Or do I allow Satan to cause me guilt and pain for areas of my life that are now clean?
It is easier to feel the Savior's love, and to "love one another," when I let the Lord wash me and heal me completely, and when I trust in his forgiveness and love.
1 comments:
Just wanted to add a follow-up thought that was brought up during my Sunday School lesson:
- When someone is washing your feet, you just have to sit and watch. You can't really do anything else. If you do try to do anything else, you may make it harder on the person to do the job right.
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