I thought about trying to recreate the Lord's Supper with Charlie, but I couldn't figure out how to impress upon him the metaphor of the bread and the wine. I think that lesson might be better learned when he is older.
So I decided to wash his feet. It's interesting that an act of such pure service really seems commonplace when we do it for our children. To wash anyone else's feet would be a serious departure, but to wash Charlie's is pretty normal.
Still, it's tough to imagine that if after all I do to serve Charlie day in and day out, he were to deny that I am his mother or that he even knows me. Clearly I would still love him and I don't think I would be angry, just terribly disappointed and terribly sad.
And to think that Jesus did and does so much more for us and we deny Him all the time...
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. And so He came to Simon Peter.
He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"
Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter."
Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!"
Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."
Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."
And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is no grater than his master; neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak to all of you. I b know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who easts My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.' From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
...
Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?"
Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you shall follow later."
Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You."
Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny Me three times."
...
Peter therefore denied it again; and immediately a cock crowed.
John 13:1-20, 36-38; 18:27
Other References
Exodus 24:8
Jeremiah 31:31
Psalm 41:9
Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6
Amos 9:9
Isaiah 53:3
Matthew 26:17-75
Mark 14:12-72
Luke 22:7-65
Luke 22:7-65
John 13:1 - 18:27
