Page 15 - The Standard Volume 1

Wash Me, and Not My Feet Alone
BY ELECT LADY DEONDRA FELTON
Luke 7:36-38, 44-47 NLT
“36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
44 Then he (Jesus) turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”
When you invite someone into your home, you welcome them by inquiring if there is anything you can offer to make them comfortable. “May I take your coat?” “Would you like something to drink?” Simon had invited Jesus to his home but did not offer Him hospitality. Yet this sinful woman pressed past the people who should have offered Jesus a basin to wash his feet, a cup of water to drink, or oil to anoint His
head. She knew exactly what to do to show kindness and love, as she had heard who He was and understood the honor and privilege she found herself in to be at His feet. She poured out all that was in her and laid it at His feet, wiping the tears that were falling on them with her hair. Out of gratefulness and love for who He was, she kissed His feet over and over. Jesus looked at her and said, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”
This woman was not the only example in the Bible of someone who humbled themselves to wash another person’s feet.
John 13:1-9 NLT
“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. 6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” 8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied,
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