Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash (more emphatically, 'Never shalt thou wash') my feet: -
q.d., 'That is an incongruity to which I can never submit. How like the man!
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. What Peter could not submit to was, that the Master should serve His servant. But the whole saving work of Christ was one continued series of such services, only ending with and consummated by the most self-sacrificing and transcendent of all services: "THE SON OF MAN CAME not to be ministered unto, but TO MINISTER, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY." (See the note at Mark 10:45.) If Peter, then, could not submit to let his Master go down so low as to wash his feet, how should he suffer. himself to be served-and so saved-by Him at all? This is couched under the one pregnant word "wash," which though applicable to the lower operation which Peter resisted, is the familiar scriptural symbol of that higher cleansing, which Peter little thought he was at the same time virtually putting from him. It is not humility to refuse what the Lord deigns to do for us, or to deny what He has done, but it is self-willed presumption-not rare, however, in those inner circles of lofty religious profession and traditional spirituality, which are found wherever Christian truth has enjoyed long and undisturbed possession. The truest humility is to receive reverentially, and thankfully to own, the gifts of grace.