Love one another.

I have trouble loving others. You know that verse in John where Jesus says “love one another?” I struggle. Oh, the people I like are fine. I want to love them. I want to be nice to them and treat them the way I want to be treated. 

But the people who annoy me? The people who have hurt me and aren’t sorry about it? I don’t really want to love them. It’s hard and it’s painful. And I think I’ve been under the assumption that, if it’s hard, I don’t have to do it. 

It’s easier than you would think to gloss over those verses about “love your enemies” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” I can blow right by them.

But here’s what I can’t find the right words to talk about: 

Jesus washed Judas’s feet. 

Right there at the Last Supper. Judas had already decided to betray Jesus, and Jesus knew it. So Jesus got up, grabbed a towel, and started washing the disciples’ feet. One by one, grimy, dirty, gross, sweaty, nasty. He washed them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t love feet. Even clean ones. It would be an act of love for me to wash my sister’s feet, let alone anyone else’s. 

Jesus went around the table, washing, washing. He kept Peter from dunking his head in the water, and He kept washing. And then He got to Judas. And He kept washing.

No change, no special note, no “and He skipped the one who would betray Him.” Only, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

And all I can think is, if Jesus washed Judas’s feet, how could I ever decide that I don’t have to love someone? 

I don’t have answers. I don’t have any practical application or action steps. Just the thought that if Jesus could love Judas—and if Jesus could love me—then that should change how I love others. All others. 

*Originally posted on discoveringrhythms.blogspot.com