Jesus Washes the Disciples Feet

Imagine you just stepped out of the shower. You’re squeaky clean and smelling great. You put on fresh clean clothes, socks and shoes. You are ready to face the day. As you head down the stairs and into the kitchen, your mom asks you to take out the trash before breakfast. So you bundle up the smelly sack and take it out to the big trash container outside, open the lid, and hoist the sack inside. Phew. Glad that’s over. Now what do you need to do before you dig into your pancakes? You have to WASH YOUR HANDS! Why? Because you touched garbage! You have microbes of rotting food, chicken juice, and who-knows-what-else on your hands. You wouldn’t want that grime anywhere near your mouth! It would make you sick.

Do you need to take another shower? No. Just washing your hands will do the trick. But if you don’t wash your hands right away, those germs are going to spread onto other parts of you. They’ll get on everything you touch, and those around you could be affected. Your body is clean. You just need to wash your hands to stay healthy and do the things you need to do today.

During the intimate Passover observance in the upper room, Jesus explained the difference between a full-on bathing and a localized scrub. Utilizing two different words for wash (niptw and louw), Jesus explained to His disciples that we come to Him once in faith for the complete forgiveness of sins. Period. (That’s like the shower.) Then, as we falter and fail to trust His ways, we come to Him with a repentant heart, align with Him, and He will put us back on the right track (That’s the washing of hands.) The quicker we do this, the less harm is spread and the more we can do for the kingdom.

All the while, Jesus did the lowly servant’s chore of washing feet, teaching His disciples to serve one another.

How beautiful it would be for our kids to grow up in the knowledge that a sin committed does not nullify a relationship with Jesus. Instead, Jesus invites believers to come to Him daily to repent and change direction so that we can live the fullest, most fruitful lives possible.

Visit our site here if you’d like additional Bible Curriculum for Kids like this!