Washed Any Feet Lately?

We have become experts at defining how leaders should behave, and we have
become obsessed with finding the “elite” who can fix us when everything else
fails. Yet underneath the thin veneer of performance, some leaders in our
society are functioning with borderline personality disorders,
obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and hidden addictions and lusts they have
assumed in an attempt to fill the void in their souls.

None of us has to look far in our circle of relationships to recognize that
many people we thought were leaders are merely performing behind a mask. We have
so highly prized “perfect performance” that we have watched the spirit of
competition and comparison come into our churches and seen leaders at every
level act more like territorial warlords than followers of Christ.

I wonder if Peter, who was so surprised by the Lord's insistence on washing
his feet (see John 13:6), would have dared to take off his own cloak and don the
servant's towel. Like many leaders today, he probably would have considered such
an action “beneath him.” After all, he had an image to preserve and a reputation
to be maintained.

Yet when Jesus explained His actions, Peter realized that a new day was
coming in which religious leaders would no longer be placed on a pedestal but
would become the servants of all.

Jesus shattered every preconceived idea of ministry and leadership when He
removed His robe, draped a towel around Himself, poured water into a basin and
washed His disciples' feet. (see John 13:3-5). They were looking for a king, but
He was acting like a slave!

The Leader of the new move of God delegitimized the prevailing false image of
power and leadership by taking the towel Himself and getting as low as He could
to remove the debris from between the toes of the next generation of
servant-leaders. Peter couldn't handle this because he couldn't see himself
doing the thing his Teacher was doing. He was too concerned about his image.

Jesus, on the other hand, had no need to play the image game. He knew where
He came from, He knew who He was, and He knew where He was going (no borderline
personality disorder here).

It was not beneath Him to assume the lowest place in the room. As big as He
was, He was never too big for the room. He “took the form” of a servant and
delighted to live there because He knew that the Father dwells with the humble.

It's time we checked to see if we have become “too big for the room.” We need
to have our feet washed from the dust of modernism and allow the Servant of
servants to model for us the way into the new millennium. Our personality
disorders would be healed if we were willing to take the form of a servant.

All of us today want to see revival. We want to see the river of God flowing
in our nation. This has become the emerging prophetic cry of our generation:
that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will manifest as a worldwide flow of
water covering the earth.

Where is the river of God? Where is the revival and the refreshing? Jesus
said, “Where I am, there will My servants be also” (see John 12:26). Wherever
there are servants who are leading the way into the future by modeling the life
that God is attentive to and honors, there the water will be flowing.

If we can learn a lesson from Peter's mistake and not be so concerned with
the honor of our positions and titles, we might discover that right at our feet
is the position of honor–the place where the Father restores our sense of
wholeness, balance, dignity and identity. Whoever seeks to be the greatest needs
to have the capacity to become a servant. May we seek the sign of the “Man with
the towel and basin” and follow Him into the new day that is already dawning on
the horizon of divine intention!

Mark J. Chironna is the founder of The Masters Touch International Church in
Orlando, Florida, and author of Stepping Into Greatness (Creation House). He and
his wife, Ruth, live in Orlando with their two sons.