Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet: You Shall Never Wash My Feet

The Basin and the Towel

It was the evening before the Passover meal, and Jesus had supper with his disciples. He loved them, and he loved them to the end.

During supper, Jesus got up from the table. He laid aside his outer garments, took a towel, and wrapped it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Everyone watching would have known what foot-washing meant. It was the work a servant did for guests who came in from dusty roads. And now the Teacher was doing it.

The Teacher is kneeling with a basin and a towel, washing the feet of his own disciples, one after another. It is the kind of job everyone else would have expected a servant to do.

If you were sitting at that table, what do you think you would have felt?

Turn the page and see what happened when Jesus came to Peter.

Jesus came to Simon Peter. And Peter said, "Lord, do you wash my feet?"

Jesus answered, "You do not understand what I am doing now, but later you will understand."

Peter said, "You shall never wash my feet!"

Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me."

Then Peter went the other way, very fast. "Lord," he said, "not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"

First Peter says, "You will never wash my feet." Then, a moment later, he says, "Then wash my hands and my head too."

What do you think made him change his mind so quickly?

Turn the page.

Jesus said to Peter, "Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you."

He said that because he knew one of them was going to hand him over.

Then Jesus washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again at the table.

He asked them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, because I am. If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you."

How to Talk About This Story With Your Child

This is not a loud miracle. No storm, no healing crowd, no parted water. Its power is entirely in the surprise of it: the Teacher, the one they called Lord, doing the lowest, most ordinary servant’s job in the room.

Peter’s part of the story is the part children understand best. He is the disciple who cannot stand to see his teacher doing that for him. He says no, just flatly no, and then when Jesus says what it means, Peter goes from "never" to "my hands and head too" in one breath.

Jesus explained what he had done without turning it into a lecture. The example is the action: take the towel, fill the basin, do the servant’s work. You can let a child hold onto the picture before any words about what it means.

One thing worth noticing: Jesus did not say the washing made the disciples clean in the way the basin did. He used the moment to talk about being clean in a deeper sense, and one of the twelve was not clean at all.

Pray Together

You do not have to use these exact words. You can tell God what you think about the story in your own words. Or you can pray this together:

Thank You, Jesus, for the night You took the towel and the basin. Thank You for kneeling for the work others did not want to do, and for Peter, who could not believe it. Help us serve the people around us, and help us not be too proud to let others help us. Amen.

During supper, Jesus got up, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and washed his disciples’ feet.

When he came to Peter, Peter said, "You shall never wash my feet!" But Jesus told him that if he did not wash him, Peter had no part with him. And Peter said, "Then wash my hands and my head too."

Jesus finished, sat down, and said, "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you."

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