<p>13:14 <i>If I then, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet</i>- His teaching was therefore not so much by spoken words but by example. He was His word made flesh. His example was to be taken as His word to His disciples. Because Jesus is Lord and Master, and because He is our representative in every way, therefore all that He did and was becomes an imperative for us to follow. They called Him &ldquo;Lord and Master&quot;, but <i>wouldn&rsquo;t</i> wash each other&rsquo;s feet. Like us so often, they had the right doctrinal knowledge, but it meant nothing to them in practice. They failed to perceive that &quot;my word&quot; referred to His whole being and personality rather than the words which came from His mouth in teaching sessions. To know Him as Lord is to wash each other&rsquo;s feet, naked but for a loincloth, with all the subtle anticipations of the cross which there are in this incident. &ldquo;Wherefore because of the exaltation of Jesus be obedient and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling i.e. in humility&quot; (Phil. 2:12).&nbsp;</p><p>We would so dearly wish for the suffering Christ to be just an item in history, an act which saved us which is now over, an icon we hang around our neck or mount prominently on our study wall- and no more. But He, His cross, His &lsquo;last walk&rsquo;, His request that we pick up a cross and walk behind Him, the eerie continuous tenses used in New Testament references to the crucifixion- is so much more than that. &nbsp;If He washed our feet, we <i>must</i> wash each other&rsquo;s. Everything He did, all He showed Himself to be in character, disposition and attitude, becomes an imperative for us to do and be likewise. And it is on this basis that He can so positively represent us to the Father: &ldquo;They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world&rdquo; (Jn. 17:16).</p>