Many churches follow the liturgical calendar during the Lenten season, with sermons reviewing the events in the life of Christ leading up to the Resurrection.

Jesus washing his disciples’ feet at the Passover meal is usually highlighted, emphasizing how His followers are to follow His example, being humble servants of one another.

I heard a message on the radio this week illuminating a new aspect of this  familiar episode. Along with the example set by Christ, I saw another lesson in the disciples’ need to have their feet washed.

In those days it was customary for a servant to wash guests’ feet before a meal because everyone wore sandals or went barefoot. Like now, people wore their finest and got cleaned up before attending a banquet, but without Uber or Lyft to carry them, everyone walked to their destination on the dusty or muddy streets, arriving with dirty feet.

The lesson for Christians is that although we are washed clean by faith when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, our walk through this world continues to leave a residue. Ignored over time, this dirt becomes ingrained and, although others see the stain, we no longer even notice it.

We need to wash this worldly soil off daily to avoid a filthy build up. We need to get down on our knees, humbling ourselves in prayer as we scrape and scrub off the layers of pride, vanity, resentment, compromise, and sin.

We need to be ready when we are invited to the Lord’s banquet.