Bath Time!!!!

Of all the experiences we have in this world I doubt there are many that can compare to that ‘just out of the shower’ feeling. I’m not sure what it is about being clean that is invigorating (maybe it’s the chemicals in bodywash) but I like it. For many people a bath is how you start your day and so it symbolizes a fresh new beginning and it’s only downhill from there. Or maybe you’ve just finished some sort of physical labor type activity and getting a bath symbolizes completion and now you are free for the more fun things in life. In either situation a bath is a highlight but there are definitely times when a bath is SCARY!

Unless you are a caregiver for someone in need chances are that you have not had the regular experience of giving someone a bath or been the recipient of a bath by someone. Perhaps due to some sort of an injury to yourself or a loved one you have had a few of these experiences in your lifetime but I reckon there are quite a few who have never had any experience like this. It is truly one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had.

A couple of years ago I was assisting at a special needs camp and the camper I was assigned to had physical limitations and required assistance in getting ready for his day. Being that I did not know Tom and I had never helped someone bathe before it was an interesting first day. Frustrating might be a better description. Each morning afterward I was up by 4:30am so that I could be up and ready and have a couple hours to myself before I would need to start Tom and I’s routine. Many lessons were learned when it came to vulnerability, trust, patience and compassion. I can only imagine what it was like to be in Tom’s place and have to be so vulnerable to someone he didn’t even know at first. I can only imagine the amount of trust he had to place in my very literal hands as we worked and maneuvered together to do what needed to be done. No imagining on my part was necessary when it came to learning about patience. My wife can attest to my impatience and that was challenged to the extreme that week. I had to relinquish all control and go at the pace of another. If there was one thing that I needed and didn’t have on that first day it was the kind of compassion necessary to truly care for the needs of someone like Tom. If there was one thing learned in those early mornings alone it was the depth of the compassion of Christ. I needed to tap into that deep well in order to have what I did not have naturally.

I recently listened to Brennan Manning speak of Christ as the ‘Son of Compassion’. He warned that we are misguided if we try to compare our human, far from impartial, shallow, self-serving kind of compassion to the compassion of Christ. The compassion that Christ has for those who are suffering is a compassion that resonates in the womb of the eternal. This is so much more than the kind of ‘My heart goes out to….’ that we so regularly hear during times of tragedy. The heart of Christ doesn’t simply ‘go out’ to people in such times but is instead twisted and wrenched, torn and broken, opened and poured out. It is this ‘Son of Compassion’ that we see washing the feet of his disciples.
John 13:4-10

So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
Jesus answered, "Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you."


I could spend hours writing about the significance of who is doing the washing but I’m going to fast forward to those of us getting a bath and the two words I used in describing Tom’s side of our experience: Trust and Vulnerability. Trust is a huge deal because without trust you will never be vulnerable. There will always be barriers, there will always be distance and there will never be a true intimate relationship if there is not trust. It is by trusting Jesus that we open our lives up to the reality that we need a bath. Then it’s bath time and just like in this story there are those of us who need our whole body washed and there are those of us who just need our feet washed. Everyone needs their whole body washed at some point (baptism) but in a spiritual sense this is not something people need to have done over and over and over. I do, however, think we regularly need what Peter needed as Jesus offered to wash his feet. Life has its way of collecting dirt as we go along and it’s easy for people to reject Jesus’ invitation to wash the more objectionable parts of their lives. "That’s ok Jesus. You’ve done enough. I’ll wash that area myself." We don’t like to admit it but when it comes to this kind of spiritual bath we need help. The truth is that He can reach areas we can’t no matter how hard we try. Trust Him. Be vulnerable. Be clean.