Jesus Washed Feet; We Can Too

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Jesus Washed Feet; We Can Too"

The Wake-Up Call with Seedbed
June 16, 2026 | Host: Dan Wilt | Guest: John David (JD)

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Episode Overview

This episode offers heartfelt reflection on John 13:3-5, where Jesus washes his disciples' feet, and explores what it means to be a “Pentecost people” marked by servanthood, humility, and love. Host Dan Wilt and guest JD emphasize that the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is deeply intertwined with the humble, messy, and ordinary act of serving others. The discussion invites listeners to meditate on Jesus’ servanthood and challenges the church to normalize “foot-washing” as a core posture of ministry—both literally and metaphorically.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Season of the Holy Spirit & Testimonies

• Dan opens with gratitude for community “Holy Spirit stories” and encourages listeners to share moments of risk and service, explaining that awakening moves “at the pace of friendship.”
• [00:04]: “You’re being the love of God in a room to a person, through a person... That’s the way awakening moves at the pace of friendship.” —Dan

2. Foot Washing as Kingdom Image

• The passage from John 13:3-5 is read, focusing on Jesus knowingly taking the role of the lowest servant, washing his disciples' feet with a towel.
• Dan reflects emotionally on the humility and radical nature of this act, calling it “an image that has captivated the body of Christ for millennia.”
• [05:27]: “It is the opposite of spiritual pride and spiritual power brokering... no superman, no superwoman, just Mother Teresa. Just Jesus washing feet, humble foot washing servants. That is who carries the kingdom of God.” —Dan
• Foot washing is painted as necessary, dirty, real, and deeply humbling—a model for all spiritual ministry.
• Jesus’ foot-washing is contrasted with the world’s hunger for status: “No towers of power, no statues of larger-than-life saints, no drama about our moment of fame...” [05:55]

3. The Call to Internalize Foot Washing

• Dan prays for humility and a servant’s heart:
  • “Lord Jesus, there is a quiet need in me to be seen... Would you show me whose feet I am to wash today?” [07:27]
• Listeners are prompted to consider leaders who “washed feet” and contemplate integrating this image into their daily lives and ministries.

4. Journal Prompts & Activation

• Journal: Name a leader who embodies foot washing; reflect on making this your normal posture (spiritually or literally).
• Activation: Attend or watch a foot washing service, view related art, and let these experiences shape your ministry, not just in thought but in bodily practice. [09:40]
• “We can think about things, we can read about things, but it helps us... to be in those experiences ourselves.”

5. Dialogue: The Unsensational Power of Foot Washing

• [11:38]: JD joins to discuss the scene and artwork of foot washing, noting:
  • Often, even religious art misses the raw humility of Jesus’ action (“Very rarely will you see a sculpture or a painting and Jesus has girded himself with a towel.” [12:35])
• JD marvels at John’s meticulous narrative detail, calling the act, “the most unsensational, significant moment in... human history” ([11:59]).
  • “If I’m writing the story, I’m just going to say he washed their feet. That’s not what’s going on here. God takes on something apparently insignificant and menial and beneath him.” [15:27]
• They underscore that the beauty is in the hiddenness—the art is created by Christ’s humility.
  • “All the things are all the things Church. They are the hidden things, the inglorious things, the things that are not.” —JD [16:05]
• Dan adds the hope that our own acts of quiet service would leave the imprint that “the best metaphor they could find is, they washed my feet, man. We are right in the middle of the Jesus way.” [17:14]

6. Memorable Story on Embodied Love

• JD recounts a personal story of a woman whose mother-in-law served her for weeks after childbirth, describing it “with the detail that John describes Jesus washing his disciples’ feet” ([17:26]).
  • “She’s describing exquisite love in the most menial, humble, even humiliating ways. It’s not only hard to do, it’s hard to receive.” [18:00]

7. Invitation to Worship and Ministry

• The episode moves seamlessly into worship, singing “King of Kings,” tying in the worship of Christ as servant and king.
• Dan closes by encouraging listeners to posture themselves as servants when loving, encouraging, or praying for others.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [05:27] Dan: “No superman, no superwoman, just Mother Teresa. Just Jesus washing feet, humble foot washing servants. That is who carries the kingdom of God.”
• [11:59] JD: “And this may be the most unsensational, significant moment in... human history.”
• [14:23] JD: “He showed them the full extent of his love.”
• [15:27] JD: “God takes on something apparently insignificant and menial and beneath him.”
• [17:14] Dan: “The best metaphor they could find is, they washed my feet, man. We are right in the middle of the Jesus way.”
• [18:00] JD: “It’s not only hard to do, it’s hard to receive. That’s why Peter’s like uh, no, this is, this, this is a huge lesson.”

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:04] — Dan introduces the “Summer of the Holy Spirit,” invites stories of risk and service.
• [05:00] — Reading of John 13:3-5 and initial reflections on foot washing.
• [07:27] — Prayer for a servant’s heart, journal prompts, call for personal reflection.
• [09:40] — Encouragement to experience foot washing services, either in-person or online.
• [11:38] — JD joins to discuss the art, narrative, and significance of Jesus washing feet.
• [12:35] — Commentary on the rarity of accurate artistic depictions.
• [15:27] — Reflection on the menial work as a revelation of God’s character.
• [17:26] — Personal anecdote illustrating foot washing love in daily life.
• [19:26] — Worship segment: singing “King of Kings.”
• [21:56] — Dan’s closing encouragement to serve as Jesus served.

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Final Reflection

The episode beautifully centers Jesus' humble service as the pattern for Spirit-empowered life. Both hosts urge listeners to embrace “contrast culture”—serving in hidden, ordinary ways that mirror the surprising, unsensational love of Christ. The invitation: make “foot washing” your ministry default, so others say, “They washed my feet... just like their Lord.”

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For daily encouragement and further reflection, visit seedbed.com/wakeupcall or share your Holy Spirit stories at seedbed.com/holyspiritstories.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Sower Nation Today is Tuesday, June 16th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Dan Wilt and this is your wake up call. We are in June. It's amazing to think that just yesterday it was January and here we are in June. But this is a very special June and a very special summer. It's a summer of the Holy Spirit for us and thank you. I am just overwhelmed with some of these stories coming in, these Holy Spirit stories that that you've been sending in so many of us. And I want to encourage you send in your Holy Spirit stories even if you're not sure if it was amazing or something really dramatic happened. Just send in these risks. These moments of faith is spelled all R I S K and you're serving you're loving people in Jesus name. You're being the love of God in a room to a person, through a person, to a person, through a person, to a person. That's the way awakening moves at the pace of friendship. And we are investing ourselves as seeds as JD would talk about. In that seed is not just one plant, it's an entire orchard in an apple seed. You know, we are sowing seeds that lead to awakening and you and I are participating. So seedbed.com holy spiritstories we would love, love love to hear from you. Seedbed.com Holy SpiritStories or you can just email them in if it's easier for you. Wake up. Calleedbed.com we're going to be sharing many of these Holy Spirit stories coming up and we'd love to hear yours. Secondly after this entry today JD is going to be joining me to talk about it and we all miss him. I know. And his dad singing the hymns. We are going to have a good time talking about this particular topic about Jesus washing feet and what it means to be a Pentecost people but also a foot washing people who move in the world in as it's been been called, a contrast culture. In a contrast culture to the ways of the world. And it's part of all the things, ministry and the posture of the heart. So wake up sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Let's pray our prayer of consecration together as we begin our meeting with Jesus. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, today's entry is titled Jesus Washed Feet. We can too. And our passage is from John 13, verses 3 to 5. Hear the word of the Lord. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. And 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. The word of the Lord. Consider this. Jesus, in the midst of doing miracles and moving in spiritually powerful ministry, kneels down and washes the feet of his disciples. We know from historical records how foot washing worked back then. Typically the lowest servant would get on their knees and get their hands dirty, literally by. By washing the feet of guests who had traveled dusty roads in their sandals. The water was muddy and they would be muddy along with it. It was a messy job, but someone had to do it. I get emotional thinking about this. I don't know if you've ever really considered what's happening here. Let's meditate on what Jesus is doing in this moment. Jesus decides that this will be an image of the kingdom of God. An image every witness then and now would need deep in their psyche as they followed Jesus in a hardened world. Like everything Jesus did, this embodiment of the way of the Kingdom of God moves like unseen yeast through an entire batch of dust dough and has impacted believers and unbelievers for thousands of years. Jesus washing feet is an image that has captivated the body of Christ for millennia. It is the opposite of spiritual pride and spiritual power brokering. I have seen gorgeous large bronze statues of Jesus Washington Peter's feet in churches every year. Massive foot washing services are held in Roman Catholic churches and churches in other traditions reenacting this image of how the kingdom of God is meant to work. Foot washing is humbling. It is dirty. It is necessary. It is one person bowing lower than another to wash the lowest and most exposed part of their body. As we think about ministering in healing, offering prayer, words of knowledge, participating in power ministry, where the Holy Spirit moves in profound ways through us, Jesus wants us to have the image of him washing feet in our minds at all times. No towers of power, no statues of larger than life saints, no drama about our moment of fame or desire to be seen as more than we are. No superman, no superwoman, just Mother Teresa. Just Jesus washing feet, humble foot washing servants. That is who carries the kingdom of God. Its Message and ministry into the heart of the world. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, there is a quiet need in me to be seen for my natural or spiritual giftedness and elevated. Would you show me whose feet I am to wash today? Literally or, or metaphorically to keep me in the posture of heart I must be in to be your apprentice. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. And here are our journal prompts for today.

[C]

You can.

[B]

I don't know if you. You feel it, but I sense I'm just so aware of the presence of the Lord right now in this time we're sharing together. I'm so aware that Jesus, the God who washes feet, is in us and is with us and is teaching us as we apprentice with him what the Master would do in this situation. When in doubt, wash their feet. When in doubt, be the servant. When in doubt, be the love of God in that moment to a person and lift them up. Whether you're on the street with someone who doesn't have much, whether you are in those towers of power with others, you. You be the servant. You choose the way of love. I choose the way that is, is the way of Jesus washing feet in his name. It's a posture of the heart. It's a posture of thought. It's a posture of the mind. It's our posture whenever we ask someone, may I pray for you? They'll feel that servant heart. They'll feel that love as we come with this posture of the the foot washing God in our hearts. JD and I are going to talk about this in a moment. So here are our journal prompts for today. Name a leader you have seen, either literally or metaphorically washing the feet of others. What inspires you about that image and how can you make this image your normal way of thinking, of ministering to others in Jesus name name. That'll take some time. Sit with it before Jesus. Talk about it with your. Your someone near you or your band or your. Your congregation or with others. What would that mean for you to become. For this to become normalized in your life? That people would look at you and say, all I know is they wash feet just like their Lord. Amen. Activation search in your area. I'd encourage you for a foot washing service. Now, typically those happen on Maundy Thursday and there are a few to attend in more urban areas of the United States. So if you're doing this now in June, it's going to be a while. But if you're doing this at a later time, I would encourage you the next opportunity for you to experience a foot washing service, you just go and just observe. You could also view one online. You can do some searching, go to experience the ceremony and to get the image in your heart and mind through a real experience. Even go ahead and Google or DuckDuckGo or whatever. You use statues of Jesus washing Peter's feet. They're out there. Get the image in your mind through a real experience, an embodied experience. We can think about things, we can read about things, but it helps us not only to see them and hear them, but to be in those experiences ourselves. Then make it the foundational image you have in your heart as you minister, using the spiritual gifts that God has put in you and given to you. All right, well, that's today. I'm now going to turn to JD and I talking and then I'll lead us in a song of worship and bless you as we, we enter into some thinking together with JD about washing feet. Well, welcome back, John David. It's Tuesday.

[A]

Yeah. It's so good, Dan, to be diving in here and keep in touch with so our nation and getting to be part of this with you. You're. You're doing good work. Thanks. And I'm happy to get to step in to it.

[B]

It's good to be together too.

[A]

Went there today with, with the foot washing.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

And I love that you went there because so often, kind of the spiritual gifts and the supernatural ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit, it just gets cast into a power framework of, you know, sensational things. And this may be the most unsensational, significant moment in. And can we just be emphatic and hyperbolic human history? Yeah.

[B]

The painting is right there behind you as you speak. Just so you know.

[A]

It's right behind me. And one of the things I want you to notice about these foot washing scenes, particularly the artwork associated with them. Yeah. I mean, the last time I checked, Jesus took off his robe. Okay. Look at that painting. You can see if you're on YouTube, Jesus has still got the robe on. Very rarely will you see a sculpture or a painting and Jesus has girded himself with a towel. Now, the other thing that stuns me about this foot washing is that Jesus has taken the most menial and insignificant thing washing these feet. It's kind of like in those days, you know, people had the sandals on and you get the impression that maybe it had rained or there was some mud and the caked on dirt and the dust and the. This had to be done. And Typically there was a slave or a house servant that was there to do that, but apparently this night, no such person.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's like you just get the impression that he gave them a chance to do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And nobody took the bait. And so he Interesting. Says, I'm going to do this. And it's interesting that the text, this is John 13, he says, and Jesus, it says now he showed them he had loved them all the way and now he's going to love them to the end. One of the translations is he showed them the full extent of his love.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And what I marvel at is the exquisite detail with which John writes. He says these words. I've rememberized it over time because it's so. I've just looked at this scene, I've read this text, and I'm like, I'm going to build me a little tent there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm going to build. I'm going to put an RV on this property and I'm just going to go there regularly.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Since he got up from the table and he took off his outer garment.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then he filled a bowl with water and he began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with the towel with which he was girded. Okay. He, he, like, if I'm writing the story, I'm just going to say he washed their feet. He washed his disciples feet. Yeah. That's not what's going on here.

[C]

Right.

[A]

God takes on something apparently insignificant and menial and beneath him.

[B]

Hmm.

[A]

And all of a sudden, John uses an abundance of words. He's taking us on the inside of it. I think what, what I'm trying to say is that all the things are all the things Church. They are the hidden things, the inglorious things, the things that are not.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I think, you know, have I ever done anything for another person that someone would describe with this level of detail that it actually becomes art? Wow. I mean, this. You don't paint pictures of foot washing. That's just like painting a picture of washing somebody's car. You don't paint that picture. But when God gets involved, it becomes a masterwork.

[B]

Yeah. This is truth at its best. I think if our posture

[A]

could be

[B]

that painting for people that they would describe what we've done in their lives in that hidden place. No fanfare, no one else seeing it, but they walk away with a memory of, you know, someone did this for me, or was Jesus to me in this moment. And the best metaphor they could find is, they washed my feet, man. We are right in the middle of the Jesus way. Moving in the everyday power of the spirit.

[A]

You got time for 30 more seconds? I got time. I mean I was with this, with this mom yesterday and we were getting ready for her mother in law's funeral and she starts telling me about how her mother in law, when she had her two children, her mother in law said I'm coming, I'm coming for two weeks and you will not touch anything. I will completely care for you. Wow. And she began to describe that with the detail that John describes Jesus washing his disciples feet. And I'm like, that's it. That she's describing. Exquisite love in the most menial, humble, even humiliating ways. It's not only hard to do, it's hard to receive. That's why Peter's like uh, no, this is, this, this is a huge lesson. Thanks for letting me have the extra 30 seconds. Absolutely.

[B]

All right, well, thank you again, John David. We're going to move to singing now. Thanks again.

[A]

Bless you.

[B]

Today man. Today we're going to sing King of Kings. We're going to sing the, the chorus and the first verse and then the chorus again. So let's worship together as we worship the the King who is our servant who humbled himself, who washes feet, who takes the lowest place. And then of course God raised him to the highest place. The name above all names that at the name of Jesus every knee on heaven and on earth should bow and respond to him. Say he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let's worship together.

[C]

Praise the Father Praise the the Son Praise the Spirit Three in one God of glory Majesty. All praise forever to the King of Kings. And in the darkness we were waiting without hope and without light Till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes to fulfill the law and prophets To a virgin came Lord From a throne of endless glory To a cradle in the dirt. For we sing Praise the Father Praise the Son and Praise the Spirit Three in one and God of glory Majesty all praise forever to the King of Kings we sing Praise the Father, Praise the Son Praise Praise the Spirit Three in one God of glory Majesty all praise forever to the King of Kings all praise forever to the the King of Kings all praise forever to the King of Kings. Amen.

[B]

We are moving into the world as people of the greatest servant the world has ever known. And that's the way we posture ourselves as we ask others. May I pray for you as we love others, as we encourage others, as we minister to others in Jesus name. All right. I'm gonna see you tomorrow. Send in those holy spirit stories to seedbed.com holy spiritstories. Let's grab our seeds and I'll see you on the field. For the awakening. I'm Dan.

[C]

Sam.