OUR NEED FOR WASHING
Titus 3:4-5
But when the kindness and love of God our
Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but
because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by
the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our
Savior.
Jesus,
my feet are dirty. Come and slave for me; pour your water into your basin and
come and wash my feet. I am overbold, I know, in asking this, but I dread what
you threatened when you said: “If I do not wash your feet, it means you have no
companionship with me.” Wash my feet, then, because I do want to have
companionship with you. And yet, why am I saying: “Wash my feet”? It was all
very well for Peter to say that, for in his case all that needed washing was
his feet: he was clean through and through. My position is quite different: you
may wash me now, but I shall still need that other washing you were thinking of
, Lord, when you said: “There is a baptism I must needs be baptized with.” Origen
The Macmillan Book of Earliest Christian Prayers, By R.
Forrester Church & Terrence J. Mulry, pg. 37.