Feet Washing (John 13:1-17) as a Paradigm for Christian Leadership in Nigeria

Abstract

The washing of the feet is unique to the Gospel of John. In John 13:1-17, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Scholars have offered numerous interpretations of this pericope in their efforts to provide a better understanding of the pericope. However, putting together the grammatical, literary, philosophical, and theological analysis of some interpretations can be difficult because they do not fully capture the Johannine presentation of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. This piqued our interest, and we decided to contribute to the ongoing debate about whether Christians should wash their feet today. This article contends that the Johannine hupodeigma (see v. 15) implies more than an example for imitation, but rather a concrete and fundamental sign of Jesus’ perfect form of love by which Jesus victoriously conquers the world, completes the mission, and offers a part in his life for ‘his own’, thus challenging them to foster servant leadership. The Historical-Critical method is used in this article, with diachronic and synchronic approaches. It addresses literary issues in the text such as delimitation, textual analysis, and an examination of the text’s remote and immediate contexts. The importance of this work lies in the fact that it will add to the existing literature on John 13:1-17 and open up new avenues for future research on the subject.