When Jesus washed the dirt from His disciples’ feet, He showed that He was willing to forgive their sins before they even committed them. That’s love at its highest level. Out of all the people in that room, only One was worthy of having His feet washed. And He was the One who was doing the washing. The amazing thing about Jesus’ example is that it’s completely the opposite to what we’d expect – the person doing most of the bridge-building is the one who’s right, not the wrong one. Jesus isn’t the one in the wrong; He’s completely innocent and guilt free, but He’s willing to take a massive step towards us so that we only need to take a small step to meet Him. We all make mistakes, but we also tend to believe that we’re in the right, so we need to be full of grace and mercy towards each other. Jesus’ mercy went ahead of His disciples’ mistakes, just as our mercy should go ahead of the mistakes of others too. The people in Jesus’ circle had no doubt of His love, and the people in our circles should have no doubt about ours either. Paul wrote, ‘Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ’ (Ephesians 4:32 NCV). Because Christ has forgiven us, we can forgive others. Because He has a forgiving heart, we can have a forgiving heart. When Christ truly lives within us, we have no better alternative. There’s incredible power in the words, ‘I forgive you; I love you; let’s move on’. Is there anyone who needs to hear those words from you today?
