Well all know that little children are drawn to mud puddles. It as if there is a magnetic force pulling them into the mess. They hop right in without any thought of what their parents might think about it. They don’t consider what it might mean later. They just jump in with joy.
And much like those little children, apart from the power of Christ, people are easily pulled into all sorts of uncleanness. We don’t care what our heavenly Father thinks. We don’t take the time to consider what it might mean later. We just jump in with joy. We rather like our mud puddles.
You were born into this world unclean. But then at some point in your life, Jesus washed you clean. He did so in Holy Baptism. He cut off your connection to the evil one and cast away your sin. He left you in new clothes crafted of his own righteousness. Yes, there you were, clean, well-clothed, sitting at the feet of Jesus. And truly, that is where you were to dwell you whole life long.
But perverse and foolish oft you stray. Yes, you leave Jesus feet and end up jumping in those mud puddles that seem most fun to you at the time. And when you do, you become unclean. Yes, having found their way into the mud puddles of our favorite sins, your feet become unclean. And with unclean feet, we cannot stand with or before the perfectly clean one, God.
Will you allow him to truly reveal all of your dirt through his law? For any of us who will not, we will remain unclean. And we must know that nothing unclean will ever enter into the new heaven and earth Jesus will return to usher in. However, if you do humbly allow God to reveal your filth, then he will also clean off every last particle of that dirt off our feet.   He will wash it in his blood that was shed for such a purpose as this.
John 13:8-10 Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean.
Adaptation of Sermon preached Pentecost 4, 2010.
