Sandals were the standard shoe in Bible times. Because of this, dirty feet were a plague of the poor and wealthy alike. Feet were hardly things of beauty.

In Greek homes there were not only tubs for regular bathing, but also specific basins for foot-washing. Even if a bath were not on the schedule for the day, a foot bath always was. Greeks, Romans, and Israelites all washed their feet in the evenings. Then the dirty water was tossed onto the street.

In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people were constantly trying to keep themselves clean, head to foot, inside and out. They had 613 commands that regulated their day-to-day life. Even their Sabbath, their day of rest, was saturated with rules, extra regulations the Jewish teachers decreed.

Being spiritually clean was not an easy task, and not one that brought much joy.

But Jesus’ simple gospel was. It made all those rules a mere shadow of God’s real laws.

“Follow me,” Jesus said. “Love God. Love people. Doing those two things fulfills the whole law.”

Those words would have been joyous to heavily burdened, religious striving, God-seekers. They made the apostle Paul so glad that even the dirty feet of those Jesus-following messengers were beautiful.