“Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me’” (John 13:8, NRSV).

     Recently, a group of divers were exploring Catalina Island off the coast of California when a giant sea bass swam past them. They noticed the giant sea bass had a smaller fish protruding from its mouth. Kayla Feairheller, the president of Blue World said, “It was moving closer to me…..It would actually move the fish tail up to my hand as if it wanted me to pull it.”

     At that point, Feairheller and the other divers knew something was really wrong. The fish had been stuck in the giant sea bass’s mouth for a whole week, and it was clear the bass hadn’t been able to eat that entire time. “I knew that fish needed help, and it was heartbreaking to have to swim away,” Feairheller said.

     After refilling the air tanks, Feairhelle and the other members of the team headed back down, more determined than ever to save the giant sea bass. This time, she was able to grab onto the smaller fish’s tail and dislodge it. Once the fish was no longer stuck, the giant sea bass was able to fully shake it from their throat. Thanks to Feairheller’s efforts, an animal who really needed help got a second chance.

     Unlike the sea bass, many of us are unwilling to accept assistance from others when it is offered. We make excuses like I’m O.K. I know what I’m doing. I don’t need anyone’s help.

     Many people in our country believe that self-sufficiency is a virtue. But in some instances, self-sufficiency is the costliest form of pride there is. Self-sufficiency has placed more alcoholics in an early grave. Self-sufficiency has led too many bad marriages into divorce court. Self-sufficiency has placed lots of do-it-yourselfers in the hospital.

     Pride was the sin with which Peter struggled most. Jesus saw a hubris in Peter that would escape the best of us. Jesus knew Peter was more interested in protecting Peter than he was in protecting Jesus.

     You see, the act of washing the feet of a dinner guest was relegated to the lowliest of house servants. Jesus was a rabbi. Rabbis were considered to be at the top of the social order. Rabbis should have their feet washed, not the other way around. So, when Jesus bent down to wash Peter’s feet, it would have seemed proper for Peter to help Jesus avoid a horrific faux pas.

     Yet the truth is that Peter’s ego was getting in the way. I’m talking about pride‒‒not the kind of pride a father feels when his daughter gets accepted to her first choice of colleges or even the pride a Bengal fan feels in the afterglow of a victory. I’m talking about the pride of self-sufficiency that says, “Jesus, I don’t need you to be clean. I can handle my own problems. I can manage my life just fine.”

     For Peter to admit he needed Jesus to wash his feet would have been to acknowledge that he’s not his own man‒‒even worse, to admit that he is dependent. Such an admission is a tough pill to swallow for those of us who grew up watching John Wayne movies. John Wayne is a true hero who needed no one and pulled himself up by his own bootstraps.

     This brand of independence plays well in the movie theatre. It doesn’t play so well in the real world (or the world as Jesus envisions it). The truth is that each of us needs a Savior. We need God to do for us the very things we cannot do for ourselves.

     Even more, it is through the Spirit of this Jesus that we live, we breath, and we have our very being. Apart from the Holy Spirit we are and we can do nothing of significance. We need help whether we want to admit it or not. We need to repent.

     To repent means to turn. Not just to turn away from sin, but to turn toward the only one who harnesses the power to do something about our sin. To turn from self-sufficiency toward the one whose grace is more than sufficient. To turn from never will you wash my feet, Lord, to forever shall I pour before you all my pride.

     The words by Isaac Watts summarized echo the plea of the penitent soul:

                                       When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,

                                        My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.