Levi, son of Alphaeus, known by most as Matthew, is frightened as he sits in an upper room at the southern end of Mt. Zion, just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Here, Matthew's Master, Jesus, has assembled His 12 disciples to meet and dine with Him, swathed in a most extraordinary atmosphere resembling the deep fog that often precedes a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee. Matthew nervously glances around at this most unusual group of men who have all faithfully followed Jesus for three years. Looking into their faces, he sees that everyone is deeply concerned, and a few, like him, are lapsing into open fear.     

Matthew has very good reasons to be afraid. Before Jesus entered his life, he was a pariah and an outcast of his people. As a tax collector recruited by the occupying Roman forces, Matthew took money from his own people. Some say he extorted their money, skimmed a portion off the top for himself, and then handed the rest over to their bitter enemy, the Romans. And when he spontaneously left his tax booth 3 years before, he had not asked permission from the Romans to abandon his duties. Over these past years, it has been Jesus' physical Presence that continuously guards his persistent dread of both his own kinsmen and the deadly, capricious invaders. 

Now, with Jesus' own words about His imminent departure, Matthew faces renewed persecution by his people or arrest by the Romans. Without Jesus, Matthew is going to be cast back into the repression meated out by his old life but without the protection of the interlopers from Rome. He has every reason to fear.

The room becomes quiet, and Jesus, their Lord and Master, stands before them. Yet, at that moment, Jesus begins to act in a manner well beneath His dignity and station as their Lord. Standing up from the table, Jesus removes His outer robe, takes a servant's towel, and ties it around His waist. (John 13:4)

For three years, Matthew has witnessed unspeakably profound miracles, from the raising of the dead to impossible healings of the blind, the lame, and the deathly sick. Jesus never spoke or did anything that even closely resembled common or ordinary. And now, Matthew is witnessing yet another of Jesus' most unusual actions. In but a moment, their honored Rabbi, Jesus, is taking on the dress, appearance, and actions of a common house slave right before their astonished eyes. Matthew could not be more confused or unsettled by Jesus' actions. That is until his Lord and Master begins to do the wildly unacceptable and wholly unthinkable. Jesus actually kneels before and begins to wash the feet of the disciple nearest him – a task reserved for the least in any Jewish household. 

Matthew is immediately and reflexively filled with revulsion. While he deeply loves Jesus and respects Him more than anyone on Earth, no master or patriarch of any Jewish family would ever demean their station by this act reserved only for the lowest of slaves. Matthew glances around him at the faces of the other disciples and at the one sitting next to him who Jesus is about to encounter – Simon, the son of Jonah. It was Jesus Who renamed Simon Cephas, or Peter, the rock, years earlier. Peter's face is already bright red, his visage as hard as the stone after which he had been named. Matthew is certain that Peter will never abide this insult that Jesus was bringing on Himself. And he is not disappointed. Jesus takes but a single step toward Peter, and Matthew's well-informed guess of the response of the most impulsive among them bears immediate fruit.

"He (Peter) said to Him, 'Lord, You are washing my feet?'"

"Jesus answered and said to him, 'What I am doing, you do not realize right now, but you will understand later.'”

“Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’”

“Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no place with Me.’”

“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!’” (John 13:6-9)

Matthew looks at Peter’s face as Jesus kneels before him and begins to wash his feet. Tears are flowing down Peter’s cheeks and dripping off his beard.

As Matthew witnesses this most extraordinary behavior of his Master, he begins to anticipate that he is next in line to receive the washing of his own feet by Jesus. And, in but a moment, Jesus stands, steps over, and kneels. Matthew wills his confused, fearful, shame-filled gaze to look outward as Jesus stoops before him, dressed as a slave and holding the pitcher and towel of a common servant, and Jesus’ eyes connect with his as He kneels there.

To Matthew, time slows to a stop as Jesus' eyes meet his, just a handful of inches away.

As Matthew, the outcast tax collector and fugitive from the Roman occupiers looks into the face of his Lord and Creator, all that he discerns is a fathomless, incomprehensible love. It is infinite in its extent – a purity as absolute as he has ever known. And, at that moment, his face relaxes. His fear is suddenly gone. His worry has vanished like a snowflake before the summer sun. At that instant, Matthew knows a supernatural Peace that will follow him all the way to his martyr's death. Never again will he forget the eyes of Jesus and the Peace that silently and wordlessly erases his fear.

Matthew blinks the fresh tears away as Jesus kneels before him. Here is the King of kings and Lord of lords washing and wiping the filth of Jerusalem off of his skin – the skin of a traitor, the flesh of a failed, duplicitous son of Israel. Suddenly, Mathew’s tears transform into a quiet sob. The grace of Christ floods his life and overcomes his soul like a great rogue wave from heaven. It encompasses him round about and draws him irresistibly along as it covers, anoints, cleanses, and heals him forever. He knows at that moment that Matthew the traitor, Matthew the pariah of his people, is forever gone. Now, he is a son of the Most High God, forgiven and fashioned into a new creation by the hands of the One Who formed the stars. The old traitor, pariah, and outcast that they had called Matthew Levi, son of Alphaeus, was no longer among them.   

The feeling of his Lord’s hand caressing and cleaning his flesh is eternally imprinted on his mind and heart. And by this extraordinary act of unthinkable humility modeled by His Lord, Matthew knows what the next three decades of his own life hold. He is to become the servant of all – the house slave of his people. For in this act of obedience, he will arise from this upper room knowing that his destiny will become one with ten of his other friends and disciples. In but a handful of hours, they will witness the death of these Hands that care so much for them. Yet these Hands and the Body of Jesus will likewise arise from death, walk out of a tomb that can never hold Him, and change the eternal destiny of every living creature. All because the Greatest became the least. And, on the very next day, Jesus will spend His precious life for the unworthy, the outcast, the pariah, and the hopeless in the most amazing act of grace the Earth and all of its inhabitants will ever know!

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Dennis and Claudia Chamberland