John 13: 1-9, Footwashing

Jesus has entered Jerusalem for the Passover Feast.  The has been welcomed and praised as the Messiah. Now he meets with his closest disciples for a last meal together.

John 13:1-3, Evening meal
 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 
3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 

We are looking at a very intimate setting ‑‑ Jesus has hundreds of disciples and many public teachings. Now, the night before the cross, he deliberately begins some teachings with the closest disciples. His intimate instructions will be at a level not found elsewhere in the gospels. (These instructions are particularly absent in the synoptic gospels.) He is with "family" here.

There are two commands in this chapter that are intended for all who genuinely believe they are a follower of Jesus.  They are the "mark of a Christian".

John 13: 4-9, Wash my feet
so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 
5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

The apostle John records here the strange scene of the Creator kneeling down and serving his creatures.  This is the first command of this passage, a "mark" of a Christian, that we "wash the feet" of others. The metaphor is obvious.

This account does not appear in the other gospels but Luke (Luke 22: 24-27) records a dispute among the disciples about their rankings in the upcoming kingdom, to which Jesus responds by telling them that they should serve others and says "I am among you as one who serves."  It is easy to imagine this dispute just before Jesus begins to wash the disciples' feet.

The act is clearly one of submission; Jesus is the servant (or slave) with the assigned task of cleaning the dirty feet.

Peter's response is touching.  "Don't you dare be a servant to me!" he exclaims. Then when Jesus rebukes him, Peter goes to the other extreme, "Wash all of me!"

Should we literally wash each others' feet?  Is this is a "sacrament"? Or is this a more general symbol?