Feet
The importance of their contact with the earth
April 2nd 2015
During his last meal with his disciples, Jesus got up from the table to wash their feet. Peter at first protested: how could he allow his feet to be washed by his Master? As Jesus insisted, he accepted and even asked him to wash his hands and his head as well. But Jesus replied, ‘Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean.’
As the feet are the part of the body most in contact with the earth, they represent the physical plane. Indeed, the physical plane is always more or less related to the subterranean world, the underworld. So our feet symbolize the place through which human beings are most exposed to evil attack. This idea can be found in Homer’s Iliad in the story of Achilles. His mother, Thetis, immersed him at birth in the waters of the Styx to make him invulnerable. But as she was holding him by the heel, that part of his foot did not get wet, and Achilles died during the Trojan wars after receiving a poisoned arrow in his heel.
Now you understand the meaning of Jesus’ gesture and his words: ‘Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean.’ As the feet are symbolic of the most material plane, having the feet washed also represents symbolically the final purification.